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MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods & Ingredients
Eat In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner
www.mainingredient.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 229 1172
Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us
A chase of gulls in the V&A Waterfront
In this week’s MENU:
• On Line Shop
• This week’s Product menu
• Our market activities - Neighbourgoods, Long Beach
• The Taste of Cape Town Competition
• The fun of Franschhoek on a tram
• First Harvest in Newlands in 150 years at the Vineyard Hotel
• Enrica Rocca Cooking School class with Emma Vigneri
• Recipe: Courgette and blue cheese soup
• Wine and Food Events
• Wine courses & cooking classes
To take a look at our Main Ingredient blogs, follow the link:
http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/ because to tell our whole story here would
take too much space and you can also read earlier blogs. Click on underlined and Bold
words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or
more information. Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu

2. Main Ingredient's On Line Shop is performing very well. We are continuing to update
it with new products and with photographs of products. Please do not pay until we
have confirmed availability and invoiced you. When you make an eft payment, make
sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order and we
will send you the final invoice once we’ve made sure stock is available. Click here to
see the shop.
This week’s Product menu Supplies of 500ml cans of walnut oil are running low
from our supplier, so we may have a shortage soon. We still have a few cans and will try
to secure an alternative supply. Argan oil is still freely available and so is hazelnut oil.
Good Italian truffle oils are always on our shelf. Exotic spices are regularly asked for and
Ottolenghi’s popularity has increased demand for sumac, za’atar, baharat and ras el
hanout. We are investigating various new French and Italian products and look forward
to giving you details quite soon.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things
we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet
foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious
ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our
website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities Tomorrow, Friday, February 23rd, we will be back at the
market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek. Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit
Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this
Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how
they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map
which shows where we park.
The Taste of Cape Town Competition This excellent food show will take place
on the 11th to 14th of April at Green Point and we have ten pairs of general entry
tickets for the first day to give away. All you have to do is answer this simple question:
How many years, including this one, has this show been held in Cape Town? The first 10
correct answers by email get the tickets. Please send us your name and contact details
with the answer. If you don’t win tickets, you can take advantage of the Early Bird
special by saving R30 on a standard ticket if bought from 19th February to 3rd March. All
tickets can be bought online from www.itickets.co.za or by calling ITickets on
0861000291. Children under 12 enter for free. For updates on the festival line-up, news
on chefs and their dishes, stay in touch on Facebook
www.facebook.com/tasteofcapetown or Twitter: @tasteofCT or visit
www.tasteofcapetown.com
The fun of Franschhoek on a tram We were invited by Franschhoek Tourism to
come and experience their newest tourist draw, the Franschhoek Wine Tram. Passengers
can hop on and off at the 7 stops through the vineyards and centre of Franschhoek on
the open-sided tram and tram bus visiting farms and restaurants on the way. We
collected our tickets at the Ticket office around the corner from the Tourist office and,
as we had just missed a tram bus, headed by car to Haute Cabrière to be in time for
their cellar tour. Please note: The cost of this tour is not included in the price of the
tram ticket and costs R50 a person - we only found out about this when we arrived. Also
their tour is very popular, so you should book them before you come. Click here. After
an excellent tour, we left our car there, boarded the tram bus and were off to the next
stop at Dieu Donné, a first visit for us. The open sided bus rackets along the roads of
Franschhoek at a rapid pace and is quite noisy, so you can’t hear much of what is being
said, but is great fun.
Dieu Donné is quite a way up the hill and has lovely views over the valley. You get a
free tasting of four of their wines so you have to choose carefully - they have a long list.
If you want to taste more, you have to pay R15 for 4 wines. Their Merlot is excellent and
we really liked their Rosé. We had a look at their restaurant ROCA and decided we
definitely have to come back and try the food.

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Then it was off to Chamonix, where we had booked for lunch. In good weather you are
seated outside under umbrellas, on a lovely deck over a stream, and it is cool and leafy.
This is not a place for a simple lunch and we were a little surprised at the prices. John
had a duck confit on lentils and Lynne calf’s liver on mash. There was nothing else on
the plate. We did not realise that vegetables etc., all come as extras, which does make
lunch quite expensive, so we did not order them. We had a glass of wine (the
Semillon/sauvignon blend) each and a coffee and our bill with service was R440.
Chamonix charges for wine tastings.
Then it was back onto the bus and off to the stop where you transfer to the tram. At this
stage, you could stop and have lunch in town. The tram is lovely and smooth on the
railway tracks and we could see harvesting going on as we travelled through the
vineyards to the end stop at Rickety Bridge. We didn’t get off here (many people did) as
we had recently been there for lunch and a tasting, but you do get a complimentary
wine tasting there and the restaurant is tapas style so we do thoroughly recommend it as
a lunch stop. On the way back you get the option to stop at Grande Provence, where
they offer a tasting of their entry level wine Angel’s Tears. Sadly, they do not lay on any
transport from the tram to the winery and we were told that we had to walk there and
it would take 10 to 15 minutes each way. Not much of an incentive and it sends a very
clear message. As the afternoon was very warm (over 30ºC), not one person got off the
tram.
So we rode the tram back into the centre of Franschhoek, climbed back on the bus and
returned to Cabrière to collect our car. It is a lovely trip with superb helpful and friendly
staff, but we do wonder what it will be like in the cooler months of the year with the
open windows. The tram runs between 10h00 and 15h20. Click here for details. No map
of the route is provided at the tourist office, so be sure to download one from the
website so you can see where you are going. Click here to see our photos
First Harvest in Newlands in 150 years at the Vineyard Hotel! We were
delighted and proud when the Vineyard Hotel gave us one of their very special
grapevines in their small Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon vineyard on the bank of the
Liesbeek River. These grapes were replanted five years ago and, while there were
grapes last year, the bad weather and mould meant no harvest then. After the
wonderfully wet winter we had and the nice long ripening season, they are celebrating a
very good harvest this year of approximately 80 kilos of healthy grapes from the 100
young vines. Click here to see the video on U-tube and click here to see our
photographs of the early morning picking
Enrica Rocca Cooking School class with Emma Vigneri We were invited to
take part in a class with Emma this Tuesday at her house in Constantia and had a
marvellous time. We helped and watched her cook four classic Italian dishes and
enjoyed ourselves immensely. Emma believes, as we do, that you should use nothing but
the best ingredients and cook them in the traditional way, although with all the
different regions in Italy, there are quite a few variations. We had a very deep group
discussion of what people think should go into Minestrone! There were only two other
people taking part in the class and it was a very friendly and happy evening, culminating
in a wonderful meal of all the food that had been prepared. Click here to see more
detail on our blog of what was cooked. If you are interested in these classes, contact
Emma on 082 378 8855. Click here for the web page of the cookery school.
Prices on the web page are in Euros, so in Rand they are: 1 month course (every Monday
for 4 lessons) R1800 per person. Half day course (Tuesday evening or Friday lunch) R600
per person. Full day (only Sundays) R1850 per person. She does reduce the price if a
couple books together.
She is also prepared to use her house and cookery for private evenings or for functions.
And she does cater in other people’s houses, but she believes that it is so convenient to
have a nice place (that is not a restaurant) were you can relax, enjoy real home cooking
and don’t have the stress of washing the dishes afterwards. She says she really loves to
entertain and feed people.

4. This week’s recipe When we left, Emma insisted we help ourselves to some of the
glut of vegetables from her garden, so Lynne took a large oversized courgette marrow
that weighed about a kilo. This week’s recipe is the result and we served it last night at
a dinner party. It was full of flavour, with a smooth thick consistency, without the
addition of any cream or flour. If the outside skin is soft you do not need to peel the
courgettes. They will add a lovely green colour to the soup.
Courgette and blue cheese soup
2 onions, thinly sliced – butter – olive oil – salt – 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped – 1 kg
of courgette, cubed - 750ml vegetable or chicken stock - 1t fresh thyme leaves – a
handful of basil & 1 T parsley, roughly chopped – a grating of nutmeg – 2 T verjuice – 25g
grated parmesan – salt and pepper to taste – 1 packet of blue cheese cut in to tiny cubes
Fry the onions in a little oil and butter in a large soup pot, until they are just beginning
to caramelise. In a separate frying pan, fry the courgette cubes till they begin browning
on all sides. Add them to the pot with the onions. Pour in the stock and add the herbs,
nutmeg, verjuice and parmesan. Cook for about 10 minutes then blend to a thick soup.
Adjust the seasoning. Serve with the blue cheese and let everyone add some to their
soup. Or you can serve this with some basil pesto and add a dollop to each bowl. We
served it with a 2009 Spier Private Collection Chenin Blanc, which was an excellent
match.
Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your
leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in
our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which
we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a
few other cultural events), visit our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date
order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right
through the year.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who
want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run
wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see
details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their
classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs
evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can
recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme
here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking
tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Vigneri teaches Enrica Rocca
classes in classic Italian cooking at her home in Constantia. See more here. Brett Nussey
has moved his Stir Crazy Cooking School into Dish Food & Social’s premises in Main Road,
Observatory. See it here.
21st February 2013
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if
you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our
product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups
(up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have

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fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in
English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and
are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these
newsletters and our blogs are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our
restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be
paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel
bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is
made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we
apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is
scanned continually for viruses.
This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed
to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to
you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be
added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to
be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

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fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in
English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and
are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these
newsletters and our blogs are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our
restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be
paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel
bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is
made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we
apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is
scanned continually for viruses.
This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed
to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to
you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be
added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to
be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.