Boutique Hotel Dining

Sel et Poivre

Boutique hotel dining has become a thing for Vince and I on a Friday night after work or especially on a Sunday night when we have had a long day touring and do not have the energy to cook ourselves. There are so many in the Sandton and greater Joburg area tucked away behind high walls and well-hidden from view. But when you pass through the privacy keeping security gates, an oasis awaits. And many of them have fine dining with fabulous chefs.

For instance, almost right around the corner from us in Morningside is the cozy Quatermain Hotel with its restaurant Sel et Poivre. The Quatermain's outdoor verandahs and lounges are a great place to unwind with a sundowner and the restaurant features the delightful fare of the award-winning Chef Coco Reinarhz. It has been our Sunday night refuge more than once! Famous for his monthly Food and Wine Events, Chef Coco plans the evening's menu around a different South African winery's collection. So much to do (eat and drink), so little time!

A friend of mine from the US of A is staying at the exclusive boutique Hotel Saxon in nearby Sandhurst with her family on stops between their multiple safaris across South Africa and Botswana. I am thrilled because - besides getting to catch up with an old friend from home - it gave me an excuse to check out the hotel last night and eat in their famous dining room.

The Saxon itself is part of South African history as it once served as the home of Former President Mandela after he was released from prison. It was during this time that he used the serene setting of the Saxon to edit his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

I do not know the acreage of the entire hotel footprint, but the simple walled entrance belies the spaciousness of the grounds as you wind your way up to the hotel itself. The setting and interior design is very South African chic. I checked out my friend's accommodations and I think their two rooms are bigger than my whole apartment! When the rainy season hits,Vince and I may take refuge in one of the villas for a super luxurious stay-cation.

Saxon

The Saxon's dining room is a legend here in Joburg and its Executive Chef David Higgs is world-renowned. There are two restaurants on site, 500 and Qunu Grill. 500, with its daily chef's 8 course tasting menu and open kitchen is the hotel's signature restaurant. We ate at Qunu which offered an a la carte menu and a more casual experience, and was better suited for a family on vacation. 

Dinner at The View Hotel or The Residence, drinks at the Westcliff or the Michelangelo ... gin and tonics at the Sunnyside Park Hotel to toast the former British High Commissioner Sir (later Lord) Alfred Milner who formerly resided there when he was in Joburg ... or the romantic Morrells Manor House in Northcliff ... if I play my cards right, I may never need to cook on a Sunday night again!

Hanging a Zebra Skin

We bought a zebra skin. I had it on the floor as a rug in the living room but I became too afraid the dogs would do something (pee) on it.



 







So I moved it and draped it over the living room / dining room divider railing.


But then I missed the open view of the old floor plan.


So I decided we needed to hang it.







At this point, I feel I should explain why a staunch anti-poaching quasi-vegetarian person would even want to own a zebra hide.

First of all, the Burchell Zebra is not an endangered species and it is not illegal to export their skins to any country in the world. I repeat, Burchell Zebra is not endangered. In fact, they are quite prolific. The Burchell Zebra run in herds on the plains of Africa and far outnumber the predators who hunt them for food. Therefore, the hides are legally taken from culled zebras who are hunted for legal export. Just like the deer who have overtaken the woodland and suburban sprawl in NJ, they are control-culled through systematic hunting.

And they look really cool! Sorry, but they do. And I am not opposed to decorating with or wearing furs that have been grown on a ranch or legally culled in the wild for that express purpose. I do own several mink coats, a few shearlings, a sheared beaver jacket and a few other fur-trimmed pieces of clothing. I get cold and fur is warmer than wool. Full stop. And as a very wise women whom I overheard once talking to her husband in the lobby of a Broadway show during intermission said, "Life is too short and winter is too long not to own a fur!" I always take the advice of women strangers I eavesdrop on in theater lobbies. Always.

Anyway, back to hanging the zebra skin. I decided the best place to display it is in the bedroom corridor along a wall between the office and guest bathroom. There are picture frame holes there already so no need to add more and hanging there now are two hideous paintings the apartment owners most likely bought at the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ (I swear I've seen them there.) They need to go.

As it turns out, it is not too easy to hang a hide. If you want it to look good and not damage it, that is. We considered attaching carpet tacking strips, mounting it to plywood, devising some kind of intricate wiring and / or having it sandwiched between two pieces of plexiglass.

We are still thinking about it. In the meantime, I am kinda getting used to it hanging over the living room  / dining room divider. And just in case, I am looking for new art work to hang in the corridor.

The biggest succulent I have ever seen!

I learned something new. The Baobab is not a tree in the usual sense; it is a succulent. Or anyway it is a tree that behaves like a giant succulent in that up to 80% of the trunk is water. Because of this, the San nomads relied on the baobab as a valuable source of water when the rains failed and the rivers dried. A single tree can hold up to 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons). The bark and flesh are soft, fibrous and fire-resistant too.

I learned this at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which also refers to the baobab in the middle of its conservatory as an "upside-down tree." Legend has it that the tree was lording itself over the lesser plants and so offended God that He uprooted it and planted it again upside down to stop its boasting. Ouch! Let that be a lesson to you. The baobab remains in leaf for only a very short time each year and if you look at its branches bare of leaves, its easy to see how the legend grew. And grew and grew and grew ... That is the biggest succulent I have ever seen!

Another sundown and another sundowner

This time, Kalk Bay at the fabulous Cape to Cuba. Renowned as the place where you can get “the best mojito east of Cuba,” we checked out its festive and aptly named bar Hemingway’s.

There was a live band playing a set of J.J. Cale whom they announced had just passed away the day before at the age of 74. Boo hoo. Loved his song “Call Me The Breeze.”

We enjoyed our minty mojitos as we watched the sun set and a beautiful rainbow rise over the bottom of Africa.

We toasted J.J. and I swear I felt a soft breeze flowing through the room as we did!

South African Wines Part Three: A visit to the De Toren private cellars

in front of the vines of S.P. Drummer

Wine making is both an art and a science. We enjoy sampling wine in the tasting room but we also enjoy going backstage and learning about the intricacies of the art and science of wine making. I am lucky to know a winemaker in California who gave me a very inside look at the wine making process there from start to finish.

Scott Peterson has a degree in Enology from the University of California, Davis (the science) and more than 25 years of wine making experience in California, Europe, and South America (the art). He is the owner and winemaker for S.P. Drummer and Rumpus Cellars Wines in Sonoma and Napa Valleys. The name S.P. Drummer derives from an important part of Scott’s childhood. Growing up in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Scott played the drums for six years as a member of the Fife and Drum Corps. He became attached to the drums, which were reproductions of the original drums used during the 18th Century.

this vat is being pumped and aerated

Among the wines that Scott produces are from Napa, the S.P. Drummer Napa Valley Blair Vineyard, a blend of  Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes; and the S.P. Drummer Oakville District, a  single varietal Cabernet Sauvignon; and from Sonoma,  the Rumpus Cellars Sonoma Coast Red; and an  S.P. Drummer Sonoma County Red.  

Scott in action

The next time you are in Sonoma, stop by the Rumpus Room in Sonoma Plaza  and taste where art meets science. You might even get to meet Scott!












 
We try to take cellar tours whenever we can while visiting wine regions, and this weekend we were lucky to be able to visit the private cellars of De Toren wines in Stellenbosch and get more insight into the wine making process of this fine South African wine. De Toren is the darling of our local expat community and one of our favorite wines we have tasted so far in South Africa. Not surprising since we love Bordeaux wine and they produce two fabulous signature Bordeaux style blended wines, the De Toren Fusion V and the De Toren Z.

Started in 1999, De Toren came on the scene with a drastic new method and philosophy of wine-making for South Africa. First up, the idea behind De Toren wine to create blended wines in the Bordeaux style. They grow five different varieties of grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec. But instead of bottling them individually by grape variety as many SA winemakers do, they set out from the get-go to create Bordeaux style blends using all five varieties. Secondly their handling of the wine is different. The wine is moved through the wine-making process from tank to tank by gravity and siphoning instead of by pump. Pumping produces oxidation thereby changing the chemistry of the wine and they feel they have better control by using the more gentle means of gravity. The folks at De Toren can afford this luxury because of the size of the property and the focused concentration on their two primary wines.

To understand the difference in the goals of their two signature wines, we need a little French geography lesson. The main river running through Bordeaux is the Gironde; two smaller rivers, the Dordogne and the Garonne, feed into it. Together, the rivers are shaped almost like an upside-down Y. If you're standing in Bordeaux facing west, toward the ocean, the "Left Bank" is south of the Garonne and Gironde rivers, and the "Right Bank" is north of the Dordogne and Gironde Rivers. (The area in between is known as Entre-Deux-Mers "between two seas.")

Vince and Albie Koch, the De Toren Cellarmaster

While red Bordeaux wines are blended together from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot grapes, the Left Bank vineyards are dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, while the Right Bank ones focus more on Merlot. This means that the Cabernet-based Left Bank wines tend to be a bit more tannic, while the Merlot-based Right Bank wines tend to have more restrained tannins. De Toren Fusion V, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, is made in the Bordeaux Left Bank style, while the Merlot-led De Toren Z, is made in the Bordeaux Right Bank style.

De Toren Fusion V was the first wine released, with the maiden vintage in 1999. The name refers to the ‘fusing’ together of the five Bordeaux varietals; Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec. The Fusion V vineyards have soils with a higher gravel content, favoring the growing of Cabernet Sauvignon, and receive long afternoon sun exposure resulting in deeper color and flavor intensities. Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone of this wine and it makes up between 50-60% of the final blend.

just barreled 2013 vintage

De Toren Z was the second wine released, with the first vintage in 2004. The name “Z” refers to the ‘Zephyr’ wind; the cooling sea breeze that sweeps its way through this specific vineyard block, which has adopted the same name. Similar to De Toren's Fusion V, the blend comprises the five noble Bordeaux varietals, but the block’s soil, which is higher in clay content, lends itself more to the flavor profiles of Merlot. Its early ripening characteristics, lower tannin content and more fruit-forward flavors make up the backbone of this wine; a minimum of 50% of the final blend.

They had just finished crating up their 2011 vintage so we ordered a case each of the 2010 Fusion V and the 2011 Z to be sent back to Joburg. Our little expat community will be so very pleased at our next braai!

Number 61 and Number 53

This weekend I dined at the only two restaurants in South Africa to make it onto the prestigious San Pellegrino & Acqua Panna World's 50 Best Restaurants List in 2013. Cape Town's Test Kitchen (Number 61) and Franschhoek's The Tasting Room (Number 53). It was amazing couple of nights!

First night, the Test Kitchen in the Old Biscuit Mill Market. Chef Luke Dale-Roberts opened Test Kitchen in 2010. In 2013 the restaurant made an impressive leap to Number 61 on the 50 Best Restaurants list, climbing up 13 places from Number 74 in 2012. More significantly, Test Kitchen was singled out as the winner of the “One To Watch Award” for 2013. Test Kitchen was also awarded the 2012 Restaurant of the Year and Chef Dale-Roberts the Chef of the Year in 2011 by the Eat Out DSTV Restaurant Awards.

I had tried several times before to make a reservation for Test Kitchen but to no avail. They are usually booked up at least a month in advance and I never know when I will be joining Vince in Cape Town until usually days before. But this time I lucked out. Vince had a dinner with his conference colleagues in Hout Bay and I was thinking I would just do room service at the hotel in Cape Town. I had put my name in on the waiting list for Test Kitchen just for the heck of it and lo and behold, I got a call asking me if 8:00 was okay for a seat at the kitchen bar. Is it? We actually prefer to sit at the kitchen bar and get a bird's eye view of the theater going on in front of us. It is like dinner and a show.

my kitchen bar neighbors chat with the chef

Especially when you are alone ... which I wasn't for long. I met the most delightful Capetonians dining next to me. Jan van Huyssteen, who happens to be the Managing Director of one of our favorite vineyards in Franschhoek, Rickety Bridge, and Cindy Muller, who is the Director of Gold in Cape Town, a newly launched African cuisine restaurant whose opening party I had just read about on Facebook and whose name I had added to my list of places to eat in Cape Town! Small world, n'est-ce pas?

a pig's head! pure theatre

There were several choices of prix fixe menus for dinner, a 3 or 5 Course menu, a 3 or 9 Course Vegetarian menu, a 9 course Discovery menu and a 12 Course Gourmand menu! I opted for the 3 Course menu and I am glad I did. There were so many little extras, an amuse-bouche, an intermezzo, a dessert dessert, ... I could not have eaten more without my back-up man (Vince) to help. Everything was absolutely superb - including the wine pairings. A stand-out accompaniment to my delicious Red Roman sea bream main course was a quail egg ravioli. When I cut open the perfectly cooked ravioli, out came the yolk of a perfectly poached egg. Amazing!!!

Cindy even gave me some recommendations for restaurants in the area of the Cape Town hotel where Vince usually stays so I need never contemplate room service again! Then onward to Franschhoek. I picked Vince up midday on Saturday from his conference in Hout Bay and we drove east to wine country. I had been able to snag a reservation before I left Joburg for The Tasting Room, the restaurant at the auberge where we were staying for a couple of nights, the Relais & Châteaux Quartier Francais.
 

The Tasting Room features the exquisite French and African fusion cuisine of Grande Chef Margot Janse. Among the many awards the restaurant has garnered are the San Pellegrino Top 50 best restaurants awards in 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2002, the No. 2 Restuarant in the 2012 Eat Out DSTV Food Network Restaurant Award, and the Best Restaurant in Africa and the Middle East 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2005.  Margot herself has been distinguished as a Relais & Châteaux Grande Chef and was awarded the Relais Chef of the Year in 2012.

If dining at The Test Kitchen was like a night at the theater, then going to The Tasting Room was like visiting an art museum. The eight course menu was billed as an "African-inspired Surprise Tasting Menu." Each dish was a work of art.

A brush stroke of saffron yellow sauce against a white ceramic plate, an abstract expression of contrasting colored and flavored granitas, a tower of cornbread slices with an elliptical molding of freshly churned butter. I almost felt bad disrupting the creations on the plates placed in front of me. Almost.

Our first three courses, beetroot, dill and cucumber granitas on a buttermilk labne, winter salads made with local greens, and the nettle and Jerusalem artichoke soup and associated wine pairings were the same for the both of us and then ... surprise! We each took a different but complementary fork in the menu.  

A Saldahna Bay oyster dish for me, a black mussel one for Vince. Swartland guineafowl, king oyster mushroom and waterblommetjies seafood entrée for me, a Paradyskloof quail, amasi and sweetcorn one for Vince. Springbok loin main course for me, the Angus lamb cheek and tongue for Vince (whew, lucked out there! No tongue for me.)  Followed by a Dalewood languedoc custard for me and a Dalewood Huguenot cheddar and mebos custard for Vince. For the dessert before the cake and sweets (!) I had a dish made with Madagascan chocolate, cape lemon and holy basil and Vince had one with baobab, coconut, honeybush and caramel! All served with their own different but perfectly paired wines. 

A masterpiece! Un chef-d'œuvre!

Kirstenbosch Centenary

many of the 100+ year old trees were marked in celebration

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens was founded 100 years ago in 1913 and dedicated to the cultivation and study of the indigenous plants of South Africa. But before it was a botanical garden, it served as the habitat for prehistoric man, a vineyard of Muscat grapes planted by some shipwrecked French in 1659 (love those French!), and an orchard and hardwood forest planted by the Dutch East India Company as an outpost boundary during the British occupation.

It was bought by mining magnate and former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony Cecil John Rhodes in 1895 with the intention that the land would be conserved to protect it from urban development. Smart man, Mr. Rhodes! There should be a scholarship named after him ... Oh yeah, there is.

One of nine botanical gardens in South Africa, Kirstenbosch is also a World Heritage Site. This is important as it is a refuge for endangered and almost extinct native South African plants. There is even a garden called the Garden of Extinction on the grounds which displays many of the plants which are nearly extinct, vulnerable, threatened, critically endangered, rare, declining, and several other sad descriptions of plant status.



One plant that is exhibited has an uplifting story though, erica verticillata, a fynbos which once grew wild in the area in the Cape between Rondebosch and Rondeviel. A native of South Africa, it had become extinct here, and therefore the world, not growing anywhere in the wild. The last recorded collected plant in the wild was in 1908! To the rescue came The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, the Heather Society of America in California and the Heather Society of Britain in Southampton. Each had display specimens which they promptly sailed to Cape Town enabling Kirstenbosch to reintroduce erica verticillata to South Africa! That is why seed and plant exchanges between gardens is so very important!

But I did not come for the endangered plants. I came to see the national flower of South Africa, the King Protea (protea cyaroides) in bloom. Magnificent! The Protea Walk had mounds of them, also known as sugarbushes due to its attraction to the native Cape Sugarbirds. Also in bloom were the protea's close fynbos relatives, the pincushions (leucospermum), the conebushes (leucadendron), and the pagodas (mimetas).





Another winter beauty in full bloom was the crane flower or bird-of-paradise cultivated by Kirstenbosch and and named in honor of Nelson Mandela in 1996.  Mandela's Gold is a beautiful yellowish gold and purple-blue variety with touches of scarlet red and purple-black. With the green leaves you could almost see the South African flag in its colors.

Here's to another 100 years Kirstenbosch. Cheers!

Viva La Franschhoek

We stayed in and explored graceful little Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands this weekend. “Franschhoek” is Afrikaans for “French corner” and refers to the historic settlement of French Huguenots who fled Roman Catholic persecution in Europe in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.  Not so oddly enough by the way there is no Catholic Church in Franschhoek. There is a Roman Catholic Mass held once a month in the Methodist Church and last Sunday was not the day. So we had to go all the way to Paarl to fulfill our weekly duty on Sunday morning! I guess old grievances die hard. 

But quite honestly I admit it was not a great time for my people. Martin Luther had just nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenburg Church door protesting the Catholic Church thereby starting the Protestant Reformation wave through Germany, France, Switzerland, Britain, Holland and Scandinavia. John Calvin, a Frenchman, led the charge in Geneva and thus began the great religious wars in Europe. We visited the Huguenot Museum and Monument in town which gave the period’s history in great detail. There was even a copy of the three historic documents which provided the backbone for the turmoil in France. 

In 1598 the Edict of Nantes issued by Le Vert Galant King Henri IV proclaimed tolerance for the Protestant religions thereby "ending" the Wars of Religion in France. Louis IV’s Edict of Fountainebleau reversed or revoked Henri’s truly Christian vision in 1685 and then finally the 1787 Edict of Versailles issued by Louis XVI reinstated religious tolerance in France. But by that time, the damage had been done. Thousands of Protestants had fled France for other more tolerant parts of Europe, for the further flung shores of America and South Africa, or remained in France where they had been slaughtered. 

Franschhoek is a testament to the spirit of the French Huguenot. It is a beautiful little town with graceful architectural gems, provincial hospitality and fabulous food! Like Charleston, South Carolina, another originally French Huguenot settlement, Franschhoek’s building style takes a type of local architecture and gives it a French flair. In the case of Charleston, it is the American Colonial and Southern Gothic architectures. In the case of Franschhoek, it is the Dutch Cape Vernacular. So charming! 

We stopped in at a lovely antique store called The Old Corkscrew which had a wall of unique and mostly antique corkscrews which we happen to collect. Vince tends towards the unique mechanical variations. I tend towards the cute!

doxie corkscrew

Vince fell in love with a champagne corkscrew which includes a spigot which can be closed to retain the pressure inside the bottle after corking.

I chose a doxie corkscrew in honor of Lou & Serge!

The afternoon weather forecast called for clouds and rain so instead of our original plan to drive to the De Hoop Nature Reserve on the coast for some hiking, we instead were able to snag a lunch reservation at La Petite Ferme. Aah, the advantages of winter travel! We couldn’t touch a reservation there in the summer without serious advance planning.

La Petite Ferme is a winery and a guest house as well as a renowned restaurant and we had a bottle of their delicious Merlot with lunch. One of the finest restaurants in the Cape region, it is the recipient of numerous awards from Wine magazines, newspapers such as the UK Guardian and travel lifestyle magazines such as Conde Nast. 

I literally could not decide which dessert I preferred out of the many offerings so I had three! A guava infused malva pudding, an Amarula and chocolate mousse and a banana and meringue sandwich.  And I'd do it again!

 

Afterwards we walked off lunch touring the splendid 1685 Boschendal estate nearby. A beautiful example of Cape Vernacular architecture, Boschendal’s Manor House provided a majestic and fairly intact 18^th century interior.  

The sun came in and out all day with some soft drizzle followed by some magnificent arcs-en-ciel. I didn't mind the drizzle because I had not seen rain in Joburg since January! The humidity felt great.

It was a magical day!