South Africa 2014: Eating our way through Africa

Happy Birthday Dave!

A later start this morning as we departed Cape Town for a small rural village in the Western Cape wine region. The Tulbagh Basin had been inhabited for thousands of years by Bushmen & Khoi people until their gig was interrupted about 300 years ago when the Dutch moved inland and established a small settlement here. While an earthquake in 1969 caused a lot of damage, lots of old buildings in the Cape Dutch style either survived or were restored. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself in the chronology because I haven't related what we did before we got here late afternoon. Lunch! That's what we did and that's all that we did. Oh no, I'm wrong; we also made a short stop at the prison where Madiba (Nelson Mandela) began his 'Long Walk To Freedom' when he was released from prison in 1990.

Then on to La Petite Ferme, a winery/restaurant for a wine tasting followed by lunch. In a beautiful setting partway up the hills of a beautiful valley, this was another fine dining experience that stretched out over 2 1/2 hrs.

After sampling two whites and two reds we all got down to business.

Once again we were treated to delicious food, every dish exquisitely plated.

This was the lamb which was wrapped in aubergine (French for eggplant). Do any of my readers remember the name of the white stuff? Twice now in three days I have enjoyed a glacage. Are we in France and the rest is just illusion? No, this really is South Africa (36 degrees today) but there are a lot of top rated chefs that go for the French style.

And so following lunch, back on the bus for an hour or so to our present location. After being told it was not safe to walk down the streets we braved it to take in some of the architecture.

Somehow Julie & I scored the honeymoon suite at our hotel (which is one of the reasons this post is going to be rather brief).

With a thatched roof and open beam ceiling it really was lovely.