Heaven served at Africa’s best
CONFIT duck with cauliflower, paprika hummus and spinach oil and natural jus at Creation, the best vineyard in Africa. We're sitting in Africa's best vineyard high in the Hemel and Aarde Valley. It's an award Creation is rightly proud of, covering everything from the food, to the wine and the hospitality, even how the vineyards are managed.
It's a beautiful setting on a warm autumn afternoon, with cloud hanging over the mountains that hug the valley. The greeting is warm at the wine tasting table set up in a garden scented with fynbos.
Creation's warming celeriac and watercress soup topped with saffron oil and served with gluten-free bread. We're shown to a table overlooking the vineyards, perhaps never their prettiest in May when the leaves have fallen and pruning is to come. But the olive trees make up for it ‒ the estate produces its own olive oil ‒ and we're welcomed with a taster of a good dry rosé. It came with a little seaweed crisp, which was a surprise.
My friend from Hermanus, the Orange Lady, says it's one of her favourite spots. We quickly settle down to their newly released winter menu. Here, food can be done as part of a tasting menu with the estate's wines, or à la carte. We share a warming celeriac and watercress soup topped with saffron oil and gluten-free bread.
Trout with geranium, daikon and a millet risotto at Creation's.
But it is the trout that has us engaged. Sourced from a farm in Baardskaadersbos, it's lightly cured and served on a bed of millet risotto, with daikon and geranium leaves. We pick up every last morsel.
We also enjoyed the confit duck with roast cauliflower, paprika hummus and spinach oil with a natural jus. One of the better meals I'd had this year. We finished off with a dense chocolate brownie topped with poached fig, rose geranium syrup and pink peppercorn ice cream. Now that was inspired.
Creation's inspired dense chocolate brownie topped with poached fig, rose geranium syrup and pink peppercorn ice cream.
The trip to Hermanus was after a week in Cape Town for the bridge nationals. It was a chance to taste what the city had to offer.
I wasn't travelling with foodies, so there were no eye-wateringly expensive fine-dining experiences, but we ate well. One of the finds was a husband-and-wife-run restaurant in Gardens that specialises in fresh fish.
Miller's Thumb was a delight. I'd spotted it on trip advisor, which isn't always a good recommendation. It often throws up establishments that do average slightly better than most. But this was a delight. A group of 20 of us descended one evening.
The decor is simple — an old house painted in vibrant colours —but the hospitality was warm and the fresh kob, grilled and basted with lemon butter, a treat. I also enjoyed the poached pear with blue cheese ice cream for dessert.
And while everything in Cape Town is more expensive than Durban, this wasn't scarily so.
We also popped into the original Hussar Grill in Rondebosch. While this chain offers one of the better steakhouse brands doing the rounds, the mothership, so to speak,felt like a homely neighbourhood restaurant. The more than 50 years of “patina” ‒ if that's the right word ‒ gives it an authenticity many of the swanky modern outlets lack. The complementary chocolate martinis were new to my bridge gang. They quickly ordered another one. — IOL Food.