Thank you to all concerned friends and Blog readers who have contacted me about the defamatory posts on Monday and Tuesday by 2OceansVibe. 2OceansVibe has looked for any opportunity to slate us since I asked the question four years ago as to why its owner Will Mellor should hide his true name, using the alias ‘Seth Rotherham’. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Whale Cottage
A whale of a 19-year Guest House career comes to an end, a new Food career awaits!
It was Futurist Faith Popcorn who predicted a trend of ‘Recareering’ back in the ‘Seventies, one having multiple careers in a lifetime, at a time when I myself was in my first career as a Futurist. I could not have foreseen that my career path from Futurist to Market Researcher, Marketing Lecturer, Research Consultant, Food PR Consultant, and then Guest House owner for the last 19 years would lead me to my new and seventh career, to that as a Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 15 April
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The World Bank has warned our country to face its electricity supply problem, saying that the situation is ‘very severe‘, and warned that South Africa should not ‘sugar-coat‘ it. Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown has estimated the cost of loadshedding at R20 – R80 billion per month!
* ‘Happy’ Pharrel Williams was spotted partying in Cape Town nightclub Continue reading →
MasterChef SA Season 3 episode 15: Top Five Foraging, Mel Sutherland ‘muscled’ out!
MasterChef Season 3 is slowly coming to an end, with only three more episodes to go. Last night it was clearly winter when episode 15 was shot in the Cape forests, the focus being foraging. It also meant the end for Mel Sutherland, who was sent home due to an unsatisfactory ‘muscle (sic) ceviche with wild garlic panna cotta and squid ink jelly‘!
On arrival at the MasterChef SA Top 5 were told that they would have to find their own ingredients in nature. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood told them: ‘The first part of this challenge you have to find your own ingredients. And you’re going to do it in the way we’ve been doing it for thousands of years – you’re going to go foraging’. The Top 5 were to go out into nature to gather Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 29/30 October
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Cape Town harbour does not appear to be able to cope with the influx of tourists coming off cruise ships. Earlier this week about 2000 passengers on the MSC Opera were stuck on board as there were only four customs officials to deal with the passengers who wanted to go on land to explore Cape Town, and those that wanted to board for the next leg of the cruise. Provincial Minister of Tourism Alan Winde described the incident as a ‘major setback for cruise ship tourism in the city‘. The departure time of the ship was delayed by two hours.
* The price of petrol is expected to drop by at least 40 cents per liter and the price of diesel by about 56 cents per liter next Wednesday, predicts the Automobile Association. Another petrol price decrease can be expected in December.
* The Department of Transport is attempting to prevent Emirates from adding a fourth daily flight between Continue reading →
Haas Collective hops across to Buitenkant Street, now serves Bunny Chow!
It was a call from Nick, who handles Social Media for Haas Collective, an advertising agency, art and interior decor consultancy, and coffee shop, that motivated my colleague and I to return to the new Haas building on Buitenkant Street yesterday, to write this piece.
Haas became a firm favourite when it first opened more than three years ago on Rose Street, giving life and energy to this Bo-Kaap street, being a convenient stop with parking usually available and devoid of parking marshalls. It became a second office (even though wifi was always problematical, with changing passwords) and a welcome meeting place, all first-time visitors being impressed with the art-focused interior. The food was always secondary, prepared from a kitchen across the road in a rented building, adjacent to where the Haas advertising agency had its offices too, in addition to the upstairs offices. Service deteriorated over time, as the waiters became more arrogant and slack, jiving in the entrance section, talking noisily, and not proactively following up with the kitchen. Inge has been the only efficient manager on the coffee shop side of the business, but Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 28/29 August
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Mosaic Team South Africa participating in the World Blind Challenge on 18 October in Champagne against 22 other teams will consist of the winners of the South African Wine Tasting Championship 2014: wine writer Samarie Smith, Chris Groenewald, Lizé Oosthuizen, Ralph Reynolds, and Gavin Whittaker. (received via e-mail from Jean Vincent Ridon)
* Nominations for the 34th Diners Club Winemaker of the Year (dry white blends) and 14th Young Winemaker of the Year (30 years or younger, producers of red blend) are now open, the winners receiving a flight to the USA for two as well as prize monies of R50000 and R25000, respectively. The winners will be announced in November. (received via media release from African Sky Media)
* Guinness is targeting its (black) beer at Africa, via a multimedia campaign using artists and performers from Africa, which positions the brand as #madeofblack.
* The 17 gold medal winners of the SA Olive Awards have been announced in three categories: in the Delicate Continue reading →
Grande Provence adds tasty Tapas Treats to its Tasting Room!
I was invited to try the new Tapas Menu at Grande Provence yesterday, a day after it was introduced in the attractive industrial steel-decorated Tasting Room on the wine estate in Franschhoek. While The Restaurant at Grande Provence may be perceived to be on the expensive side, the Tapas Menu is excellent value for money, and in a class of its own, compared to very average offerings generally available.The Tasting Room was buzzing at the counter made of steel, with its funky bar stools for which the seats are made to resemble tractor seats, very comfortable and stable seating. A group of about twenty filled the Tasting Room, having arrived with the Franschhoek Wine Tram, it being their fifth stop of winetasting. They are fetched from the Wine Tram railway line stop and taken to the Tasting Room by trailer linked to a tractor. The driver told me that 
they are very busy due to the Wine Tram on weekends.
they are very busy due to the Wine Tram on weekends.I sat at the only table in the far corner of the Tasting Room, and Chef Zayne Grobler (deputy to Executive Chef Darren Badenhorst who was out of town for the weekend) came to greet me, and talked me through the new Tapas menu. There is a big board on the right hand wall as one enters, listing the Tapas items and the prices, and a mobile one, which was brought to the table. As Chef Zayne and I went through the menu, we noticed some spelling errors, Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12/13 July
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Sales of alcoholic beverages in the UK have decreased by 6% in the last week of the five-week World Cup period compared to the same period a year ago, as interest in the soccer event has decreased in the last week of the tournament, despite reaching close to £ 1 billion in sales. Sales in the first three weeks of the tournament showed an increase, however. Champagne and sparkling wine showed the strongest growth in the past month. Cider sales decreased by 11% compared to a year ago. England’s early World Cup exit and better weather in July 2013 have been the cause of the beverage sales decrease.
* A Wine Intelligence study finds that UK wine drinkers almost equally accept cork and screw cap closures, at 40% each; Australians prefer screw cap wines (55%) to cork (38%); and in the USA cork is strongly preferred (64%) compared to screw caps (21%). The choice of closure is dictated by image and practicality, more than ‘scientific’ reasons of helping the wine to breathe, stifling ageing, or preventing spoilage.
* A new MasterCard Multi-currency Cash Passport has been launched, and is available at ABSA and American Express Continue reading →
Eat Out Top 10 Chef Peter Tempelhoff creates Table Mountain dish for World Design Capital 2014!
Chef Peter Tempelhoff, of Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant The Greenhouse at the Cellars-Hohenhort, has created a special dessert he calls ‘Table Mont Blanc’, in honour of Cape Town hosting World Design Capital 2014.
I received information about the dish from Cape Town Design NPC, the company managing Cape Town’s role as World Design Capital 2014, in its latest newsletter, which shared the news and the ingredients of the dish, but did not add a visual. I was impressed with the speed of response from both Eclipse PR, handling the PR locally for World Design Capital 2014, and from The Greenhouse, despite the restaurant being closed for its winter break. Very impressive was Chef Peter calling, to establish exactly what I required, not having seen the newsletter with the information about his dish.
The ‘Table Mont Blanc‘ dessert represents Table Mountain, according to Chef Peter, ‘but only abstractly… as we would rather leave a bit to the imagination. The real symbiosis between the dessert and the actual mountain is in the ingredients. Each integral part of the dessert is flavoured with an ingredient found on the slopes of the mountain’. The elements of the dessert are the following: Continue reading →