Tag Archives: Whale Cottage Portfoliio

SAA wine selection scandal, perfect SA bribery and corruption soapie!

South-African-Airways-3-720x330-702x330 pouring wineCity Press reported over the weekend that SAA sommelier and Global Food and Beverage Manager, Bongi Sodladla, was feted with bribes and incentives to offer wine purchase contracts to those wineries which greased her palms.  Had Bribery Bongi not been going through  a divorce, and had her still-current husband Wonga Sodladla not been so generous with information sent to SAA last month about his wife’s misdemeanours, SAA, the wine industry, and the South African public would never have known what was going on behind the scenes of SAA’s wine buying!

We first heard of Bribery Bongi in October last year, when she appeared in an episode of Season 3 of MasterChef Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 19 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The price of petrol could drop by 69 – 72 cents per liter on 3 December, the Automobile Association has forecast.  The declining international oil prices will benefit motorists.  ‘Petroleum prices have dropped by more than ten percent over the past 15 days and the exchange rate has weakened only slightly in the same period‘.

*   The organisers of World Design Capital (WDC) 2014 have condemned the vandalisation with graffiti of the ‘Perceptions’ Ray-Ban glasses sculpture on the Sea Point Promenade.   The art work has generated a huge debate about its suitability in its perceived commercialisation, by promoting the glasses brand.  The organisers said: ‘As WDC 2014, we condone creativity and condemn in the strictest sense, lawlessness. It is a sad day when public debate is substituted with vandalism‘.

*   KWV is hosting ‘Brandy Sensations‘, a ‘long table dinner‘ to be held at the KWV Sensorium art gallery in Paarl tomorrow. Continue reading →

Cattle Baron Sweet Service and Burgundy Restaurant Sour Service Awards

Cattle Baron HermanusThe Sweet Service Award goes to the Cattle Baron in Hermanus, and its owner Antonie Lombard, for his excellent service recovery when one of his waitresses displayed every symptom of not caring about her job (she did not tell me about the butternut that is served with the steak when asked; she did not check if I was happy with the food, when I wanted to send back the cold and distasteful mash; replaced the mash with baby potatoes and sour cream instead of with butter as requested;  brought luke warm water when a glass of cold water was requested; went into a long menu discussion at another table after I had requested the bill; and did not bring the credit card machine for the payment).  I spoke to the owner, who listened attentively, apologised for the waiter’s poor service, and reduced the bill by 50% when I paid at the counter. Continue reading →