On arrival I was very jittery. Too much to see, taste, drink and enjoy!!! My first tip would be to get yourself a glass of wine and do a tour of the grounds to see what everyone offers and then prepare the spending of your crowns according to that. These crowns are the currency that's used at the festival. One crown will cost you R5 and you can purchase them all over the festival. Look out for the people with the pink shirts.
So we started with a glass of wine and some sneaky shooter tastings and then headed over to Signal restaurant from The Cape Grace. There we indulged in slow roasted beef short rib, grilled rib eye, goat cheese arincini, miso-roasted sweet corn, pickled beetroot and smoked BBQ jus. The goat cheese arincini was delicious and I especially appreciated how well seasoned everything was.
Signal restaurant
One thing of the festival you have to remember is that the portion are small but you pay for excellent seasoning and great flavour combinations. The festival really is a treat to your palate and will maybe expose you to food that you wont try everyday.
Then we quickly popped into the Lindt shop. There you can enjoy delicious Lindt hot chocolate (4 crowns), buy Lindt slabs(5 crowns), truffles or Lindt balls (2 for 1 crown)! The Lindt hot chocolate was so rich and chocolaty that a sugar-rush is guaranteed.
Lindt ball heaven
Truffles in the making
One dish I decided that I had try before we went to the festival was the parmesan and chorizo risotto with rocket, sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes(7 crowns) from 96 Winery. This was my favourite dish of the evening and the biggest portion of the night. The creaminess of the risotto and the dash of salt from the chorizo was heaven!
As you walk through the festival you can explore numerous traders that are also there to sell some products such as pesto's, salad dressings and olive oil. Some of the wine tastings are free and at other you will pay 1 crown. From all the wine stall vendors you can buy glasses or bottles of wine. All the individual wine vendors differ in price.
The boys then visited the free Jack Daniel's whiskey tasting area. I tried to enjoy the whiskey but unfortunately is does not sit right with me so we had some fun with Mr Jack Daniel's himself :)
The Pot Luck Club was one of the pop up restaurants of the festival. As there are 6 sessions during this weekend there will be a different restaurant at each session at the pop up stall. Lucky for us we chose the night The Pot Luck Club was there as this is one of restaurant that is on the top of my 'To do list' that I still want to visit.
We tasted the Pork belly with XO and red cabbage slaw (7 crowns) and the fried chicken (4 crowns). I enjoyed the Asian flavours alot and the pork belly was so tender I could eat it with a spoon.
Pork belly
Pork belly and fried chicken
Our taste buds now were on a roll and we strolled to the Asara bistro box. There you get a glass of wine with a burger for 5 crowns or a macaroon for 4 crowns. We enjoyed the mushroom and truffle burger.
The burger and macaroons are each paired with an Asara wine
Some live music :)
Asara bistro box
Mushroom and truffle burger
After the vast amount of savoury we consumed it was time to treat the sweet taste buds and to our delight my favourite Queen of tarts was there. We enjoyed vanilla cupcakes(3crowns) and the best vanilla cakepops (1crown).
The highlight of the evening however was the wine pairing and canapés making at the Pick and Pay tent. When you get to the festival be sure to go and book yourselves a spot for 3 crowns. You are then treated to 3 glasses of wine and the making of your own canapés under the guidance of a chef. We made a pesto tomato puff pastry tart, seared poppy seed beef skewer and ginger and strawberry cheesecake. If was so much fun to be able to make everything yourself !
Still finishing our Queen of tarts cupcakes and getting ready for the canapés experience
Excited :)
The Italian making sure everything is flavoured to perfection
The cheesecake, beef skewer and pesto and tomato tart
Proud chef :)
There are still two session today and one session tomorrow. You can find all the info here. Your weekend wont be complete without a visit! Below is the festival menu to convince you!
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