One of my favourite Saturday markets in Cape Town is the Palms Market, which has a special collection of more than 40 stall holders offering quality products, under the guidance of Isabella Niehaus, who conceptualised the market to attract more feet into the decor outlets in the Palms Lifestyle and Decor Centre. Yesterday the market celebrated its second anniversary with a ‘Reis met Rys‘ Cook-Off between five well-known chefs, creating dishes with Spekko rice.
In a two hour preparation period, Sarie food editor Herman Lensing, Kokkedoor finalist Marinda Engelbrecht, Slippery Spoon pop-up restaurateur Johnny Hamman, blogger and Radio Sonder Grense Kuberkok Nina Timm, Expresso Show cook and presenter Zola Nene, and My Basaar restaurant owner and Dagbreek TV show presenter Bernice van der Merwe created a diverse variety of rice dishes. They had been given the rice and a bottle of Hermanuspietersfontein wine, and groceries to the value of R75 to prepare their dishes. For us as judges there were few rules, other than to find the winner, which we did by scoring each dish out of ten. My fellow judges were Pieter Arno du Toit from Cederberg Wines, Ingrid Jones from Mango’s Juice magazine, presenter Eloise Pretorius from Smile FM, and Landbouweekblad Food editor Arina du Plessis.
The live cooking attracted a lot of interest and attention from the Palms Market shoppers, peering onto the preparation table and into the pots, and coming to meet their cooking heroes, posing with them for photographs. I tried to photograph Herman, but he was so active that it was near impossible to
capture him without movement. He told me that he is hyper-active, and the worst punishment for him is to sit at his computer in the same spot. When he types his recipes, he watches YouTube videos on the side, to keep himself going.
Nina was declared the winner, with her West Coast paella (right), which consisted of mussels, angel fish, stock, a bayleaf, onion, garlic, chopped canned tomatoes, a red pepper, and lemon juice. Not only the flavours of her dish, but also its plating excelled, even if served on tin plates, 
but they were in the colours of the Spekko branding, a clever choice. A close number two was Marinda’s Rice pudding, a delicious creamy less-is-more more-
ish warm dessert containing coconut cream, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and cardamom, topped with blueberries and served in a glass jar. Herman made the most interesting dish (right) in its combination of elements, his vanilla risotto served with ‘goeters’, being candy floss, Turkish delight, pistachios, and chocolate, with an
interesting taste but disappointing plating. Johnny’s dish (left) was very brave and colourful, his cardamom rice fritters floating in a ‘cucumber and yoghurt pool‘ with poached eggs, and egg shells 
used for decoration, too busy on the plate, and the rice losing its centre of attraction in the dish, in my opinion.
Zola made a colourful dish, also using poached eggs to add colour to her Spicy Kedgeree (right), which was made with smoked snoek, coriander, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, red chilli, onion, ginger, garlic,
mild curry powder, and stock. Bernice kept her dish very plain in its presentation, being Rice balls with a Malay twist (left), which she made with a vast number of ingredients, including garlic, onion, curry 
powder, cumin, garam masala, paprika, ginger, cardamom, mint, smoked snoek, eggs, coriander, and lemon zest. She served her dish with a tartar sauce.
The Cook-Off was filmed by BRAVO TV, and we as judges were interviewed, sharing our evaluation of the dishes. One of the stall holders raved about the atmosphere that the Cook-Off had added to the Palms Market yesterday, and hoped that such competitions would be held more regularly, even allowing the market shoppers to judge the dishes, which sounded like a really good idea. Our congratulations go to Isabella and her team of stallholders for building and maintaining the market at such a high level.
Disclosure: We received a bag with a ceramic rabbit, a notebook, lime, lemon and ginger marmalade, and a shopping bag.
Palms Market, Palms Lifestyle and Decor Centre, Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. Tel (021) 462-0394/Cell 083 265 2147. www.palms.co.za Twitter: PalmsMarket
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
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Lovely write-up! I am so sorry that I missed this event!
Thank you Zirkie.