Wednesday 8 September 2021, Day 44 of Level 3 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#grateful for a beautiful day at 19C, tomorrow promising to be a first summer day at 24C; for two Discovery Gameboard plays, receiving a Woolworths voucher; for a working morning, grateful for a meeting being postponed to next week; for a walk to Bakoven, with a Vit D dose; for three meetings at Zest, back to back, one being learning how to add pics and copy to our website; for seeing Florence Poretti and her Continue reading →
Sunday 22 August 2021, Full Moon, Day 27 of Level 3 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#grateful for a second spectacular weekend day; for a Roadtrip with Gary Peterson, to Hazendal which wowed us, to Epice and Protégé at Le Quartier Francais, to Orangerie Restaurant at Le Lude, and to Dieu Donné in Franschhoek, an amazing trip with the fabulous fun company of Gary; for seeing my #Bestie Llewellyn Lambert for the first time in two years, without telling him I was popping in; for a safe trip back home; for Kelly Szabo actively canvassing her friends and their friends to vote for Utopia in the Kfm Best of the Cape Awards (Best Date Night Restaurant); for an amazing sunset to end off this fabulous day; and for being happy, healthy and free. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
Last week we announced that we were seeking nominations for the Cape’s Top 10 Women Chefs, the prize of a bottle of ADHARA Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil going to each of our top chefs, kindly sponsored by Venishree Mayer, co-owner and olive oil producer of Fraaigelegen Farm in Tulbagh.
We are grateful for the nominations that we have received. We congratulate the Top 10 Women Chefs in the Cape.
We wish all our hard-working Women Chefs as well as our Blog readers a relaxing and happy Women’s Day.
Tuesday 10 November 2020, Day 51 of Level 1, Day 229 of Lockdown 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for a sunny warmer day, with a mild South Easter this afternoon; for a busy writing day; for a tea meeting at Firefly Café with Ryan Rudy, who heads up the Camps Bay Community Security Initiative; for a meeting with Chris Willemse, Chairman of the Camps Bay and Clifton Ratepayers Association, and Alma Horn, at their home, to be briefed on my Marketing role as a new member of the Management Committee; for harvesting three huge beetroot from the veg garden today; for posting my second SwitchBitch book to Marianne Busche in Johannesburg, so easy via Aramex courier at Pick n Pay; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
Friday 6 November 2020, Day 47 of Level 1, Day 225 of Lockdown 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for the huge amount of rain that has fallen today, in Cape Town as well as here in Wellington, excellent for the new vines that have just been planted; for the fabulous flexibility of our Wellington Wine Walk hosts for keeping us dry, in shuttling us to all our stops today, as it poured non-stop; for the entertaining and educational tastings of Buchu, Olive oil, and Wines at various stops in Wellington; for our cosy accommodation at Dunstone wine estate; for a good dinner at the Dunstone restaurant; for a warm bed; for the confirmation of the Carte Blanche interview with Carte Blanche presenter Derek Watts happening at my home next week; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
Thursday 5 November 2020, Day 46 of Level 1, Day 224 of Lockdown 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for a warm windy day, ahead of a wet weekend; for an early start, joining Brian Van Hansen on a visit to The Beach House in Hout Bay for breakfast while Brian shot photographs for the guest house website; for meeting The Beach House owner Sylvie Wrankmore, proudly showing me her rooms, and her fabulous vegetable garden; for sitting with Brian to select the best pics of our shoot on Tuesday; for a quick walk to Bakoven; for a short and sweet client meeting; for fetching Jenny Stephens and driving to Wellington, where we left our car, and were fetched by Elaine Wegelin, school classmate and Tour Guide on our Wellington Wine Walk, with whom we have had anxious discussions about the forecast weekend rain over the past few days; for our lovely accommodation at Cascade Manor outside Paarl, with an olive oil tasting, followed by dinner with other walkers in our group; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
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Monday 5 October 2020, Day 15 of Level 1, Day 193 of Lockdown. 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for such a fabulous Monday and start to a new week; for being spoilt with two restaurant invitations for today, the reopening day of Yumcious of Chef Jennifer Morris, and at Homespun by Matt in Bloubergstrand; for Henry finding Maya’s Sarong at the bottom of the pool when he cleaned it today; for a lovely weather day after a misty start; for a short sunset walk in Bloubergstrand, my only walk of the day; for a quick catfood shop at Checkers in Sea Point, offering by far the best Whiskas prices compared to Pick n Pay and TakeaLot, but such a pity that the service is so bad; for meeting such nice persons at our joint table at the Secret Supper Club at Homespun by Matt; for getting home safely from Blouberg just before curfew; for there being no damage to my car after last night’s taxi incident; and for being happy and healthy.🙏💙 Continue reading →
Monday 7 September 2020, Day 21 of Level 2, Day 165 of Lockdown 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for another beautiful day, at 22C, summer is almost here, but not for long; for a happy sunshine spirit after all the grey rain days; for a good admin and writing morning; for a call to Verishnee Mayer; for a sunny walk through Camps Bay, popping in at Firefly Café, checking if they got their tea ordered from Dilmah, at Tindlovu to check a menu detail with its GM Chris Papayannes, and at Ivor Ramsay at Law Enforcement to assist a local resident deal with a tented settlement going up opposite her house; for a visit from Ines, who cycled all the way from Hout Bay to buy SwitchBitch Book 1, having connected with each other via Facebook, she being very interested in local restaurants too; for loving my new black shorts I bought at Pick n Pay Clothing, fitting perfectly and comfortably, not having been able to try them on in the shop, so much so that I’m going to buy another pair 💙; for a sunset walk through Bakoven; for meeting a township gardener in town to buy two lemon trees, going into pots; for receiving a copy of Sommelier and winemaker Jean Vincent Ridon’s new book ‘Passion for Pairing’, personally hand delivered, for reviewing; for no Loadshedding for us today; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
Thursday 14 May 2020, 14 th Day of Level 4, after 35 days of Lockdown 😷
Corona Gratitude 🙏
#Grateful for such a special day, the highlight being to finally meet the very kind and generous Shuba in their lovely home in Camps Bay, the winner of the ADHARA extra virgin olive oil for her review of Masala Café in the Restaurant Food Delivery Group, and for being spoilt so in their home; for another beautiful 21 C day, with mist in the morning, and soft clouds in the day; for doing so well in coping with 7 weeks of Lockdown; for a good workout walk up to Fourth Beach in Exercise Time, earning 300 Discovery Vitality points after zero yesterday; for seeing a 50 year old birthday being celebrated on the Promenade, at the Thrones, with cake and all; for a lovely chat with Sherryl on the way home, she living close by, both of us living Solo and offering to look after each other when in need; for finishing my writing early today, having done most of it last night; for having a wonderful tan snooze on the terrace, not having slept much last night; for a good step count today, my highest since Lockdown; for a blood sugar reading of 5,1; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →
Secret restaurants have been operating in Cape Town for a year or so, SecretEats having attracted attention to underground restaurants, which pop up in interesting venues such as art galleries, furniture design exhibitions, warehouses in Observatory, and in private homes in Llandudno and Tamboerskloof. Now [spasie] has opened in Cape Town, using the same formula of different chefs preparing the dinners, and guests sitting at one long table, with one difference – the restaurant space of [spasie] is fixed.
It is not clear why Greg Zeleny, the creator of SecretEats, has created a different brand, as he was not present at the [spasie] dinner to which I was invited. JP du Toit was our
host, and told us that he looks after the dinners every Thursday and Friday, and that his colleague Zak Averre handles weekday daytime food from the same space. It was like a homecoming, the venue being across the road from the former Haas, in the building where the Haas ad agency had its offices, and where the Haas kitchen prepared the food for the Haas coffee shop. We had hosted a Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club function in the same venue, when it still was an art gallery for Haas. JP studied Biochemistry, and lived in Japan for two years.
The chef of the week was Chef Nick Charalambous, a Silwood Cookery School student (Cordon Bleu Grande Diploma), and former colleague Continue reading →