As I mentioned the other day, Johan and I lived and breathed by Miss Moss' guide to Cape Town, so when we decided to head out to vineland, we once again resorted to following her recommendation. (I feel I should write her a nice thank you note, but then again will such a super star blogger really appreciate hearing from a lowly blogger such as myself? Nah, right?)
Anyway, Miss Moss suggested that one head out to the restaurant The Table at the winery De Meye where one would have, quote unquote (I like saying that instead of adding actual quotation marks), basically the best meal of your life.
That's good enough for me, so off we went, to Stellenbosch, which is just so beautiful you wanna scream. Looks like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. (Which, I guess, is pretty much the same as saying that Stellenbosch looks like New Zealand?)
I snapped this from the window of our car, so I suspect that's why the clouds look a little dramatic.
De Meye is the name of the winery and Johan swears he's seen the logo/bottles before, either in a restaurant or a store, in some country, which is either Kenya, Denmark, Sweden or the US, so I guess that narrows it down.
Everything was beautiful and in bloom, for but some reason this exact picture of the restaurant looks so fall-like. Makes me want to move to France, get myself a small chateau and wear clothes made out of high quality linen every day.
When we arrived, they had set up tables all around the garden, offering that you go choose the table where you wanted to sit. "We'll take this table!", we said and pointed to the one above and they were like "well, when we said choose any table, we meant any of the two-tops". And we were like "Fine, we'll take that beautiful one over there below the tree".
Then we went for a walk on the grounds, and seeing I had put on my best lady dress, I asked Johan to take a picture of me flanked by an avenue of beautiful trees. Here I am practicing my first lady pose and my WHATAREYOUSAYINGYOUSLEPTWITHTHEINTERN?-pose.
Is the divorce rate among bloggers conspicuously high? I sometimes wonder this when I ask Johan to pose for me, say if it's just occurred to me that his shorts match a field of blooming flowers and I think it will make a nice picture for this blog. And I mean, so often I look at family photos on other people's blogs and you can just feel the pain and emasculation the husband feels when he's forced to hold a bouquet of colorful balloons while looking dreamily at his pregnant wife while their kids throw popcorn and confetti into the air. But then after a while, I tend to remember how much mediocre sports my fellow sisters have been forced to watch since the dawn of time, and then I'm like screw it, this is OUR moment!
They also had a lazy, cuddly dog, who came running to our table as soon as they served our duck rillette. (Love how dogs have their life priorities straight. Imagine all these puppies lying in god's lap before being sent down to earth and they're like: "So, I'd like to grow up on a vineyard in South Africa, and there I shall bask in the shade of large trees and have my belly rubbed by strangers before they hand feed me farm-raised poultry, please". And all the ducks are like: "I'd like to grow up on a vineyard in South Africa, where I shall be slaughtered when I reach 12 weeks of age and then be cooked slowly in my own fat before people from Europe spread me on toast, please".
Before lunch, we sat down for a wine tasting, where honestly, I felt we were shamed a little for our lacking knowledge of wine by a lady wearing a neon lycra dress. But I can kind of sympathize with that, because honestly, if you do know a lot about wine, it must feel downright painful to pour your finest grape juice into a guest's glass, ask what said guest thinks about it and said guest goes: "Uhm? It's red...I guess?".
After our wine tasting, we sat down for lunch, and had an appetizer of creamy yet light cauliflower soup, duck rillette with leafy greens and fig marmalade, fresh farm butter and country bread - all sourced locally. (I feel this is kind of like dirty/scintillating talk for foodies, right? ).
"Bread with lettuce! Yum!"
For our main course, we had that beautifully caramelized Tarte Tatin. We didn't finish it, because there was just so much food, and I sometimes lay awake at night thinking about that buttery crust and those sweet carrots, which we just left sitting there on a very pretty piece of butcher's block. Le sigh, as the fancy girls say.
Meals like this resonate with me. Simple, pimple yet so well-prepared and with such good ingredients it makes your stomach sing :)
And then we finished off with a sorbet of something, preserved quince and a baked custard (I think).
Look, so cute right? They put out blankets so you could lay down on the grass after your meal and unbutton the top button of your pants.
There's something very poetic about an abandoned dining table, don't you think? It's like you can still hear the chatter of the people who sat there.
I know I mentioned it before, and I know I mentioned it in the headline, but people, I have to mention it again: All of this deliciousness including wine and coffee came to a total of 600 Rand, which is the equivalent of something like $50. Honestly, I think I'd return to Cape Town just to lunch here again :)