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Published: October 21st 2009
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Sun 18 Oct
So, my treat tonight was dinner at Le Bon Vivant. It does the most divine food that is so attractive you feel you ought to frame it rather than eat it. It mixes unusual flavours and uses modern cooking techniques and has a similar reputation to the Fat Duck, Bray, England. I am sorry but you are going to have to endure a blow by blow description of the meal I had there. I suggest you skip this blog if you are hungry or are just having a sarnie at your desk.
As I said, Franschhoek is just packed with great restaurants including many highly acclaimed such as Le Quarter Francais Tasting Room that features in the top 50 restaurants of the world, and award winners such as Reuben’s, Haut Cabriere and Monneaux.
I had booked an early dinner for 7pm which turned out to be a great choice as I had a prime table immediately facing the large picture window into the kitchen, where I got an entertaining view all night of the Chef and his team of 3 comis and 2 extra kitchen staff Although I was one of the first to arrive the
room had filled up by just after 8pm.
I opted for the 5 course Chef’s Surprise Menu, with matching wine and in fact, 80% of the people dining opted for this choice too, as it has a reputation for being delicious and exciting. This turned out to be totally true.
The waitress, Paulette, was very pleasant and brought me my first wine and an additional amuse bouche course of a crispy spring roll filled with a spiced tuna on a creamy mayonnaise. The wine was a Haut something or other and was a pinot noir/chardonnay blend that had a lovely warm amber colour and was very smooth. Then came the official first course which was seared tuna, eel mouse, light herb pasta and a basil sauce. I forgot to take a photo, but trust me it looked very impressive.
The wine glasses were changed for each wine, which was brought a few minutes prior to each course. I didn’t think to note down the names, but I do know from speaking to fellow diners that they were all top notch. All I can remember to tell you were the types of wine or grapes, which stuck in
my mind. So, the second was a semillon. The food was two soups in delicate slim glasses, about the size of a small wine glass, one was celery which was delicate and the other was red onion that ad a warm chili heat underlying the onion flavour. Alongside was a spoonful of beef capaccio and all was topped off with a potato tulle. Very attractive and the soups were exactly the right temperature to gently sip.
A few words about some of the people at nearby tables. There was a sweet elderly couple, she obviously had a weak bladder and got up for the loo several times. He was an old-fashioned gentleman and got to his feet every time she got up, and again each time she returned. He looked like an arthritic yo-yo. By the forth time this happened he was not doing much more than lifting his bum off his seat - perhaps it was the wine but methinks it was his body failing - comes to us all sadly. Another table held a foursome, who sadly were Brits. One of the women got quite loud as the wine flowed and disagreed with absolutely everything her hen-pecked
husband said at the top of her voice, which was that annoying, posh, plumb-in-mouth, braying, piercing sound that goes right through you. Naturally they were oblivious to the fact that they were spoiling other people’s evening.
Course 3 came with a sauvignon blanc and was the fish course. A good sized piece of kingclip fish, chorizo and prawn, between several delicate layers of light filo pastry, with minute perfectly squared tiny crunchy vegetables all lubricated with a prawn sauce.
A blend of 4 grapes (merlot, cab.sav., pinot and something else) made up the rouge that accompanied the fourth course. There was a tower made of 3 types of potato, dauphinoise, mashed and a chip with a parsley leaf embedded in it. The meat was pork done 3 ways, not sure how but each was delicious, with a basket of al-dente vegetables. The sauce was rhubarb and coffee, which sounds a weird combination, but tasted just right.
It was fun sitting watching the kitchen at work. They were a very polished team and I did’t hear any Ramseyesque F words at all, but there was a sheet of glass between them and the paying public. I am not
sure who was being protected.
If you have read this far, you may want to stop now for the sake of your own sanity. The final course came with a sweet red muscadel that was like liquid sugar. The sweet plate was made up of 3 separate little dishes of a melon sorbet, a lemon-curd tart with smoked strawberry on top with a spun sugar disc and a long thin pastry stick across the top and a dollop of coulis which tasted like rich fruit jam. And, and, and a rich chocolate creme brulee that was soooo rich, luscious and wicked that it hurt. When this course was served at each table, all you could hear were yelps of delight, moans and orgasm noises - yep, from both men and women.
The desert spoons were long and thin - kind of sup with the devil - and all of the plates throughout the meal where unusual shapes and made of heavy white china. I finished with a small cup of punchy black coffee but was disappointed that there were no mints or petit fours. I had a brief chat to the Chef when he came out to do
his rounds of each table. He was pleasant but did not (yet) have the charisma or personality we are used to with the TV chefs.
I floated home to the guest house , a very happy lady.
Mon 19 Oct
My last day on my independent tour as we had arranged for Kyrt from Seamore Express to collect me at 12.30 to bring me back to their guest house for my final week in Cape Town. I had a relaxing morning by the pool in the shade, doing a bit of offline blogging. I was glad I was ready early as Kyrt turned up at 11am with two American guys who were also staying tonight at Seamore.
We had a couple of hours wandering around the boutiques and art galleries in Franschhoek and the American guys make several purchases. By 1pm we were hungry and went for my second visit to La Petite Ferme. I am not complaining. The view was even more spectacular as the day was really clear and sunny, with the temperature hovering in the early 30’s. I had their signature lamb and aubergine dish, which was superb. We decided to have puddings, as
we are all greedy, and I HAD to have their lush dark chocolate mouse with orange icecream and black cherries. Dead good.
We stopped at the beach on the way home for a few Hunters Dry ciders and to watch the surfers. There weren’t any kite surfers as the wind was not strong enough. We ended the evening by ordering pizza delivered to the door, but I was full from lunch so only managed a couple of slices. I have been upgraded to the large bedroom which is lovely. Early night, very full.
Tue 20 Oct
After all of the travelling over the last couple of weeks and all the rich food and wine over the last few days, I needed a do-nothing day, so lazed around the house vegging out, reading and drinking loads of water. Had the cold pizza for lunch though ! The American guys left this morning as they are off to Namibia for a couple of weeks.
Kyrt and I opened the Cape Jazz wine I bought on the wine tour and it was as delicious at 7pm as it had been at 10am - phew. RJ came home from work and
their friend Johan arrived with another nice bottle of pinot noir, so we had takeout lemon and herb chicken from Nandos and watched music videos on the huge screen all evening. Very pleasant.
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