Easter treat

Nothing says Easter like a spicy, light and fluffy homemade hot cross bun. Hot cross buns on Good Friday is an old English tradition from the early 1700s. The cross symbolise the crucifixion of Christ.
During the times of Elizabeth I of England (1592), the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced breads were only allowed during burials, Good Friday and Christmas. Today, thank goodness, we enjoy hot cross buns at any time of the year!

It's an old belief that sharing a hot cross bun with another person ensures friendship for the coming year.  If  you are planning a cruise, take a hot cross bun with to protect against shipwreck or hang it in your kitchen to protect against fires.
The first batch I made while developing this recipe lacked the spicy taste which in my opinion is what makes hot cross buns special. It was also a bit skimpy on the sultanas!
Here is my final, tried and tested hot cross bun recipe to celebrate Easter and ensure your friendships all last long!


Dough
1 tablespoon dried yeast
¼ cup caster sugar
1½ cups warm milk
4 cups of cake flour
½ teaspoon ground all spice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
60g butter
1 egg
180g sultanas

Flour paste for the cross
½ cup cake flour
2 teaspoons caster sugar
70ml water

Sticky Glaze
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon gelatine granules
1 tablespoon of warm water

Directions:

Dough
1. With a whisk mix the warm milk, yeast and sugar until dissolved. Cover and leave in a warm place for           10 minutes or until the mixture is frothy.
2. Sift the flour and dry ingredients.
3. Cut or grate the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour until no more butter pieces are visible.
4. Stir in the yeast mixture, sultanas and egg until combined.
5. Cover and leave in a warm place until the dough doubles in size. This normally takes about 45 minutes.
6. Grease a 30cm square cake pan.
7. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
8. Divide the dough into 16 pieces.
9. Roll each piece into a ball and place the balls in the cake pan about 1cm apart.
10. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes or until they've expanded to fill the open spaces between the buns.
11. Preheat the oven to 200 *C.

Flour paste
1. Combine flour and sugar in a cup and mix with water to a thick paste. Take care not to use too much water, otherwise it'll be too runny.
2. Fill a piping bag with a plain, round,  small to medium tip.
3. Pipe vertical and horizontal lines on the buns to make crosses.

Bake
1. Bake buns for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Tap on the buns and you'll hear a hollow sound when they're ready.
2. Turn buns topside up onto a wire rack.

Glaze
Stir ingredients till disolved then brush over the hot buns.

Storing
Cool on wire rack and store in an airtight container once cooled completely.

The quantities I used makes 16 hot and fluffy buns

Tips: 
Yeast is a life organism that damage at  temperatures over 46*C and are inactive in temperatures under 19*C. So don't overheat your yeast mixture. The ideal temperature for yeast to develop is 25-27*C.
Cover the yeast mixture and dough with plastic wrap (Glad Wrap). That way it won't dry out. Keep in a draft free place such as a cupboard.
Place the rolled balls in straight rows in the cake pan to make the cross easy by piping long lines over the buns instead of piping each bun individually.
If you do not have a piping bag, use a jiffy bag and cut of the tip or wax paper rolled into a funnel.
The oven temperature for this recipe is for a thermo fan oven, if using a non-fan oven heat oven to 220*C.
Never boil gelatine - doing that prevents it from setting. For a pure vegetarian version that eliminates the use of gelatine, make a sticky apricot glaze by heating apricot jam and add a little bit of water until it reaches a consistency that will be paintable.
The buns taste best after letting them stand for a day, and then serving with real butter.

The Dissapointing Return to YOLO

I'm not in the habit of posting negative reviews. , I prefer to write about food I like and enjoy. That's the great thing about not getting paid for my writing - I can write what I want. 

Today however I feel I have to moan about something. Not because the eating experience was bad in itself, but because a few days ago I was going on about how great it was, so my credibility is at stake here ;)

Those of you who follow my blog will remember that I visited YOLO Pizzeria recently and couldn't stop singing the praises of their mouthwatering pizzas.  On Friday night we went back to YOLO with friends from Germany who were staying at our AirtBnB cottage, expecting the same great taste experience.

Like the first time we went there the service was so-so. We'd booked a table, and when we arrived and wanted to sit down a half drunk woman was sitting at our table, clearly not having anything from the restaurant. Our table was outside and we had to do the "eviction” ourselves.  I must say that in Yolo's defense they would probably have done it if we asked, but it was an unsavoury start to our evening. 

I ordered the same pizza as before - the Pizza a l'OriTolana Port'Alba  on a sun dried tomato and rosemary crust. Disappointingly It didn't taste the same. The crust tasted like the standard crust. I asked the waitress to change it, but the cook was adamant he'd used the sun dried tomato and rosemary crust. So I ate the pizza very unenthusiastically and disappointed. 

It was still a good Pizza but not the best in town. I missed the flavour dimension that the sun dried tomato and rosemary crust added on my previous visit to YOLO.

Later on I saw the owner, Percy arriving and called him over. He replaced the pizza, and this time it was the real thing! 

I get the impression that Percy is the heart and soul of YOLO pizzeria and if he is not there the quality and service deteriorates and loses its edge.

Will I go again? The answer is definitely yes, the fist experience was so great that I will  give YOLO one more time to impress me. Mistakes happen, but watch out!

You only live once - Percy's back!

Remember Percy, chef and owner of Lapa Fo Pizzeria in Emmarentia? Like many foodie Jo'burgers we used to be regulars at Lapa Fo - this legendary pizza joint served what was simply the most scrumptious and tasty pizzas in town. And then, quite suddenly, Lapa Fo vanished - closed down!

Recently my hairdresser Stevan told me about this "fabulous new pizza place called YOLO, across from that expensive bottle store in Melville". (The things you hear at the hair salon...but that's another story!)
The other night we decided to give it a try and I'm happy to report that YOLO is the new king of connoisseur pizzas in Jo'burg.

We were merrily munching away on our meals, glad to have discovered a first class pizza place so close to our home, when a familiar face walked in... it was Percy from Lapa Fo! Well well, talk about a piece of the pizza puzzle falling into place. Yup, Percy owns YOLO, and believe me, the pizzas are as good as ever, maybe even better.

I spent a few minutes chatting to Percy, which was a real treat. I wish I had a video of our conversation. He buzzes with positive energy, and a smile never leaves his expressive face!

Percy telling me about his year of introspection

"I took a year off from the buzz of life," Percy said. "No cell phone!  Washed cars for a living and tried to just enjoy life without the daily time wasters and energy eating niggles such as news of Zuma's Nkandla fire pool and nasty Joburg taxis." He realised in this year that you only live once; he want to enjoy life and savour his "capuccino". After this year of introspection he opened YOLO - You Only Live Once - a place that, once again, serves his deIicious trade mark pizzas.

You can order your  Pizza delivery

What makes the pizzas special is the six varieties of crusts you can choose from. It ranges from black olive and whole wheat to sour dough, and if that is not enough variety for you, you can also choose the base - from a standard napoletana to mushroom pesto, hot chilli tomato and peppadew.

The cooks at YOLO

We were spoiled for choice with 21 pizza varieties to choose from, but in the end we settled for Pizza a l'OriTolana Port'Alba and Pizza Puttanesca Di Don Salvatore, both on a sun-dried tomato and rosemary crust.

Pizza Puttanesca Di Don Salvatore

The Oritolana was wonderfully fresh - something that makes Percy's pizzas so special - with an abundance of avocado on top of red and green peppers, olives, onions, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, brinjals, baby marrow and mushroom.

The Puttanesca was packed with flavour and if you love anchovies on your pizza, go for this one. There was just enough anchovies, too many of those and the pizza's too salty. The crust was crispy, light and yummy.
Apart from pizzas YOLO also offer a small variety salads and paninis.
The price for a medium pizza that is a more than a decent helping for one person, vary from R51 - R83, and the specialized crust and base (sauce)  is R5 - R8 extra. They also have a variety of vegetarian pizza options included in the list.
YOLO is awaiting it's liquor licence.

The service is so-so, but the wonderful pizza fare make up for that, and when Percy's in the room, his infectious energy lights up the room.

Make sure you you get a Yolo pizza soon - you only live once!

Hours: daily 10h00 - 22h00
27th street Melville
Tel 0114827016
www.yolopizza.co.za

See my latest post on YOLO

We Discover a New Taste

A while ago we had two guests from Germany, Claudia and Jo staying with us in our AirBnB cottage. From the moment they arrived we clicked and in a short time we became friends, hanging out in our kitchen till late at night. 

They introduced us to a taste we’d never thought would work. Ever heard of a gherkin and peanut butter sandwich?

They probably saw my hesitation despite their enthusiasm, so the next day they arrived in our kitchen with the ingredients. I remained sceptical and tried to delay the moment of truth by offering them some tea. But they were determined not to get sidetracked and decided to make the sandwich themselves.

So I had no choice but to try this odd concoction. The different textures of the gherkin and the peanut butter was an unexpected surprise  and was quite palatable. Interestingly enough the gherkin become sweet on the peanut butter, tasting more like the well-known marmalade and peanut butter combination.

Claudia & Jo

Try it next time when you want to taste something a little different on your bread or rice cake!

Whenever we make a gherkin and peanut butter sandwich again, we’ll be thinking of our dear friends in faraway Germany...

Tribute to Nelson Mandela with his favourite strawberry trifle

If anyone wants to buy me a Christmas present, Top of my wish list is the cookbook of Nelson Mandela's personal chef, Xoliswa Ndoyiya, who has been cooking for him since 1992.

In Xoliswa's job interview with Mandela she was asked one question:  “I believe that you are a great cook, but can you cook our food?". She replied that she can cook ukutya kwasekhaya - Xhosa for 'home food'. And according to her that was it - she got the job.

Last year Xoliswa published her cookbook named Ukutya Kwasekhaya, a compilation of Mr Mandela's favourite recipes, which were mostly traditional Xhosa dishes. According to her book he had a bit of a sweet tooth and loved Malva pudding and Strawberry trifle. 
What an honour it must of been to cook for this great man!

Nelson Mandela and Xoliswa Ndonyiya - Photo by Debbie Yazbek

To honour this legend and to say thank you for what he did for South Africa and bringing us together as a Rainbow nation, I made his favourite strawberry trifle, as described in Xoliswa's book. 

Whisking the instant pudding, sour cream, milk and orange zest
to a thick consistency

             

Putting it all together 

               
We then packed a cooler bag with one of the glass cups I filled with trifle and went off to the Nelson Mandela square to pay our respects and toast Madiba with his favourite strawberry trifle.

The final product - Madiba's favourite strawberry trifle

I was moved by the massive amount of flowers, cards and candles that were filling up the Square. The calm atmosphere and graciousness of the large crowd of people that filled the Square almost to capacity was beautiful and I could feel the Madiba legacy in all of us.

Old and young paying tribute to the great man

That's me, paying tribute to Nelson Mandela 

        
Here is the recipe for the trifle. I downloaded it from an article about Xoliswa's cookbook at nydailynews.com (21 October 2012). I made a few minor adjustments to the recipe and preparation as it appeared in the New York Daily News, indicated in brackets below.

Strawberry trifle

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 packet strawberry jelly (I used raspberry jelly)
1 packet vanilla instant pudding
1 cup sour cream (250ml)
1 teaspoon orange zest
200ml milk (not in the original recipes)
1 vanilla Swiss roll, sliced
2 cups heavy cream, whipped (500ml)
1 pound strawberries, leaves removed (2 punnets)

Instructions

Prepare the gelatin (jelly) according to the packet instructions.
Combine the instant pudding, sour cream, milk and orange zest.
Beat until the mixture thickens (use a handwhisk as it is too thick to beat with an electric mixer).
Set aside in the fridge to set.
Once the gelatin (jelly) and pudding are both almost set, start to assemble the trifle:
In a large bowl or individual bowls, put alternate layers of Swiss roll, pudding mixture and gelatin, ending with a layer of the pudding mixture on top. (I added cut-up strawberries to the layers - it adds a nice flavour and texture surprise)
Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Top with whipped cream, arrange the strawberries on top and serve.

Toast on Nelson Mandela.
Long live his legacy!

May we always remember to forgive, accept differences and strive for peace.
Long live Mandela's legacy!  

The cookbook is available at amazon or kalahari

Ten foodie reasons to visit the Seychelles

We recently visited friends in the exotic Seychelles were I discovered Creole cuisine - a mixture of Indian, Chinese, African and French tastes. They make curries that are surprisingly mild; coconut milk feature as expected in most dishes; and mango chutney and basmati rice are standard accompaniments to most dishes. Everything has a distinctive sweet and sour taste.

The food fare is surprisingly varied for such a small island, but here are ten specialities typical of the Seychelles I most enjoyed.

1. Fruit bat curry

Bat curry? Yup, you heard right. On the Air Seychelles flight over a friendly air hostess recommended this strange dish when I asked her about typical Seychelles food. According to her and the equally amiable Seychelles women sitting in the row next to me, fruit bat curry and fish curries are as truly Seychelles as you can get.

Apparently the Seychellois breed fruit bats for this delicacy.

Unfortunately, (or should I rather say fortunately?) we couldn't find any bat curry, as everyone were saving their bats for curries that would be served at the annual Creole Festival that was due to start the week after we left.

2. Fish on the coals at the street market

We visited the Wednesday evening market at the beautiful Beau Vallon beach on Mahé, the main island of the 155 islands that make up the Seychelles. It's a small street market with a selection of local foods and drinks on offer at very reasonable prices for an island that is generally very expensive.

Beau Vallon beach on Mahé

Fruit Stall at the street market

As we wandered among the food stalls we could smell the mouthwatering aromas of barbecued Mackerel and Tuna kebabs. I was disappointed I wasn't hungry enough to have both, so I only tried the Tuna kebab. It was deliciously well done and marinated with tangy Creole sauce, definitely not your average half-raw Michelin star restaurant tuna. The smoky barbecue taste made it the best tuna I have ever tasted. At 25 Rupees, or about R20 per kebab I couldn't complain.

Barbecued Mackerel

Barbecued fish at the street market

3. Palm wine or Calou

The Seychellois make a palm wine from sap collected from a coconut tree. We bought a cup of this potent wine from a seller that looked like he had already tried to much of his own supply. It tasted similar to pineapple beer but with a scarily strong alcohol kick. We all took a sip and decided to pour the rest out as we feared instant and permanent brain damage.

Palm wine sellers

4. Home made juice

At one of the stands selling fresh home made juices I bought a bottle of the most wonderful guava juice I've ever tasted. It was as pure as you can ever imagine fruit juice from a tropical island can be, with none of stuff that gives one that annoying scratchy throat sensation you get from factory-made and preservative-laden juices.

I also tried Soursop juice, made from the Soursop fruit.

Soursop fruit

It had a unique refreshing fruit salad taste that I found delicious. It tasted like a mix of litchi, pineapple, banana and strawberry flavours combined in one sip. It is packed with vitamin C and B and are believed to be cancer preventing as well.

5. Shark ice cream

Shark is the unlikely name of a popular local ice cream found in most of the small, intriguing little grocery shops that dot the island. One of the not-to-be-missed flavours they make is coconut - creamy with real pieces of coconut flesh. It made my own home-made coconut ice cream taste bland in comparison.

The best coconut ice cream

6. Coconut water

Of course we had the obligatory coconut water drink, straight from a fresh, brightly orange coloured coconut. What's an tropical island holiday without it?

Charl , drinking coconut water - from the nature's cup

It's a treat to watch the coconut seller skillfully and with a certain flamboyant flair prepare the coconut. He even jazzed it up with a hibiscus flower. 'For the ladies,' he said when handing them to us with a smile.

It was an interesting taste, not at all what I expected, since it doesn't taste like coconut at all. I found it quite watery with a slight fermented sting on the tongue. There was more of it inside than I imagined - about 300ml in the immature coconut - and is packed with electrolytes, vitamins and antioxidants. The immature flesh inside the coconut is a yucky jelly mass that doesn't look or taste appetising at all. It also felt like a shame to discard the coconut when the drink was finished!

With most things one buys in the Seychelles, a price has to be negotiated beforehand. The price changed from 50 Rupees per coconut to 40 for three on production of my friend Karin's resident card, quite a nice discount!

7. Mature coconut

At home I use desiccated coconut in the dished I prepare. During our Seychelles visit I had coconut flesh straight from a de-husked, mature coconut for the first time ever. The coconut looks like a small, hairy brown wooden ball that is broken into pieces to reveal the white copra or flesh inside. There is a tasty bit of juice inside the coconut that tastes yummy - exactly as I expected coconut water to be.

We polished a coconut between three of us in a few minutes. It's rich and tasty, and again, truly a tropical island sort of thing.

Coconuts

Me, drinking coconut water from a mature coconut

8. Fish in banana leaf

Baked fish in banana leaf is as tropical island as you can get. The fish steak is covered with a Creole sauce made of tomato, onion and spices and then wrapped in a banana leaf before baking. It steams in this leafy "pocket" leaving a tasty, flaky, soft fish as the result.

It is served with basmati rice and a yummy mango chutney made from finely chopped green mangoes.

Fish in Banana leaf

9. Red snapper

The Seychellois live of the sea, and it is truly heart-warming to see their relationship and respect for the sea.

Spear Fisherman looking for the catch of the day

One of the common fishes in Seychelles is Red Snapper. While staying at the pretty island of La Dique I had a baked, whole filleted Red Snapper with a tomato "ragu" or sauce. The fish was fresh and tasted of the sea, and the ragu was the perfect accompaniment.

10. Fruits and jam

The Seychellois love their mangos to be unripened and green. It must be an island thing, since we found it to be the same in Zanzibar when we visited there a few years ago. At the hotel we stayed over in we had a breakfast starter of cut unripe fruit in the morning. I liked it, but sour fruit is not for everyone's palate.

Fruit starter for breakfast 

Not being a sweet tooth I'm not a big jam fan, but I can definitely recommend the local Starfruit and Belimbi jams. Both of these locally produced and rather sour fruits make excellent jams. The Belimbi tree is also called a Cucumber tree, as its fruit look like cucumbers that grow directly from the trunk of the tree.

Jams for breakfast

I wished I could stay longer to explore more of the Seychelles cuisine and try my hand at cooking with the local produce. Perhaps next time...

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Bite size treats

A few wees ago I wrote about the The Grazing Room, the restaurant that won, for us, the prize for the most tasty bite sized sample at the Taste of Jo'burg. I was therefore excited when my family, who are my blog's greatest fans, decided to take me to The Grazing Room for my birthday. And oh boy, was it a treat to write home about!

The Grazing room is a tapas restaurant. Tapas, a Spanish tradition, is a series of appetizers one typically has before dinner. Dinner-time in Spain is 9pm or later, and tapas are eaten earlier, while bar hopping to carry you through to dinner.

An interesting legend about the origin of Tapas has it that it started when  the eighteenth-century King Alfonso XIII once ordered wine in a tavern in the windy city of Cadiz, and the waiter covered his wine glass with a piece of cured ham to protect it from sand carried by the wind. 'Tapas' refers to this edible lid that covered his glass.

Tapas is about, sharing, tasting, discussing and enjoying food and it was exactly what we did. It was a taste celebration, no bite went unsavoured!

The tapas that came out of Chef de Cuisine Damian Pentelo's kitchen were all artworks - every dish was presented with care. All the plates carrying the tapas looked different, accentuating the different taste experience awaiting you.

The overall number one favourite of the eight dishes we 'grazed' through was the prawn and risotto balls, coloured black with squid ink. It melted my mouth and the accompanying lemon aioli worked well with it. I felt though that they'd forgotten to add something green, perhaps a few  micro-herbs would have rounded off the taste and look.

Number two was the the marinated veg tapas  - charred brinjal, baby marrow, red pepper, confit cherry tomatoes and artichoke hearts. The taste transported me to the mediterranean and was yummy, with just the right amount of lemon. The artichokes was surprisingly soft but still al dente.

Number three, the paella with the surprise of the small squares of lemon jelly. It tasted fine, but lacked something to make it outstanding.

Number four - Smoked olives. I could smell the smokey olives on their way to the table. It was soft and tasty.

Number five was the duck liver patè, with a green fig jelly and green figs poached in rooibos and vanilla with mini melba toast. The figs and jelly were the highlight of the dish, but it unfortunately overpowered the patè, even though the latter had a lovely smoothness. This plate was visually the most attractive of all the dishes.

The other dishes that we had was bbq pork, fish tacos and mushroom on toast - a truly varied meal! 

The ambiance was very relaxing even though the restaurant was full. The service was excellent and I felt spoilt.

The wine list is good but a but pricey, starting at R150 per bottle. We had the Waterford Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc that worked well with the tapas. 

The prices for the tapas courses were very reasonable for the quality and serving sizes. Our total bill was R170 per person for the eight tapas plates, a bottle of wine and four soft drinks. 

Everyone around the table agreed without hesitation that they will come back again. Our overall score for food and ambiance was 7.5/10.

The Grazing Room is a tapas bar at the award winning DW eleven -13 restaurant in the Dunkeld West Shopping Centre, c/o Jan Smuts & Bompas street, Dunkeld west, Johannesburg.

To 'graze' book at (011) 341 0663 or email: info@dw11-13.co.za.

Website: www.dw11-13.co.za

Taste of Joburg Festival - Part two

By now we'd tasted samples from three restaurants, and two out of three were winners. Our R100 tasting budget was running out fast, but we still had a few coupons left for a titbit or two.

We continued on, wandering among the many stands and looking at the samples on offer.The restaurant that attracted the most attention - especially among females - was Beefcakes...probably because of the beefcakes working there. It's amazing how naked flesh sells anything, even food.

The beefcake hunks

We almost hugged the lady at the Coach House Nougat stand when we walked past it. The luxury Coach House hotel, set high up in the Magoebaskloof mountains near Tzaneen used to be our favourite country hotel getaway but unfortunately the owner passed away a few years ago, and with him went the personalised service and care that made the hotel special. A side business of the hotel was a nougat factory that makes the most amazing macadamia and honey nougat. We thought they'd stopped making nougat, so were delighted to see they are still in business. It's a bit sad that the recognisable, classic branding had changed  from the gold coach and horses to something a little more modern, but the taste is still unmistakably Coach House. I highly recommend their nougat - you'll find it at most Spar and Dischem outlets.

Coach House Nougat 

Fry's new curry offering

Fry's, the popular vegetarian frozen food range also had a stand.  We are big fans of Fry's time-saving and tasty schnitzels and pepper steak pies, and here they were, introducing a new Durban range of curries (Durban, really?), and we tried their new 'mutton' curry (why do manufacturer's insist on imitating meat??) served in a bunny chow. It tasted good - not as good as Fordsburg curry, but quite fine for a quick meal.

Fry's Mutton Curry Bunny Chow

The Taste of Joburg outing was a fun way to spend the day, and it was good to see so many people that love and appreciate good food. 

Yummy Things At The Taste Of  Joburg

However, I still find the prices hard to swallow. Entry cost R80  per person, or R40 if you have a Pick n Pay shopper card.  And then there were the aforementioned per-tasting prices, which were quite steep I thought. I feel the restaurants have an opportunity to advertise here, and that the tasters should cost either very little or be free. It felt like I was paying a lot of money for a branded T-shirt, when they should be paying me instead for wearing the T shirt.

More Yummy Things

Tips for next time

Will I go again? O yes! But for the next Taste of Joburg I will go better prepared. Firstly, I will take a hat and lots of sunblock since the festival is held outdoors. I will allow the whole day to explore - don't think you can taste everything on offer in an hour or two. Importantly, I will book the food preparation workshops in advance - they were all sold out. And lastly, before spending anything I'll take a walk around and look for specials. For instance,I could have subscribed to Pick n Pay's Fresh Living Magazine and received one hundred Rand's worth of vouchers thrown into the deal! 

Taste of Joburg Festival Part One - tasty, but pricey

The Taste of Joburg Festival is a foodie event that has been held here for the past seven years. Exhibitors include local restaurants, wineries, beer makers and food producers. The main purpose of the festival is to introduce Johannesburg restaurants to the public by offering them a sampling from their menus, thus the 'taste' in the name. And if you like what you taste, you follow it up with a meal at the restaurant. You get the idea.

We attended the very first Taste of Joburg Festival years ago at Wanderers. At the time we found it to be crowded and expensive, and more importantly, didn't find a single restaurant that grabbed our attention. But we did see one of those classic Stella Artois advertisement videos that convinced us to taste it - our first time ever - and today it's still our preferred beer. 

So, unimpressed at the time, we gave Taste of Joburg a miss for the next six years. But last Sunday we decided to give the Taste of Joburg another chance.

There were  a good selection of restaurants represented at the festival, varying from hotel restaurants, bistros, tapas bars, Indian, Thai and gourmet burgers. Each restaurant had three taste options - a starter, a main course and a dessert. Each portion is the size of about two to three bites, really small. 

We worked out that at the prices the tasters were going for - anything between R15 and R40 - there were enough tasting choices to set us back just under a R1000! That was way above our budget, so we decided that the tasters that we'd try must be from restaurants we haven't eaten at before, it must be a food combination that was new to us, and it should all fit into oursmall R100 tasting budget. 

On top of that we still wanted to go visit the Joburg Art Fair at Sandton in the afternoon, we set off to explore right away.

Lacuna

Our first taster was from Lacuna, a bistro at the new Maslow hotel in Sandton. It was a starter of roasted baby beetroot, ash goat's cheese brûlée and walnut pesto served with micro herbs. Sure, beetroot and goat's cheese is old news but combined with the walnut pesto it was a taste sensation that worked, it was well balanced and refreshing. I didn't quite understand the 'brulee' part of the goat's cheese though. It was delicious enough to make a date to eat at Lacuna in the near future and try more of Chef Dallas Orr's creations. 

Roasted baby beetroot,
ash goat's cheese brûlée and walnut pesto

The Grazing Room

Our next tasting was at The Grazing Room, a tapas bar located at the DW eleven-13 restaurant in Dunkeld West. And it won the day for us! We tasted the prawn risotto balls served with a lemon aioli, a combination that was a tastebud treat. The risotto was black, coloured by squid ink and just the right consistency. It almost melts away in your mouth. 

I'm a big tapas fan. I love the small portions packed with flavour. I struggle to make choices when it comes to restaurant menus, so tapas work for me - I can have a little bit of this and a little bit of that all in one sitting. So the Grazing Room was a winner - In fact I think that this is the restaurant we'll go eat at weekend.

Prawn risotto balls

Vivace

Our taster from Vivace, the restaurant at the Raddison Blu in Sandton was a dessert. Chef Jaques Venter created a Hugenot baked cheese tart with jasmine syrup, micro herbs and a passion fruit gel on the side. According to him Hugenot is a South African award winning cheese and taste like a strong cheddar. 

The tart was surprisingly not too sweet,  I didn't taste any jasmine syrup but the passion fruit gel worked well. 

Hugenot baked cheese tart 

Would we visit Vivace for a meal? Hmm… not sure. The dessert was good, but not outstanding.

Next time: our Taste of Joburg adventure continues!

My Day at IFEA

I lost this post twice already. So this is my third rewrite. Initially it started with  "today..." then "yesterday... " and finally the present version. Let's hope It doesn't disappear into cyberspace again. I don't think "6 months ago I spend the morning..." will sound quite OK.

Last week I spend the morning at the Sandton Convention Centre exploring the IFEA exhibition, billed as  Africa's International Food and Drink Event.

I went to the exhibition to get some insights into what's new in the food industry. Five things drew my attention. They might be old hat to you, but here they are anyway.

#1 Things that looks like ice cream aren't always ice cream.

Yes, you get cake on a stick. No, not your standard, so-last-season cake pops;  these are cake pops that look like a Magnum ice cream. But when you bite into it, it's cake! Wonderful for cake lovers, but not so wonderful for ice cream lovers.




I overhead the stand lady saying it will be available in one of our large supermarkets soon. Sorry, but in my book 'supermarket cake' don't sound like angels singing in my ears. So I decided I have to try make them myself.... I'll keep you posted.

 #2 There is salt, and then there is salt from the Kalahari.

A week or two ago I was saying to a friend that I don't understand this specialized salt craze. Salt is salt...And anyway is it really ethical to import salt from the Himalayas? What about local is "lekker"! 

I'm not a salt guru. I've never used any other salt than your normal bag of running table salt. 
Oryx dessert salt had a stand at the exhibition. Their salts are harvested at the beautiful, unpolluted Kalahari salt pans.

It might be the fact that I have a soft spot for the Kalahari desert, or the picturesque Gemsbok photo they had on display, but their salt did indeed taste different. It was pure, not as, well, 'salty' as our normal salts and the crystals were brilliant white.

They also have flavoured salts such as a smoked variation that will give a smoky aroma to your meals, and a wine flavoured salt that will go well with red meat. I can imagine where this idea came from - someone sitting at the dinner table spilled some wine, sprinkled salt on the stain and then started tasting the salt sprinkled over the wine stain.  And now there's someone making money out of this idea!

These salts are only available in selected stores and delicatessens, so have a look on their website to find out were you can get it.

#3 Wine ice cream does exist.

I couldn't taste any but made a mental note to try my hand at making it.

My husband Charl, is an ice cream lover and I long found out that home made ice cream is the way to his heart. Close your eyes and try to imagine a red wine ice cream - with a berry note, served with mixed berries and pouring cream - it works, doesn't it?  

#4 There are more craft beers from Italy than I could ever imagine.

I counted 30! One of them is from Venice...didn't know they have enough space for a brewery in Venice let alone spring water. But I love Venice and will not analyse that thought for too long. I made a mental note to have a taste of this beer, called Birra Serenissima when next I'm in Venice.




Craft beers are beers made from small, traditional, independent breweries.  I am so excited that the craft beer fashion has hit South Africa. We can do with good beer made with love and not heaps of sugar.

#5 Event organising and technology has finally met.

I registered online and received a barcode via email. When I got to the exhibition the attendant scanned the barcode and before he put the scanner down my entry card was printed,  Wow, I was impressed,  I  love technology that works!