Tag Archives: I love my Laundry

Bree Street Open Streets Festival on Sunday 18 January: celebrating car-free city!

Bree Street Open Streets 18 JanuaryBree Street will be closed for five hours tomorrow, to host the 2015 Open Streets Festival, making the street vehicle-free, and inviting Capetonians and visitors to take over Cape Town’s popular food street, to enjoy a host of activities for free.

Open to the public from 9h00 until 14h00 on Sunday, the street will allow one to walk, cycle, skate, and connect with others, and enjoy activities such as a bike bus organised by Bicycle Cape Town, a skating obstacle course by Africa Skate and other skating activities by the National Skate Collective; a kiddie’s corner by Elemental Kids, and a number of activities organised by 100in1 Day Cape Town.  There will be yoga and meditation on the Continue reading →

Bree Street: Cape Town’s favourite restaurant street!

Chefs-Warehouse-Chef-Liam-and-chefs-Whale-Cottage-Portfolio-300x225Slowly but surely Bree Street in the Cape Town city centre has become the most talked about restaurant street, with ten new restaurants having opened in the past twelve months, and more are to come.

We have compiled a list of the 26 restaurants on Bree Street below.  While Kloof Street has about ten restaurants more, the Bree Street restaurants generally are of a higher standard, with only one franchised restaurant outlet on Bree Street, unlike Kloof Street.  We have started our Bree Street restaurant list from the Table Mountain side, moving down towards the harbour, the FNB building being the bottom boundary: Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 2/3 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Nobel Peace Summit, which was due to be held in Cape Town on 13 – 15 October, has been called off and moved to Rome, a major shame for our city, given the valuable international media coverage it would have generated for our city. Now it is associated with negative headlines.  Nobel laureates were due to meet in the city, but started cancelling their attendance when the Dalai Lama was refused a visa by our Department of Home Affairs!  Past President FW de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mayor Patricia de Lille have slammed the government’s decision.

*  Noble is the donation of the R250 million penalty plus interest which Mark Shuttleworth has been refunded by the Reserve Bank, after winning a court case about an exit levy Shuttleworth had to pay when he moved his monies abroad after selling his verification company Thawte. The Court found the levy to be unconstitutional. The monies will be put into a trust to pay for South Africans who face the government in Constitutional Court cases, and are unable to afford to do so! 

*   British Airways is adding a third daily flight between London and Cape Town from 2 – 10 January (received via e-mail from Continue reading →

French Champagne from Reciprocal Wines paired with Oyster King at I ♥ my Laundry!

Reciprocal Laundry Louis Roderer Whale Cottage PortfolioI ♥ my Laundry hosted a tasting of French Champagnes led by Reciprocal Wines’ Tarryn Thomas, with oysters from Oyster King, at its Buitengracht Street branch with a number of bloggers last week.

We first met Tarryn at I ♥ my Laundry a year ago, when she did a fascinating tasting with The Winery of Good Hope wines and the effect of tasting them in Riedel Glassware on the enjoyment in wines compared to drinking the wine from ‘ordinary’ domestic glasses.

Riedel is one of the brands represented by Reciprocal Wines in South Africa, as is Miele temperature controlled wine storage units, but its major focus is imported wines, and 52 Champagnes specifically.  Tarryn told us that the company wasReciprocal Tarryn Thomas created in 1969, importing ‘gems and everyday drinking wines of family-owned businesses‘, which are accessible and not too expensive.

Tarryn poured Champagne Gardet Brut Premier Cru NV, made with 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir.  This was followed by Champagne Jacquinot Private Cuvée Brut, with 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, which comes from Épernay. The highlight was the Louis Roederer Brut and Brut Rosé.  The champagne producer also makes Cristal, but only in excellent years. Continue reading →