More on Chart Rose Farm

Wonderful florally place- even in Winter!

And, how wonderful are floral headbands?

(First and second images mine and Lucy Beningfield's respectively.)

Jess, for a Garden of Eden 21st.

Some of my favorite fairies. Lucy, left, go-to inspiration for flower-headbands. Always.

Alexa Chung, hippy happy.

Wintery winner, by D&G.

the ever-wonderful original Frida.

Kidstenbosch

You have to take kids to kirstenbosch one day. It has got to be one of the most underrated experiences you could have. You'll see all the tiny wonders with new eyes, squish pond mud between your toes and smell the fragrance garden with tickly nostrils.

Borrow someone else's kids for the day and pack a picnic: do them and yourself a favour.

Chart Rose Farm

Roses are R2 a stem on Sundays.

This lovely bunch cost me thirty rand.

Cute tea garden, take your granny call her from it.

you will hear lots about this

...if you are going to read this blog.

Check out a project I started with some friends a while ago:

www.sunsanddaughters.com

 

And prepare yourself to hear much more about it.

jar

I placed a jar in Tennessee, 
And round it was, upon a hill. 
It made the slovenly wilderness 
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it, 
And sprawled around, no longer wild. 
The jar was round upon the ground 
And tall and of a port in air.

Try the Penguin Poems app, to learn some poetry off by heart- like the chunk above from the poem Anecdote of the Jar by Wallace Stevens.

Gardens of Babylon

If you somehow have not been to Babylonstoren yet, you are missing out. 

It is the closest to the Garden of Eden that the Western Cape has produced. Lovingly tended for only four years, the fruit trees are dripping with apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums and citrus. The vegetables almost trip you up, they're so big and plentiful. The trees have stories and the best way to hear them is to go on the Garden Tour, which takes place daily at ten. If you can, be sure to go with Gundula, the faerie-horticulturalist of the garden.

Stop in at the restaurant Babel if you're up to spend quite a bit, or head down to the delightful Greenhouse tea garden, add your name to the chalkboard and wait with the other charming folk to place your order for  delicious sarmies or salads- all with fresh homegrown fruit and veggies. I can recommend the biltong and Gorgonzola on Ciabatta- wonderfully, the abundance of the gardens overflows into the hearts of the women stuffing your sandwiches.

Be sure to pop into the shop on your way out for some fresh bread (with whole leeks, pears or garlic cloves baked into their crusty goodness), cheeses or meats from the small charcuterie.

www.babylonstoren.com 

on the cusp

A fitting note on the theme of upcycyling and fresh starts.

Next time you're in JHB, check out the Maboneng Precinct- it's supposed to be the Binnelander's Woodstock. If you're not heading into the Vaal triangle anytime soon, have a look here.

If you're interested, Jonathan Liebmann is basically the driving force behind a lot of the change that got things rolling in Maboneng. Rumour has it, he's set his sights on Maputo in Mozambique next. Yes please.

Welcome back to 'city eat love'.

most freakin' awesome idea

check these guys out. they just started a social justice business that sells you a (really good) coffee or lemonade for tien rond in the comfort of your car. Look out for them at a robot near you! or hire them for an event.
http://www.mo-vend.co.za/

summer concerts

this is very overdue but it involves farryl purkiss, kirstenbosch, a sunset, a pan bagna*, lollipops, hairwraps, friends and many wishes about being able to dance like Inge Beckmann.

*this is a delicious lunch and recipe follows

Pan Bagna:
Buy a round loaf from Knead, and cut off the top disc in one piece so that you'll be able to close the loaf again, then scoop out all the soft bread, leaving about a cm on the inside of the crust (i'd suggest you then eat this with pesto), brush the inside of the loaf with olive oil. Pack in delicious mezze style ingredients in layers, alternating with salt and pepper and squishing it down. you can use what you like but i love using ripe tomatoes, basil, olives, thick slabs of mazzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, rocket, pesto, and if you like salami or parma ham etc. (basically anything yummy with bread). when firmly filled, drizzle a little extra olive oil, pop the lid back on and clingwrap tightly, then place in the fridge overnight under something heavy. Next day, cut into wedges like a cake. Preferably at a picnic. At Kirstenbosch. Listening to a Summer Concert. As the sun slips behind the mountain.

deluxe coffee

this is a short post so that you can stop reading it and get to deluxe coffee in church street now.
it is ten rand a cup for the BEST coffeee in cape town.

a note

charly's is open again! they're back from holiday :)

Get your Fix

Cafeen is somewhere between claremont and kenilworth and apparently closes pretty early. A friend and I were recently late enough to miss the waitresses, but early enough to buy some delicious take-away lemon meringue and chocolate cake from the friendly owners, who seem like the kind of people and the kind of place you just want to hang around with. So we did. On a bench outside, on a warm spring afternoon in cape town, just soaking up cafeen's prettiness. It's on 3rd avenue and begs a visit. Did I mention that the lemon meringue was positively scrumptious?

not a Blonde joke

Blonde is the sister restaurant of Beluga and Sevruga-both have halfprice sushi on weekday evenings-and part of the Caviar family. Blonde is in a beautiful old house in lower gardens, and get this-until the end of august, EVERYTHING on the menu is halfprice! Tonight one hundred paid for bottled water, reserve bottle of white wine, amise bouche of pea soup, pate and bread platter, dukkah-infused duck main and an amazing pudding - including tip :) admittedly a lot of that was shared between seven girls but still left with a full belly and a happy heart.

"it's not a polaroid if it was photoshopped"

Definition of Hipster (as supplied by Raqel Cherry, studying music at Masters, Calif.; the quintessential but original hipster in denial):



"those people who are always at cool places before anyone else knows about them who carry polaroids and comb their hair back. They wear plaid shirts and skinnies with prescription nerd glasses."


The same genius minds that created the neighbourgoods market in Woodstock have fashioned a little hipster heaven in Woodstock. next door to the What if the World art gallery and just below gorgeous second hand store, Afraid of Mice; Superette is a glowing hideaway in manky, downtown Albert Road, that’s quickly developing a really cool nyork/Brooklyn feel.

Contempory furniture and a homely vibe, with a changing daily menu and oddly delicious cakes that will make you wish the menu didn’t change everyday. Possibly the best breakfast sarm in all of cape town and lunches assembled from fresh and local ingredients, monthly dinner club.

The blog here.

start my vogue collection

Sometimes you walk into a place and you feel like you’ve looped the space-time continuum and you’ve stumbled into your house, only in the future, and everything’s how you want it to be, complete collection of vogue magazines to boot.

Welcome to Starlings. Quirkily and thoughtfully decorated with a great menu and a patisserie table that’s fresh daily. Good selection of teas and coffees, it’s a perfect girls’ tea spot, especially in summer, as they have a lovely little garden out back.

Easy to miss, keep your eyes open for the candy-striped black blinds along Belvedere Road – it’s number 94.

Thanks to Annie P for her creative composition direction and mad photography skills. Thanks to Lil E for organising.

friends first

the commonground cafe has an awesome view, dee-licious breakfast, origin (read ‘greatest’) coffee and pretty shweet value for money. it’s right above rondebosch commons and looks onto to the splenderful mountain. take the morning off (or have your lectures cancelled) and catch up on some newsprint while the horrendous traffic outside ignores you. or meet up with friends and plan your 2011 living arrangements; not so much an actual house, but what you’ll put in that house and whether to have a herb and a veggie garden and how you’ll learn to cook epicure. sigh. blissful bowl of oats with mascarpone and berry coulis : fifteen. scrummy toast with scrambles and rosas : eighteen. granola with stewed fruit and yoghurt. twenty-five.

hurrah for the church with a cafe on top!

soul union

&Union
I'm not much of a beer taster myself, but from some more experienced mouths; the beers at &Union are different from each other (who knew?) and pretty damn good. For someone who doesn't like beer, they're also a little out of my budget - but there is a discount when you buy four beers at once. &Union's an in-town brewery in Bree street under the old slave theatre (now St Stephen's church or Commonground Innercity) and a lovely little spot for those people who are always at the popular places before they become popular and over-crowded. For non-beer drinkers they also serve wine by the glass or bottle and scrumptious coffee (try the 'pa special' ice coffee), or for the purer; warm milk with honey. I haven't tried the food, but the charcuterie meats and cheeses look and smell phenom. Last night, thanks to a last minute tip-off (thanks murray and twitter), I watched the gorgeous and talented Farryl Purkiss breaking hearts with a guitar and a looping machine. Some seriously amazing stuff, but I know if I owned a looping machine I'd spend all day playing with it and no time passing medicine. Alas, I find other ways to keep me from writing reports that are due soon because Farryl's also fun to edit on Picasa (free from Google).

See their blog.

the LW list

Everybody loves a long weekend. This last one was beautiful. In describing it I am proposing a list of things to do next long weekend (think there’s one in September). Be sure to mix in good friends and fresh weather.



1. Take a walk through Cecelia forest, in Constantia. Fresh and foresty, enough outdoors to get your heart pumping and remind you how well that respiratory apparatus works out of smog.


2. Buy an olive loaf, brie and the white rock with cranberries (ah-mazing), or other picnic-type deliciousness from woollies (in Constantia village, if you don’t feel it’s too far) and take it, with a picnic blanket to jammie stairs (at UCT) – watch the city sink into Friday evening.


3. Wine and Chuckles – anywhere you can think of, but best could be your lawn under the stars- plus no one has to drive home.


4. Shnuggle with a rented copy of 500 days of Summer and covet Zooey Deschanel’s bangs.


5. Hit an old coffee spot for nostalgia’s sake, and then an old nightclub – just for an hour, or if it livens up, a little longer.

6. Saturday morning only has one option really, the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. Head there early for a chance at a table and fresh flowers and be sure not to eat beforehand. Open from 9am to 3pm. Alternatively, head out later and bask in sun with a bottle of red and a group of handsomely barefoot individuals.


7. Take a drive to Hout Bay via Camps. Be certain to stop somewhere arb and appreciate the sea from upside down on a rock- just to feel a little inadequate. Try Kimya Dawson’s song, 'I like Giants' on for size:

“When I go for a drive, I like to pull off to the side
Of the road and run and jump into the ocean in my clothes.
I’m smaller than a poppy seed inside a great big bowl
And the ocean is a giant that can swallow me whole
...
It’s only really scary ‘cause it makes me feel serene,
In a way I never thought I’d be because I’ve never been
So grounded and so humbled and so one with everything.”

8. Grab some famously battered hake at Fish on the Rocks, beyond Mariner’s Wharf in Hout Bay and slum it with the local fishermen and families. Worth the drive anyday.

9. Bake custard biscuits, choc chip cookies or jammie dodgers with happy-making girls. Double up the recipe and leave half raw - custard dough = beautiful. Buy some dough from PnP and plait into pretzels or loaves and eat fresh or wrap in a cloth for a picnic in a wigwam in the forest.

10. Buy rotis from Sunrise Chip ‘n Ranch (supposedly the biggest rotis in Afirca) and use as pizza bases. Invite people to bring their favourite toppings and cheese and have an indoor picnic with a tagteam in the kitchen, churning out fresh, hot pizzas.


For a delicious custard biscuit recipe, read this lovely little blog here, and follow the link.

the truth about truth

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered, the point is to discover them." - Galileo Galilei

number 1 somerset road at the prestwhich memorial. tasting booth at the waterfront. district one museum. clean lines. minimalist decor.  easy vibe. simple style. warm, expert staff. delicious coffee. thick foam. no really, DELICIOUS coffee. fresh food. great little wraps for only fifteen rands. origin's biggest competitor.

and that's the straight-up truth. discover it.

ORIGIN-NIGIRO

Origin is one of those classic places in Cape Town, without which, this blog would be a joke. The home of Origin coffee and the people who are responsible for introducing this city to the ‘flat white’ is on Hudson street, near Cape Quarter. Downstairs is a masculine and warm area, perfect for a winter cup of coffee (or in summer, a coffee crush) and a catch up with a friend, while up the stairs and past the storage and barista-training areas, the space opens up to a peaceful garden of cacti, and some really weird sculptures. It’s upstairs that you’ll watch the local office workers almost queuing up for their daily fixes of the magic stuff.

Origin roasters are proud and passionate about their beans and are enthusiastic educators of anyone even slightly interested. Origin runs a barista course, which it also uses to create employment opportunities. Anywhere that Origin is sold (anywhere worth going); a home-trained barista must be employed, usually immigrants who were previously working min wage jobs.

Nigiro (origin spelt backwards) is a Japanese style teahouse stocking 140 different teas, also downstairs and completely protected from the rich coffee aroma by glass walls. Nigiro serves it’s teas in beautiful glass teapots and also runs a tea appreciation course, complete with thermometers and timers, an eye opener for presumed tea-lovers.

Origin also serves a range of bagels, croissants, etc. and delicious baked goodness. They have a daily menu and the food is scrum, but well-priced.

Like the Facebook group here.