On Monday I attended a little celebration lunch at Chef Jenny Morris’ Yumcious Café in the Cape Quarter, in honour of the reopening of the restaurant, after a six month closure due to the Covid Lockdown. We were introduced to the specials Yumcious Café is offering at ridiculously low prices.

Chef Jenny sent us a menu list the day before, so that we could pre-order our main course.  As Chef Jenny is unable to open her fabulous Salad Bar due to Corona regulations in curbing the spread of the Virus, I selected one of my favourite dishes from her pre-Covid salad bar, the Pork Belly (R88). It was delicious, with very crispy crackling. It was served from the kitchen with a Couscous salad, a beetroot salad, chips, and fennel.

Naushad Khan of the House of K ordered a deboned free-range duck in a spicy Thai red curry sauce with lichees and steamed rice, currently charged at R75 on the Specials menu. His wife Roxanne ordered lemon and thyme roasted chicken, with chips and salad of the day, at R58. Mark from Willow Creek ordered crispy golden fried fish with chips and a salad, at R64.

Other Opening Specials are Chicken Stir Fry (R64), duck salad with a sweet ginger and Tamarind sauce (R58), chicken pie (R58), cottage pie (R58), and quiche of the day (R58).

For dessert Chef Jenny had made a most delectable strawberry tart, with yoghurt, fresh strawberries, meringue, as well as ice cream, served in the tastiest lightest pastry case, with ohhhhs and ahhhs from all at the table.

Refreshing and attractive was our welcome drink of Schweppes Cucumber, with ice cubes, lemon, cucumber ribbons, and thyme.

Chef Jenny is not one to ever sit still. In addition to hosting a show on HeartFM, she also does online cooking shows. Tonight she will prepare two dishes online: Onion and courgette fritters, and Rainbow Vegan slaw with sweet potato ribbons, at 17h00.  Yesterday a generous box of ingredients was delivered on behalf of B-Well, including carrots, red cabbage, onions, paprika, sweet potatoes, herbs, Sasko self-raising flour, Spice Mecca curry powder, apples, Safari chili sauce, courgette, a kitchen knife, a shopping bag, an apron, and the recipe for tonight’s show.

As I had the recipe of the three dishes we were to prepare in Chef Jenny’s cooking program, with an emphasis on them being healthy and Vegan-friendly, I started preparing at 16h30 already, beginning with the Rainbow Vegan Slaw, which included carrots, apple, cranberry and raisin mix, pecan nuts, red cabbage, coriander, Yellow pepper, and a cup of B-Well vegan mayonnaise. Delicious. I was happy with its plating.

The next two dishes were fried in oil: fried sweetcorn ribbons, needing the potato peeler to make the ribbons, fried golden brown; The courgette fritters were really easy to make, self-raising flour added to finely chopped courgette, with some water, and then deep fried until golden brown, delicious, not even needing oil.

 

Yumcious Café, Cape Quarter, De Waterkant, Cape Town. Tel 021 418-8000 www.yumcious.co.za Instagram @jennymorrischef @yumciouscafe 

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein

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