May 222012
 

After drinking copious amounts of wine and petting cheetahs (preferably not in that order) this is your view as you leave Spier Winery. This is where we started our wine tour and from here we went for what may have been the best meal we had in South Africa. It’s called bobotie and it’s delicious. Our guide described it to us in much the way that I’m going to describe it to you and all we could think was that it sounded odd. We decided to go ahead with our guide’s recommendation just the same and were certainly please.

Bobotie is a minced beef dish. The beef is mixed up with raisins and spiced up. It has a bit of a curry flavour. It’s cooked in a small casserole and topped off with a really thin layer of egg. They served it with mango chutney and sliced banana. Like I said, this combination of ingredients sounds odd but it really is delicious.

Long straight road of brown soil between lavender and bushes leading to Spier Winery in Capetown, South Africa

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Dec 292011
 

This is the driveway to the Waterford Estate in Stellenbosch. After two days of adrenaline, cage diving with great whites and going on a combat flight in a Huey Helicopter, it seemed a good idea to have a more relaxing day. Wine was the perfect solution. That being said we still decided that we had to stop off at Cheetah Outreach to become acquainted with a few big cats on the way to our first vineyard. We didn’t want the day to feel too safe. After enjoying a wine and chocolate pairing (mandated by Shannon’s exuberant cheer while hearing the options), which involved 6 or 7 wines and three chocolates, everyone was suitably mellow.

Not mellow enough, however, to prevent them heckling from the car as I set up for this photo. The reason for this one and only display of tensions at my photo taking was quite understandable. I spent so long setting up, and adjusting the positioning of my camera that we were too late for the game sampling lunch we had planned. Fortunately this disappointment was replaced by one of the great experiences of our trip – bobotie. It’s a South African dish made with minced beef, raisins and spices topped with an egg film. It looks like a cottage pie but that’s as far as the similarities go. It’s also served with mango chutney and bananas. I have no idea how anyone decided this combination was a good idea. When I’m next in South Africa this will be one of the meals I seek out.

In the end, I’m happy with this picture and my time-wasting resulted in a great meal, so it all worked out nicely.

Dirt driveway to the Waterford Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa flanked by lavender and bushes and storm clouds overhead.