Food heaven

There are few better pastimes than enjoying good food in good company. Yesterday's lunch was such a lovely event. One of my oldest friends was visiting, and I decided to treat her to something nice. Something very nice. Something two Michelin star nice. My first ever two star experience. And oh, the joys of living in London.....a three course lunch at Hibiscus sets you back £29 and a bit more with wine, coffee and tip. Exquisite service. And the food.... Oh. My starter was a terrine of mutton and pate, with black raddish salad and curry oil. Amazing. As a main we had the roast partridge with caper and raisin sauce, some veg and smoked beurre blanc. Desert was dark chocolate tart with white fig ice cream and yuzu. Nice small portions and all so delicious. Our coffees came with little chocolate thingies and smoked fudge. My lord.... Food heaven. What a treat. And just like both of us still often think of the meal we had at China Tang together last year, I bet this one won't easily be forgotten either.

Wine, anyone?

Three Eaglevlei Viognier 2009, of which only six barrels were produced.
Two Eaglevlei Cap Sauv 2007
Two Eaglevlei Muscat d'Alexandrie 2008
One Tokara Chardonnay
One Ken Forrester T 2007
One De Trafford Cabernet Franc 2008

No wonder I had five pieces of luggage coming home. But all the wine survived the travel. Very chuffed.

Now I need to pop down to the concierge where my 12 bottles of Hartenberg wine were delivered yesterday. Man, I sound like a dipso...

A million dollar day trip

Last century all over again
Originally uploaded by Gypsy Saskia

Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, Muizenberg (picture), coastal routes and sundowners at the Radisson. What a fantastic day and a fantastic weekend. Hopefully sufficiently recharged for the next five days before flying back to Old Blighty.

Boot full of wine...

Boot full of wine...
Originally uploaded by Gypsy Saskia

...and this excludes the stuff that's being sent to our homes. An amazing day in Stellenbosch ended in the manager of Eaglevlei coming over to thank us for our purchases and walk us to our cars with the bottles. The mission for today is to buy extra luggage.

Back in CT

Sitting in an internet cafe, feeling remarkably well. The former as there is no internet connection in my apartment (that is pretty crap altogether so trying to move to hotel asap), the latter as the weekend has been fairly alcoholic so far.

The week had been tough, really tough. Work wise that is. So Nick and I decided to visit the Whiskey Festival in the CTICC (their RAI). Tasting tasting tasting until we were both whiskeyed out.

Then yesterday Patricia and I decided to go to Stellenbosch for wine tasting. After one boutique winery (an amazing one that took us forever to get to via dodgy dirt roads), it was time for lunch. The Lonely Planet had recommended a resto called 96 Winery Road so off we went to...indeed....Winery Road. They had a six course lunch on offer with wines. Trish was the DD but I had the wines. Didn't drink all of them, but defo half. And the food portions were small (they better be with six courses). Anyhow....it was 3.45pm by the time we were done. Enough time to visit Vergelegen, the reason we went to Stellenbosch to begin with. But it started raining. Pouring. And it was nowhere near as close as the map suggested. So plans canned. New try next week.

Just when I was sobered up again it was time to meet some colleagues in a wine bar down town. Our new director is a local, and it was very sweet of him to abandon his family for a Saturday night and come out with us. G&T to kick off with, more wine, some tapas, a cheese platter, desert wine. And back to the Westin's cigar lounge for a whiskey. In bed by 1.15am and as I said, slightly surprised I feel so good.

Tomorrow my team will be complete for the first time so hopefully work will get a bit better. Hopefully the weather will get better too, this is a pretty poor effort by the Capetonian weather gods.