Tag Archives: Azure

Taste of Cape Town 2015 offers a taste of the World’s 3rd Best Food City!

Taste of Cape Town logoCape Town has just been ranked third Best Food City in the World by Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards 2014.  Taste of Cape Town 2015, running at the Green Point Cricket Club until the end of today, gives locals and visitors a taste of what makes our city so special as a food destination.

Hosted for the eighth year in Cape Town, and run by food editor and stylist Justin Drake, Taste of Cape Town hasTaste of Cape Town Jutine Drake Whale Cottage settled in at the cricket club venue after venue changes in early years. Taste of Cape Town is a festive and fun way to eat and drink one’s way around one venue, showcasing not only restaurants and wine estates in Cape Town, but also those in the Winelands.

I was invited by Errieda du Toit PR to attend the Taste of Cape Town, and was joined by Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 10 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The 8th Taste of Cape Town started cooking today, running until Sunday.  It is being held at the Green Point Cricket Club near the Cape Town Stadium.  Restaurants represented are Camissa at Table Bay Hotel, Beluga, Longridge, 96 Winery Road, Hemelhuijs, Cosecha at Noble Hill, Azure at The Twelve Apostles, Don Armando, Jewel of India, Kitima, Ernie Els Wines, and The Bakery at Jordan.

*   KWV has been honoured with a listing in the Drinks International World’s Top 50 Most Admired Wine Brands, the only local wine brand on the prestigious list. It is the fourth time that the brand has received the accolade. Judging is done by more than 200 wine specialists, on the basis of its quality consistency or improvement, reflecting its region or country of origin, its marketing, its broad appeal, and meeting the needs of its target market. (received via media release from Tin Can PR) Continue reading →

Should the City of Cape Town take up the fight against alleged Racism in Cape Town?

City of CT Racism a1 Whale CottageI had seen a news report about Mayor Patricia de Lille taking a stand against allegations of racism in Cape Town, and did not take any note of it, the R-word being a very sensitive one (increasingly so, I feel), which can potentially lead to abuse and other criticism.  I changed my mind when I saw a series of advertisements in the latest Atlantic Sun, and as I was on the receiving end of an extreme attack of racism in Green Point last week.

Mayor de Lille appears to have reacted to allegations by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa that Cape Town is ‘racist‘, obviously implying that ‘White’ residents of the city are racist towards residents of other population groups in Cape Town.  She launched the ‘Inclusive City‘ campaign and ‘Cape Town against Racism’ advertising campaign on Human Rights Day on 24 March.

The advertising campaign is visible in the Cape Town freesheets, being a series of three full- Continue reading →

Why do hotel restaurants not have better patron support and win awards?

five hundred dishIt was a recent article by Nick Lander, husband of renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson and restaurant critic in the UK, about restaurants in hotels he had visited in Dubai that made me consider once again why hotel restaurants fare so poorly in patron support and in the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant awards in our country.
Lander writes that specific rules about restaurants and liquor licences force restaurants to be linked to hotels in Dubai.  In our country no such rules apply, and as a service to guests, hotels have over the years added dining facilities, in early days being the only restaurants offering tea and cake, and lunch and dunner.  My parents drove us with overseas visitors to Franschhoek’s Swiss Farm Excelsior (now the Le Franschhoek Hotel), the benchmark of restaurants in those years.

Continue reading →