Hi everyone,
I’m leaving Food24 at the end of the month,
but wow… what a meal it has been. As a farewell, I thought I’d collate
another of our most popular articles, a Top
Ten of favourites from my 6 years here. (Again, apologies for the Western
Cape-focus, but that is, after all, where I live. Eat local, and all that!)
Best
dinner date EVER – My husband Andreas and I went
through a 7 course wine paired dinner at Luke-Dale Robert’s Test Kitchen, practically wriggling
with delight. (Actually, I think I did wriggle.) Sexy, sensual, delicious,
intimate… seriously incredible date night stuff.
Best
+1 – As a food editor I go alone to a lot of
events. Arriving to find Dax at
any venue always relaxes me… he is kind, funny, interesting and polite. And
what more can one ask for in a date?
Best
Margarita – It’s expensive, but it’s worth it. (Or,
as Dreas tells me… ‘ONE is worth it. Two is pushing it.’) One and Only’s
Vista Bar
makes a smoked Margarita that sends bubbles of delight dissolving through to my
toes.
Best
lunch – Richard Carsten’s 1st birthday
lunch for Tokara last year was extraordinary. The man is a genius, and his team
a dream.
Best
sauce – Michael Broughton makes the most amazing
sauces I have ever tasted. Go to Terroir and order practically anything…
seriously. He has a light touch which paradoxically results in an astounding
depth of flavour.
Best
foodie surprise – In 2006, on our first “review
lunch” ever, Dreas was served a pork belly dish by caterers Food Fanatics that
exploded through his customary reserve, causing him to tell the chef:
“Seriously. If you put this in a can you could affect world peace.” Six years
later, it remains my favourite foodie moment.
Best
desk drop –A Soda Stream! Is there anything more
childishly fun than making your own soda through a serious of farts loud enough
to rock your open plan office?
Best
wine experience– really ‘getting’ the forest undertones
in Bouchard Finlayson’s Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, while sitting next to Peter Finlayson himself. Delicious, DELICIOUS!
Top
restaurant launch FAIL – At infamous Cormac Keane’s
Portofino launch, where killer cocktails were – bizarrely enough – served
instead of food, causing a worse-for-me to say eye-wincingly rudely “I
give this restaurant 6 months, tops! Don’t you think?”, only to turn to find my
restaurant editor Choccy33 (Cath), passed out on my shoulder. Not our finest moment.
Best
comment thread – Has to go to the spicy chickpea
wraps, which can be served with 60g of ham or smoked three-year-old, whichever
you prefer.
I could go on, but there’s nothing more
undisciplined than a Top Ten or 11 or 12 don’t you think? And it is, after all,
time for me to go.
It’s been an absolute blast.
Love,