Where are all the drunks?
“I feel like I am at a music festival. A music festival with great food. And clean people.”
There have been a lot of people saying how expensive Taste of Cape Town (T0CT) was and to an extent I agree. Early-bird tickets cost R50 and those who bought later, R80. Then a booklet of crowns, ToCT currency, cost R120 for 24 and the tasting plates cost between 3 and 8 crowns each. So yes, when all combined, that is expensive but you have to remember where the event is and what it is that they’re doing.
ToCT is central, you aren’t schlepping out to a farm out in the Bosveld. It’s not about tasting an olive or some dip on a square of bread. It’s about tasting something phenomenal off the menu of Cape Town’s greatest restaurants. Granted, I had a Press Pass that allowed me to try 5 tasters for free, but I didn’t know I was getting it. I went to ToCT, with cash dollah in hand, prepared to spend it and prepared to be impressed.
And impressed I was.
Taster 1. Savour at 15 on Orange. (5 crowns)
Asian salmon sashimi with avocado wasabi, crisp ginger salad and a warm sesame and olive oil dressing
Sashimi. Mmmm. One of my favourite things. For 5 crowns, or R25, four very generous pieces of salmon was a big portion because most sushi restaurants charge more than R25 for 3 pieces of fish alone. The difference in temperatures made the dish very interesting: the salmon, cool; the avo wasabi, chilled; the salad, room temperature and the dressing, warm. A delicious and flavourful starter to get the night going.
Taster 2. Planet Bar. (3 crowns)
Duck tortellini in a fresh tomato and basil sauce with rocket and Parmesan
Although very pretty, this was probably my least favourite of all the tasters. The sauce was really delicious but the tortellini was too thick and therefore tough, which completely overpowered the duck, which I couldn’t really taste.
Taster 3. Pot Luck Club. (can’t remember, oops)
Beef tartare with pesto, rocket, avocado and aioli and wafer-thin toast
I will admit that when I saw Luke Dale Roberts of The Test Kitchen and Pot Luck Club, I was ever so slightly (read: very) star-struck. His food is just too good. The steak tartare was magnificent. So was the pesto. So was the aioli. So were the toasts. It was all just – great. The tartare was well seasoned without losing the flavour of the meat and the sides allowed you to add to it as you wished. I wanted more.
Taster 4. Fyndraai.
Calamari and Prawn Paella with pickled Spekboom. (7 crowns)
I hadn’t tasted Spekboom before and it was pretty much the decider. The sauce was quite sweet but spicy at the same time. The calamari was perfectly cooked and the prawns had flavour all the way through, not just on the shells. It was a little bit on the cold side, which was disappointing. The Spekboom, a plant indigenous to South Africa, was tart, sharp and complimented the sweetness well.
Taster 5. Azure. (8 crowns)
Beef fillet with lentil ragout, almond cream and Parmesan crumbs.
I didn’t think I was going to find anything that I enjoyed as much as the steak tartare. The beef fillet was rare and peppery, the ragout (pretty much a lentil stew, cooked over a long period of time) held its own and hadn’t turned to mush, the almond cream added a sweet lightness and the crumbs, a salty crunch. I was totally surprized by it and it was my favourite dish by far.
I had a great time at ToCT and really enjoyed everything. The food, the atmosphere, the people, the music and the entertainment, it was so well organised. To be honest, it was quite nice to go to a food festival where the entire place wasn’t filled with drunk teenagers darting from stand to stand, trying to put away as much wine as possible. If I have to pay for that luxury, I will.
PS: Will discuss some of the products I bought at a later stage, once I have used them!