Festival Time

Last week was a busy week here in Joburg with the SA Brandy festival as well as the Oyster, Wine & Food festival over the weekend.

SA Brandy festival

I’ve never attended a brandy festival before so it was a interesting experience for me to really taste, compare & learn about the different South African brandies.




My top 5 list looks something like this:
Van Rhyn’s 20 year
KWV 20 year
Laborie Alambic
Nederburg Potstill Solera
KWV 15 year








The Van Rhyn’s 20 year brandy was the star of the show by miles!
The others are not necessarily in any order and I wouldn’t mind a bottle of each in my liquor cabinet! The price range of the above brandies start at about R150 for the Nederburg Potstill Solera up to R400 for the KWV 20 year with the Van Rhyn’s 20 year setting you back about R1200.



The brandy ambassadors will also make sure that you take note of the difference in price between brandies and whiskies. But they have a point – for R150 you’ll buy an average bottle of whisky but you can buy a really great bottle of brandy.


Van Rhyn’s had an entertaining cooper showing off his barrel-making skills.



Oyster, Wine & Food festival

This was my second time at the oyster & wine festival and I was sceptical this time round. I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to the picture I have in my head of last year’s festival because last year was a jol!

I was glad to be proven wrong. The atmosphere was exactly the same. It is like one huge picnic!
There are a number of benches and tables provided but I think a lot of people learnt their lesson last year and brought their own camping chairs and blankets this time.





Lots of wines to taste and buy – most of them at a better price than in-store.
The food on offer consisted mostly of olives, breads & pastries, cheeses and cold meats. Oh, and of course the oysters!





So first you have to decide which of the handful of wines you just tasted has to come back to the table with you, then you go and source some lovely fresh bread, cheese and meats and then the picnic continues until one of the above needs to be replaced… then it’s back to the tasting tables.




If I may step on my soapbox for just one paragraph…then I would like to ask the organisers to seriously reconsider the ticket system. You had to buy everything with tickets and the queues to buy tickets was ridiculously long and unnecessarily frustrating.


So if you guys are scanning the web to gather feedback of the event I hope you come across my 2 cents’ worth.

Smoked Pork Neck Burger & Fries

Just a quick one! But it was even quicker to make!

Just make sure that you cook the steaks in enough sauce, they can dry out pretty quickly.






- Posted from my iPad

French Friday

This past Friday we discovered a french gem in the middle of northern Joburg.
Hidden in the Codfather complex in Morningside you'll find this little unpretentious full-on french deli called PetitCochon.




Apparently they've been producing charcuterie (meat) products for a while but only recently opened the deli here which has now become one of my favourite friday-after-work spots! The bistro is only open for apero on Fridays and on other evening for special occasions only. The deli is open every day as far as I know.




Every Friday has an apero theme and this week it was raclette on the menu. We decided to try their charcuterie & cheese platters instead. When I go to a seafood restaurant I don't want to try their steak and by the same token when I go to a charcuterie deli I don't want to try their potatoes and cheese, I want to taste their meats!







Apart from the friendly service (the waiters anyway not the accountant behind the till...), the interesting food and the good company; what realy made the evening was the awesome atmosphere! Upbeat French music playing, shooters on the house, strangers dancing with each other and laughs and cheers all round.

















Their wine list is short and sweet with one or two french wines and good SA wines like Mulderbosch and Hartenberg.


Unfortunately sorting out the bill at the end of the evening was not that straightforward and we were overcharged with almost R500! In their defence they are not a daily restaurant and we were a table of 9 people with 4 bills so I guess it could be forgiven.

We all loved it so much that my close friends Renier & Lia, who got engaged on Saturday, decided to throw an engagement party at PetitCochon this Friday. Congratulations you 2!

For more details have a look at their facebook page or check out their website. www.petitcochon.co.za



Bon Appetit!