We’re sitting in Africa’s best vineyard high in the Hemel and Aarde Valley. It’s an award Creation is rightly proud of, covering everything from the food, to the wine and the hospitality, even how the vineyards are managed.
It’s a beautiful setting on a warm autumn afternoon, with cloud hanging over the mountains that hug the valley. The greeting is warm at the wine tasting table set up in a garden scented with fynbos.
We’re shown to a table overlooking the vineyards, perhaps never their prettiest in May when the leaves have fallen and pruning is to come. But the olive trees make up for it ‒ the estate produces its own olive oil ‒ and we’re welcomed with a taster of a good dry rosé. It came with a little seaweed crisp, which was a surprise.
My friend from Hermanus, the Orange Lady, says it’s one of her favourite spots. We quickly settle down to their newly released winter menu.
Here, food can be done as part of a tasting menu with the estate’s wines, or à la carte. We share a warming celeriac and watercress soup topped with saffron oil and gluten-free bread.
But it is the trout that has us engaged. Sourced from a farm in Baardskaadersbos, it’s lightly cured and served on a bed of millet risotto, with daikon and geranium leaves. We pick up every last morsel. We also enjoyed the confit duck with roast cauliflower, paprika hummus and spinach oil with a natural jus. One of the better meals I’d had this year.
We finished off with a dense chocolate brownie topped with poached fig, rose geranium syrup and pink peppercorn ice cream. Now that was inspired.
The trip to Hermanus was after a week in Cape Town for the bridge nationals. It was a chance to taste what the city had to offer.
I wasn’t travelling with foodies, so there were no eye-wateringly expensive fine-dining experiences, but we ate well. One of the finds was a husband-and-wife-run restaurant in Gardens that specialises in fresh fish. Miller’s Thumb was a delight. I’d spotted it on trip advisor, which isn’t always a good recommendation. It often throws up establishments that do average slightly better than most. But this was a delight. A group of 20 of us descended one evening.
The decor is simple ‒ an old house painted in vibrant colours ‒ but the hospitality was warm and the fresh kob, grilled and basted with lemon butter, a treat. I also enjoyed the poached pear with blue cheese ice cream for dessert.
And while everything in Cape Town is more expensive than Durban, this wasn’t scarily so.
We also popped into the original Hussar Grill in Rondebosch. While this chain offers one of the better steakhouse brands doing the rounds, the mothership, so to speak,felt like a homely neighbourhood restaurant. The more than 50 years of “patina” ‒ if that’s the right word ‒ gives it an authenticity many of the swanky modern outlets lack. The complementary chocolate martinis were new to my bridge gang. They quickly ordered another one.
Naturally, we went to Willoughby’s; it seems every tourist who sets foot in the V&A has to make the pilgrimage. Sometimes the queue to get in snakes all the way out the door. It’s not cheap and while the menu might not be the most exciting one around, the standard of seafood is always good. I’m always amazed at the sheer numbers needed to make this operation work and how the kitchen gets the right meal to the right table so quickly.
Then I met my Artist friend and her family at the Melkbos Kitchen at Melkbosstrand. It’s a spot in a lovely setting right on the beach. On a sunny day, it would be one of the nicest spots on Cape Town’s north coast but this was a cold, wet and rainy affair. No classic view. We knew somewhere in the distance was a city called Cape Town and a large mountain but could see neither. Just cloud and rain and the odd miserable-looking seagull.
But the kitchen made up for it, with a lovely piece of fresh kingklip done in a red pepper sauce with tempura mussels and courgette spaghetti. The Artist loves their crumbed prawns in a home-made sweet chilli sauce.
And the home-baked cheesecake topped with lashings of home-made fig preserve was another treat.
The Independent on Saturday