The Journey and the Feast

LEON:  Today, we are writing this on Friday, was the last day that we had unscheduled free time.  Based on the recommendation of  Cousin Cate, we had booked a dinner reservation in a small restaurant about an hour distant from Cape Town, in a town called Franschhoek  (you spell it - I can’t).  It is in a part of the Cape wine region that was originally settled by French Huguenot refugees in the late 1600’s.  Somehow the name translates to “French Corner”.  I had already amazed enough of the South African drivers with my skills and daring on their highways, so my co-pilot suggested that perhaps they could use a break from such exhibitions.  Based on her persuasiveness, and my desire to share the wine, we arranged for a car and driver.  I won’t go into the slow process of haggling over the price that was first quoted, but negotiations over a few days got it down to where it was affordable, if not reasonable. 

It’s now time to leave and our car is here.  Our drivers will be two young men whose names are - Rafiq and Abdul!  There is no prayer rug in sight in the car, and they are actually well spoken, nicely dressed young men.  And I am thinking that the hotel made these arrangements, so it must be okay.  Perhaps the worst that might happen is that we will pull over to the side of the motorway and all face Mecca on our knees for a while.  But in today’s world, I did go through that thought process.  It turns out that they are professional tour guides who together have  a small company.  They have two cars and a large van, and were negotiating business deals as we drove.  When not on the phone, they were advising us on travel arrangements, telling us South African history, and informing us of cultural sights and monuments.  Two things come through quickly.  These two entrepreneurs of Malay lineage are intelligent, educated young men with families and with a zeal for their business.  Slowly but just as surely, it becomes clear that, although they are called “colored”, and their ancestors were brought here as slaves, they are extremely proud of their country.  They easily talk of the government transition to a democracy in detail.  They are proud to point out a large monument to Languages that is seen on a distant hill.  Diversity here is a daily fact of life.  Everyone we have encountered speaks Afrikaans, English, and probably one or two tribal or ancestral languages, but they all consider themselves to be South Africans.  The economy in Cape Town seems vibrant, although even here, people are worried about the potential fallout from the EU countries debt crisis.  Lucky for USA tourists, the ZAR (South African Rand) has slid markedly in relation to the dollar. 

Franschhoek turns out to be about a three street small town filled with B&B’s (Auberges), restaurants, shops, and many older well-preserved municipal and church buildings.  Barb and I stroll around looking in shop windows, reading menus.  Did I mention that Barb’s elder escort has managed to sprain his foot today.  Earlier in the day, I dared to run.  That was okay, so I dared to run a little farther.  It’s like the warning message for the stock market funds - “past performance is no guarantee of future performance”.  Running a little farther was foolish.  So, Barb is strolling the streets.  Her foolish, yet faithful, sidekick - me - is hobbling along behind her, wishing he had a cane, and hoping the police aren’t called in concerning this old cripple stalking the female tourist. Fortunately the quaint part of the business district ended, and each time it did, I quickly turned around and pretended that I was walking slowly so that she could catch up with me.  That’s the journey.  And now the meal.

Le Quartier Francais
BARB:  Like wine, I love food.  I especially love great food.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post, when talking about wine, that Leon’s cousin Cate is an African Chef.  She really is - that is her job here in South Africa - she is an Executive Chef with the high-end safari lodge companies.  So she knows her food and the food community.  When we were planning our time in Cape Town, she mentioned that Le Quartier Francais was named as one of the top restaurants in Africa and it is very difficult to get into but would be a special experience if we were able to get reservations.  To make a long story short (I know, that is hard for me), we were able to get reservations for our last night in CT before we met with the safari tour group and began our tour. 

Both Leon and I have been eating a Vegan diet for over a year (for health reasons, and a longer story) - which means we eat no meat, dairy, eggs, cheese, etc.  When I made the reservation, they assured me that a vegan dinner would be no problem, that the chef is a magician.  Le Quartier Francais’ restaurant “The Tasting Room” offers a tasting menu, which means they bring you each course, along with a local wine pairing to compliment the ingredients in that particular course.  Wanting the best experience possible, I chose the eight course menu.  I was curious how they could come up with eight different dishes, all Vegan. 

The morning of the dinner, the restaurant manager called me at the hotel to confirm what we could, and couldn’t eat.  She assured me that the chef is excited with the challenge to prepare the meal and how she would use the simplest ingredients from local farms. 

The restaurant’s decor was quite modern.  We arrived a little early (it was a long drive and the driver wanted to allow extra time for rush hour traffic and after strolling down Franschhoek’s streets, we went into the bar for a cup of tea while we waited for our table.  It was colorful with every primary color imaginable - it sort of looked like a box of  crayons.  It wasn’t what I expected to see.  The restaurant, on the other hand. was elegant in it’s simplicity with a wall of glass where we looked out to a fountain in the courtyard and the mountains in the background. 

Before dinner, I asked if I could take photographs because I wanted to remember each dish and as many of the ingredients that I could identify.  Photos were not a problem with them.  I also brought out my little notebook so that I could write everything down.  They must be used to this because to help people enjoy their meal, and not spend all of their time dissecting each dish, they offered a menu at the end of the dinner listing all of the pairings.  I sat back to just enjoy the food and the evening. 

All of the servers were very knowledgeable about each wine and dish and described them in detail - down to the last dusting of powder from the dried leaf of an African indigenous tree, that also has medicinal benefits. 

The food was wonderful, inspired, creative, memorable, and much more. We ended up with nine courses as the first appetizer was ‘extra’.  The first ‘extra’ course wasn’t listed on the menu we received but it was three small bites each.  One was a pureed red pepper that they somehow dried paper-thin and rolled like a cannoli and filled it with an avocado puree. The other two were just as ingenious and just as delicious.  They paired this with a Blanc de Blanc Brut from the restaurant owner’s sister’s vineyard down the road.  All of the wines that they selected to go with each course were wonderful.

As much as I love telling the ‘long version‘ of a story, I don’t want to bore you with every detail of every dish  However, I will list the other eight dishes so that you can get an idea of what it was like. 

• Roasted beetroot, pomegranate, dill and cucumber granita, and buchu
• Jerusalem artichoke veloute, broad beans, leek brussels sprout (soup)
• Sugar beans, mushroom, smoked balsamic, spekboom, pickled shimeji
• Yellow dahl, vegetable cornflakes, confit tomato, sherry vinegar caramel
• Spring vegetables, celeriac tuile, grilled waterblommetjies (salad)
• African grains, carrot, pumpkin seed oil, toasted baobab
• Verjuice granita, avocado, black sesame brittle, apple (dessert)
• Chocolate, pineapple lemon olive oil (dessert)

I don’t expect you to know what buchu, spekboom, or waterblommetjies’ are.  We still don’t know.  But they all tasted wonderful, whatever they are.  Imagine Leon and I trying to understand someone with a deep South African accent pronouncing it to us as they explained the dish.  We must have looked strange to them with our dazed and confused look.  But hopefully they also could see that we were thoroughly enjoying our meal and evening. 

All of what I described above took three delightful, memorable hours.  Only one other dinner in my life can compare (Fowey Hall; Cornwall, England - 2008).  So, our great thanks to Cousin Cate and to the chefs and staff at LQF who gave us a night in South Africa that we will long remember.

Yellow dahl, vegetable cornflakes, confit tomato, sherry vinegar caramel