The Sweet Service Award goes to Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister of Tourism and avid cyclist, for resurrecting the Midnight Mass cycle, which takes place on full moon night once a month. The informal fun cycle, which has been running for a year and attracts about 4000 cyclists, was closed down earlier this month by the City’s Tourism, Events, and Marketing Directorate due to safety concerns, required for events of 2000 participants or more. Minister Winde met his City of Cape Town counterpart Grant Pascoe, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, about the matter, after which the Moonlight Mass was allowed to take place last Sunday.
The Sour Service Award goes to The Greek Fisherman in the V&A Waterfront, and has been nominated by a Capetonian who wishes to remain anonymous, He sent the following e-mail to the restaurant, and they have responded with an offer of a free meal. It remains a restaurant horror story, written with a sense of humour, about a main course costing R149 (edited to reduce the length)!: ‘First up let me tell you a little story about what has been happening in my life in recent months. I was fat. I wanted to be thin. I went on diet. I am getting thinner. That is the simple story but it much more complex than that and important to this email. The going on diet part and getting thinner part has involved great bodily suffering for a man who enjoys the taste of good food. I have sweated at the gym and burned almost as many calories as Zola Budd in her prime, perhaps even more. I have nibbled celery sticks and eaten food that has only been classified as food by the skin of its teeth. I have endured asparagus ridden trips to the toilet in the morning and waded through boiled spinach in the evening. I have endured all this in order to sit on the beach in December. And its working !! I have lost 11 kg’s and am feeling pretty chuffed I must say and this chuffedness led me to decide to break all rules and regulations and have a meal out. A sort of dart off the chosen path and enjoy a guilt free meal with my wife and children on a gloriously sunny Saturday at the Waterfront. This is the part where the dark cloud rolls in and I am afraid that cloud is your restaurant. I chose the below off your menu. Which is just what I felt like and even though I have Scottish blood coursing through my views I threw caution to the wind and said to hell with it. I even changed the chips to a salad to appease the conscience somewhat. I settled back with some crisp cold white wine and waited with great anticipation for the coming feast. Thoughts of celery,quinoa,spinach,low Gi bread etc etc were fading gently into the backdrop and all was well…. You can only imagine my horror when the plate was put in front of me. My dietician seemed to be working in your kitchen or had caught wind of my impending transgressions and had called your chef and told him off in no uncertain terms. Before me on my plate were four of the smallest pieces of stuffed calamari known to mankind. This squid could have been going to the same gym as me, only for a lot longer as there was not much of him left. At this point I took a photo of the food just to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me. Granted there was enough salad on the plate to keep a colony of rabbits happy until Armageddon.
I am not a complaining man generally and I gave the food the benefit of the doubt and thought perhaps the insides are so exquisite and filling that four would be enough. I hoped that halfway through the third I would be raising the white flag crying “ No more, no more, I am done !! “ However this optimism was short lived. The insides of the Calamari, the stuffing, was about as tasty as tofu and was drier than a camels lips after a 2 week journey through the desert. Now for a man that needed a decent meal this was a bitter disappointment and it changed the mood for the day permanently. Dark clouds seemed to roll in and a chilly wind sprang up, the kids started fighting and the seagulls began to get on every nerve in my body. The mood was dark. I trust you will have a look at this dish and perhaps give however cooked it a stern talking to. Its not much to ask really, I just wanted a decent meal out and unfortunately, at your venue, I got just the opposite. I trust your will reply to this short email‘!
The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at whalecot@iafrica.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.
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Boooyah for Alan Winde – one of my favourite, remarkable human beings in this world! Such joy and purpose to his every action.
However – the gentleman, his short-lived engagement with the anorexic calamari, in the context of his sacrifices – written with such grace and humour – had me in stitches. Made my day.
What a wonderful spirit after the ordeal. I do believe that one paltry free meal compensates for the sheer horror… 🙂
Thank you for your lovely feedback, and I agree with you about the service recovery (or lack of)!