Food & Drink. Travel. Est. 2005
Get boozed-up here. Try a relaxing tea or a buzzing coffee
It’s difficult to escape Swartland. Though not the prettiest of the Cape’s wine regions, the wines are so bloody good. I’m talking about those made with minimal intervention. City on a Hill The City on a Hill 2016 is one that knocked me off my perch. Bold, textured, savoury, spicy and with none too much acid, it’s also comparatively low alcohol at 12.5%. The viognier brings that dirty edginess of tropical fruits that balances out the acid of the chenin […]
The Kloof Street old vine chenin blanc from Mullineux Family Wines is terrific value costing about R90.
The attraction of the Sijnn saignee is as a chilled summer quaffer with a light pinot noir like weight.
Hogan’s Chenin Blanc is a wine with rich savoury and pear flavours. It is a stunning chenin blanc from Swartland in South Africa.
The Avondale Armilla blancs de blancs is a terrific value sparkling chardonnay from Paarl made using the Méthode Cap Classique technique. It’s a better alternative to higher priced mass market Champagnes.
One month in Lisbon. That’s some 90 meals. Quite a few I prepared at home. What is remarkable is how cheap fruit, vegetables, meat and fish are in Lisbon compared with Australia. Peppers and onions are sweet and cost pennies. Tuna and Swordfish are about €12-€13 a kilo. It’s a shock to the system. With cheaper ingredients, property and labour costs it is understandable that Portugal has plenty of quite cheap eats. I say quite cheap as Lisbon isn’t as […]
There’s a lot to love about drinking in Lisbon. First are the rooftop bars and goldfish bowl gin & tonics infused with spices (usually cinnamon) and some fruit and citrus. The wines of the Duoro are amazing. The much maligned green wine – vinho verdhi – which isn’t actually green but sharp and refreshing is perfect for a summer’s evening. Everyone loves port but do you really want to drink a rich aged deep red port mid-summer? I became addicted […]
It’s like I’m a Martian in a strange land where, if I want a coffee, I drive 6.4km with the help of a GPS though the sprawl of Johannesburg, the world’s largest urban forest. Roads twist, turn, rise and drop through the rocky outcrops and ravines that make the landscape of this town. While there are a few urban villages in the suburbs of one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the world, most people rely of shopping […]
You’ve probably noticed that everything hip that is happening is in Fitzroy, Collingwood or the CBD. And perhaps Northcote or Yarraville. People are also doing things in St Kilda and somebody has to tell the story. St Hotel Imagine what the illegitimate love child of the Royal Saxon and The Prahran Hotel would look like. It would probably be very much like the St Hotel, the reimagined Saint nightclub in St Kilda, which is almost finished and may open very […]