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TASTE OF CAPE TOWN 2013

~TASTE OF CAPE TOWN A CARNIVAL OF POP-UPS, BREWS, CULINARY HEIRLOOMS AND REBEL CHEFS~

I am super excited about attending the Taste of Cape Town next month so I thought I would let you know what to expect from this gastronomic event.

The Pick n Pay Taste of Cape Town is held in association with Orbit Sugarfree Chewing Gum and is heralded as the region’s most celebrated carnival of the senses will run from 11 to 14 April 2013, at the Green Point Cricket Club.

What Can You Expect at the Event?

XO, sea cucumber, sea truffle, kimchi, miso and tom yum butter. Snotvis, tataki and a lucky star pie: the exotic and the indigenous, the trendy and the traditional will all be popping up at Pick n Pay Taste of Cape Town, along with rock star chefs and their dedicated followers, micro brewers and chocolatiers.

This year festival goers will also have a modern guide, the new Taste app for smart phones, so they can traipse between flavour hot spots dotted around the foodie playground without missing a beat.

“Part of the collection of Taste Festivals taking place in 18 world cities, the Cape leg of the international celebrations will once again enthral food lovers, flavour hunters and the city’s social set with its unique format of part-party, part trend-spotting, part gourmet-shopping and full-on feasting,” says Justine Drake, festival-organiser.

Drake also foresees that the pop-up restaurant concept added to the festival last year will have foodies in awe. “It brings with it a very adventurous way to enjoy the diversity of tastes Cape Town is known for.” Taste-hunters can try dishes as diverse as champagne poached oysters and seafood bredies, a dish named ‘Message in a Bottle’ and miso glazed short rib with fresh kimchi. The pop-up dining experience brings rebel with a food cause Bruce Robertson of The Boathouse, Luke Dale-Roberts of The Test Kitchen/The Pot Luck Club, La Colombe with Scot Kirton and Tanja Kruger of Makaron Restaurant at Majeka house.

In addition to the pop-ups, the eleven restaurants chosen to represent the spectrum of tastes of the Mother City dish up their signature creations in started sized bites. The Restaurants include: Henrico Grobbelaar of The Twelve Apostle’s Azure Restaurant, Natasha Wray of 96 Winery Road. De Grendel Restaurant debuts at the festival with Ian Bergh, Shaun Schoeman of Fyndraai Restaurant on Solms-Delta, Signal Restaurant at Cape Grace with Malika Van Reenen, Sanel Esterhuyse from Savour at 15 on Orange, Jewel of India’s Dayanand Shankar Poojary , Beefcakes Burger Bar, represented by Wonderful Ndhlovu, Il Leone Mastrantonio and Daniel Toledo Dash Restaurant and Bar at the Queen Victoria Hotel with Craig Paterson and Stefan Marais of The Brasserie.

A brand new initiative at the festival – Taste Craft Beer Project – will showcase more than 18 of the country’s best quality craft beer on tap. This collection of micro-breweries will be on hand to quench the thirst for craft beer, with each brew paired with dishes featured at the festival.

“With so much to enjoy, guests simply can’t let go, returning several times over the four days to savour it all,” says Drake.

My Top Dream Destinations

I have always been a very enthusiastic traveller but it does become more difficult to jet off to places unknown once you have children to consider. This fact may deter me slightly when it comes to planning travel but I still have quite a few destinations, which I would like to visit and I have compiled a list of my top dream destinations! A girl can dream can’t she!

Italy, especially Tuscany, is a dream destination for both me and the hubby! We have decided that this one will probably be sans children as we would love to do a culinary trip to Italy. A gastronomic experience, holidaying in a villa in Tuscany surrounded by vines, learning to cook authentic Italian food. A while back I shared about Tasting Places, they offer an “informal yet intensive exploration of inspirational cooking”, which sounds like exactly what we would enjoy. Combined with the beauty of the country setting, the promise of wine tasting and a demo of cheese making – what more could you ask for. Eating, drinking and soaking up the splendor of the countryside! This is a dream I am hoping to make a reality later this year!!!

Thailand, was actually a consideration for our honeymoon but way back then we had to watch the pennies and opted for the Maldives instead, which was a truly amazing place! So Thailand is definitely still a place I would like to visit, the scenery is beautiful and Thai Cuisine is one of my favourites. I could think of nothing better than lazing on a beach sipping on a cocktail, with the warm ocean water lapping at my feet!

The next place on my list may seem a bit odd to some but I think Croatia looks like an amazing destination to visit and I have heard so many great things about this beautiful country, from people who have travelled there. With nearly 2,000 miles of coastline and 50 inhabited islands, Croatia definitely has plenty to offer, if like me you are a lover of sea and sunshine.We would definitely travel in summer, the beaches look stunning and I love the thought of mixing a unique cultural experience with a beach holiday!

Last but certainly not least is Austria, partly because I really would love to see snow before I die and yes the wild-one in me would love to learn to ski! I have spoken to quite a few of my friends, who live abroad and the consensus is that the ski resorts in Austria are some of the best! I would need to find one that caters for beginners – something of great importance for a novice like me! This will definitely be a trip that would include the girls, an experience that I am sure they would love!

To see more images from my wish-list see my Travel Wishlist Board on Pinterest.

Image Source: Pinterest

Be Inspired, FAR Photography, Featured Posts, Interviews, Life

Real Women – Real Life: Introducing Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones is a 20 something local Capetonian who shares her love of “things” in her blog aptly named things – it’s me thing(s). Today she shares a bit more about herself and what motivates and inspires her.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a girl in her 20’s who (according to friends and family) sees the world a little differently to most people. I was born in Bloemfontein, in the Freestate and moved to Cape Town with my family when I was about 8 years old. My immediate family is really small, it consists of one younger brother, mom and dad, gran, Ouma and grandpa, two uncles and an aunt. I love them all very much and have a special relationship with each of them.

When I left school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life or what I wanted to be when I grew up but after a lot of thinking and enrolling everywhere, studying a part-time photography course and a year of basic graphic designing, I went on to complete my BA in Visual Communications at the AAA School of Advertising in Cape Town. I was a student for 5 years before I venturing into the “real world”. Up until now I have worked for a company that develops educational software and have been blessed with the experience of being thrown into the deep end and being able to learn so much. Apart from my fulltime job, I still enjoy doing photography part-time and working on my blog. In April I will be on my way to Thailand to teach English and see a little bit more of this big world!

What defines you?

One of my passions is trying to help out where I can. If I could be that one little person that makes a small change in the world I think my goal would be settled. In my head I don’t only have one dream… there are so many! I want to travel the world (even though I am petrified of flying), be successful and live an awesome life and growing old to tell my stories.

What are your strengths & weaknesses?

A weakness would definitely be answering this question (hehe). My weaknesses are probably trying understanding why people have to suffer the way they do (whether it is financially or emotionally), asking “why” way too much, over thinking and probably wanting to know too much about everything.

My strengths are being able to laugh (a lot), think creatively, be open-minded, accept challenges and be unique.

What motivates you, what or who is your major source of inspiration?

I don’t just have one specific person or thing that motivates me, I take a lot of my inspiration from my family and friends, they are probably my biggest source of inspiration. My other motivation is working towards making my dreams come true.

What do you treasure most in life?

Awesome memories, friends and family. I don’t think I can elaborate more on that 🙂

Describe your blog and what you blog about:

I blog about things. Most of the time it’s anything I feel I want to share with the rest of the world.

These things include: things I find (on-and offline), secret things and places I discover, people and their talents and the me things that makes me who I am today. I also write and try to illustrate happenings in my life (all true). Some of the stories I blog, I wrote from when I was 13 years old.

What makes you happy?

Just like the song from Spongebob Squarepants goes:

What is fun?

“F” is for friends who do things together
“U” is for you and me
“N” is for n-ytime and n-yplace at all!

Most of what I do for fun always involves the people I love. My fun involves anything from meeting up for a few drinks with friends, going to the beach, horse riding on the beach with my mom, braaing with my dad, chatting to my brother and being a tourist in my own country. I love Photography, being creative (trying to draw or sew clothes), surfing (although I must be honest I haven’t been in a while), cooking and my blog.

What Is Your Ideal Job?

Definitely where I don’t have to sit at a desk all day. If I could run my own company it would have everything from advertising to photography, travelling to far away destinations and blogging about it, helping people, fashion styling and organising events… that would be my ideal job.

How do you personally define success?

Success to me is when you have found your happy place in this big world. It does not have to have anything to do with money, driving a fancy car, knowing the fancy people or living in your fancy-gansta-looking mansion. To me it means, being happy with your job, life, love and most importantly with yourself. Once you’ve got those covered, I believe you are successful already!

What has been your greatest challenge thus far in your life?

This is a tricky one to answer because I feel that everyday so far there are challenges that can either make or break you in the person you are. I believe that as each day goes by, all the things that happen, happy for a reason and that the way you come out of it at the end of the day is what will mould you to the person you are.

I suppose my biggest challenge at the moment is leaving for Bangkok and then going over to Thailand. Doing this on your own is quite daunting but also very exciting.

If you had to live your life over again, what one thing would you change?

I think I would have taken more chances in life that I was scared of doing. Work wise and even personal events. I think if I could change something, it would have been to take a leap of faith, when you didn’t know what else there was to do.

All I can say is that I wish I had as much insight as you in my 20’s! Thanks Claudia that was truly inspiring and I wish you all the success, enjoy your travels and have fun – after all we only have one life, so LIVE IT to the fullest!

Images: Claudia Jones

Travel, Travel Wishlist

What is at The Top of Your Travel Wishlist?

Seen as we have a rather big wedding anniversary coming up at the end of this year, 15 years to be exact and two 40^th Birthdays looming in the not too distant future – I feel that a special, romantic, holiday is definitely on the cards. Yes that means travel sans children!

My Travel Wishlist

As both my hubby and I really enjoy cooking, eating and wine tasting, the idea of a “foodie” holiday is rather appealing. During our search, for the perfect place, we came across a website that offers just this sort of thing. The site is called “Tasting Places”, they offer “food holidays”: mainly to areas in Italy but also to Spain, France and Thailand. They also offer “bespoke” holidays, which they will tailor to your needs.

Alpujarras

The specific tasting experience that caught our eye is in Mairena, Southern Spain: “Cooking with Sam Clark”. This holiday would afford us the opportunity of a unique holiday destination, as we have never been to Spain before, as well as rather different culinary experience. Your journey will take you to Mairena, a small local village set high up, in the remote location of the Alpujarras, the mountainous region which stretches south from the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Typical Local Village

The chef presenting this “Spanish Experience” is “Sam Clark”; he runs an award-winning restaurant in London, along with his wife Samantha. The restaurant is called “Moro” and is well known for its delicious, authentically Spanish food. “The Clarks”, a British couple, as newlyweds, spent time travelling through Spain and Morocco in a camper van. On this adventure they learnt as much as they could about the cuisine and tastes, in these areas. They then went on to open their highly acclaimed restaurant, Moro.

So what can we expect from this gastronomic experience? The website, “Tasting Places”, promises an “informal yet intensive exploration of inspirational cooking”, which sounds like exactly what we would enjoy. Combined with the beauty of the country setting, the promise of wine tasting and a demo of cheese making – what more could you ask for.

Some of the dishes you will learn how to prepare and taste are: CAZÓN EN ADOBO -marinated fried fish, REMOJÓN -orange & cod salad, TORTILLADE PATATAS -potato cake and ROSCOS -round aniseed fritters – it all sounds mouth-watering! Sam’s recipes are said to reflect his love of Spanish food, especially Alpujarran food but he is also known to draw on influences from North Africa. It sounds like an altogether inspiring and enlightening experience.

Well this is definitely at the top of my travel wishlist! Hopefully we will make it there soon and I can bring back tales and photographs of my travels.

For costs and more details on this and their other “foodie holidays”, have a look at the website: “Tasting Places.”