The Cape Winelands

Jeff and I traveled out to Franschhoek for a few days just less than an hour from Cape Town. We stayed at the Garden House, just a few blocks from the main part of town. The Garden House is a great cottage on the property of Annette and Barry Phillips, a couple who have retired here from England. They also own the local paper, The Tattler. Annette runs the property and Barry is the editor. They have really put a lot of love into their property and Annette makes a mean "brekky". Fresh peach or orange juice, homemade muesli, tart yoghurt, local smoked salmon, local cheeses, warm croissants and great jams.

Thus our culinary overload began. We strolled through town then had sundowners with Barry & Annette. Our first dinner reservation was at Le Bon Vivant with chef Pierre Hendricks from Holland (where he trained in a Michelen star restaurant). This was a gastronomic experience from beginning to end. We had the five course "surprise" chosen by the chef. The amuse bouche was a tomato sorbet with a thin cracker atop served along with two types of breads which had duck in the recipe. Our first course was a beautiful tuna with a soya sauce and a tuna lasagna which tasted completely different and wonderful, also served with an apple mint sorbet. The second course was a prawn foam with a salmon trout disk; third was a delicate salmon atop fresh herbed pasta; fourth a smoked salmon trout spread served in a hollowed egg along with two types of potato, one atop a kingclip fillet and finally, the desert course which involved a fresh plum liquor with a potent lychee sorbet and a subtle orange soufflet. As we don't eat meat, we were happily not served the Springbok (S.Africa's deer)! These rather substantial tastings of Pierre's artistically crafted masterpieces was seriously, worldclass.

The next morning, Jeff rode the Franschhoek pass and made friends with a local baboon family, while I did a power walk through town. We had brekky with Annette and then made room for a lovely lunch on the veranda at Le Petit Ferme overlooking glorious views of the wine valley. From my incredible kingclip with peas and roasted leeks to Jeff's stuffed chicken with truffled polenta, we ate yet again a very glorious meal!

We explored the area and drove through to another town, Grabouw, near Elgin where around 65% of South Africa's apples come from. On the road between Franschhoek and Grabouw, we passed the Dead Trees site which is quite surreal. Imagine a forest that has been filled in to create a damn. But the trees can't survive in water. So you are left with basically dead trunks and branches -- a forest ghostland.

So again, sundowners with Annette and Barry then dinner at Reuben's, a top ten restaurant in the area. My green chili spicy spaghettini with seafood was definitely HOT and I have found that many a South African loves their chili pepper! Jeff had a stuffed chicken with complex flavors that was very different from his lunch meal yet prepared similarly.

Brekky again the next morning then a ride through Stellenbosch and back to Cape Town.