Holiday food memories

We have both been extremely busy with work and we have had very less time for us. Last Monday and Tuesday we had first time since our holiday in June two days off together and we had such a great time. On Monday evening we had a "mega gutes" dinner and a bottle of good Swiss white wine in our favourite restaurant. On Tuesday we made a hiking trip to the mountains...well my Hubby's working place did call and ask if he could go to work but sometimes one just have to say no.

During our dinner on Monday we started to think of all the great places where we have eaten together. That gave me the idea of introducing couple of them here in the blog. There are of course many, many places we would love to go back to but these following are the ones of which I have some photos: either of the food or the places itself. And for these places I also remember the name, so if some one of you are around Cadiz, Berlin, Cape Town/Stellenbosch/Garden Route, please give them a try and tell if you liked them :D

The first place is Casa Lazo in Cadiz, Spain. This is the best Tapas place we have ever been to. This got to be one of the top five restaurant/bar/cafe memories we have. If Hubby and I think of having tapas, we think of this place. We ate here twice back in 2011.

Entrance of Casa Lazo

Inside of Casa Lazo

Spanish beer, Pata Negra ham and the best ever garlic-caraway carrots

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For breakfast we would recommend Cafe Anna Blume in Berlin, Germany. If you want to be sure to get a table, you should book in advance. If we ever go back to Berlin, we will surely visit this place again. Huge cups of cappuccino and tea and very fresh, tasty and big breakfast "tower". You can check them out here: Cafe Anna Blume.

Entrance of Cafe Anna Blume which isn't only a cafe but also a flower shop.

A big cappuccino

The breakfast tower. You don't need to oder such a big breakfast if you don't want to. They have also smaller possibilities.

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The  next place is perfect for wine/fine dining lovers but also for those who want to have a taste of high class food or/and great German wine in a more relaxed environment. It's called Rutz - Restaurant and Winebar and it's also located in Berlin. The restaurant has got a Michelin star but if you want to take it a bit more easy (or cheaper), you can try their bar tasting menu together with wine tasting. Rutz has been awarded with "the best wine menu of the year" so it really is a place to go to if you are a wine lover.
We had a tasting menu in the bar and each course was accompanied by some good wine. The menu was 49 euros/person and wines 20 euros/person. The service personal was very good...they knew a lot about the wines and they were able to tell the stories behind the scenes of the wine estates and producer families. To learn more check our Rutz - Restaurant and Winebar.

Salmontartar, pea puree, dumpling of bacon and shallots, carrot shot

Riesling, dry, 2010 Reichsrat von Buhl

Aprikosen-Fig compote, wildherbs parfait, sour cream espuma, chocolate

Rieslig, Reinhold Haart

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Now we are going to change the continent: South Afica and more accurate said Stellenbosch. One of our top five dinner experiences so far, is the Restaurant Jordan at the Jordan Wine Estate. We would advise to go there for dinner. That way you can enjoy the day turning into the lovely colours of the evening and finally to the darkness of the night. They only do a set menu (at least back in 2012) but you can inform them in advance about allergies or special diets. I did not take any pictures because we had left our better camera at the hotel and it didn't feel right to take some crappy mobile phone photos. We do have a one photo of the lovely view though. At this place absolutely everything was perfect: the service, the food and the setting. We would go back there at any time. To learn more: Restaurant Jordan.

This is what we had:

A salad of summer vegetables from our garden, buffalo milk mozzarella

Jordan Unoaked Chardonnay 2012

Roasted porcini, glazed marrow, crispy sage and watercress

Sutherland Viognier Roussanne 2009

Fricassee of confit duck, duck liver, celeriac and caramelised shallot

Newton Johnson Pinot Noir 2010

Steamed line caught Kabeljou, smoked mussel, apple and young beets

Jordan BF Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Overberg Lamb rack, roasted lamb kidney, smoked garlic puree and asparagus

Tamboerskloof Syrah 2007

New season's Raspberry shortcake

Jordan Mellifera NHL 2011     

    

The view from the Jordan Restaurant

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Coming up snacks and sparkling wine! When you're down in South Africa you will have to do wine tasting. We put our tasting tour together by ourselves with the help of the information from many booklets and the Stellenbosch wine route guide. We hadn't really tasted any South African sparking wines before and specially I wanted to give them a try. We chose the small Estate of Chabivin. This is what I wrote in my other blog back in 2012:

"The first farm we visited was called Chabivin. This was a lovely small farm where the winemaker himself came to tell about the wine. He was sorry that he had dirty clothes, but he had been in the fields when we arrived and was called in to present the wines. The owners also produce Champagne in France which is also available for tasting but we were only interested in the Methode Cap Classique...when in South Africa it's South African wines and one day we will make our way to France for the Champagne, oder?"

  Because we were hungry we decided to order filled croissants with some salad as a small lunch. They where so far the best filled croissants in my life and sometimes we still give them a thougt :D By the way, we still have one unopened bottle for their sparkling wine...been saving it for something special.

If you are interested visit the Chabivin website for more information.

The tastining house of the Chabivin

Croissants filled with brie, ruccola, bacon and caramelised figs.

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Lunch break in Montagu on route 62 in South Africa. We stopped at the small restaurant called The Rambling Rose. Great piri-piri chicken liver! And our kinds of hefty salads. They also have a small shop where they sell some self/local made food products. For the Rambling Rose I can only find the Trip Advisor site which is here.

The Rambling Rose right next to the Route 62

Some fantastic chicken liver

Yummy salad with bacon and butternut pumpkin

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This next place is super special and that's all thanks to the owner. The place is called Thyme at Rosemary's Restaurant and it's in Gansbaai, South Africa. It's difficult to describe what is so special...somehow the whole interior decor is very nicely and differently done (eg. old newspapers as wallpaper) plus the food is super good. A must to try is the Oxtail!! Try the place yourself and you will see what we mean ;D Here is the website: Thyme at Rosemary's Restaurant.

The entrance of the Thyme at Rosemary's Restaurant

Garlic mussels! So good!

Very cutely served sago pudding

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We also had a second fine dining experience during our holiday in South Africa. We had a very good dinner at The Greenhouse Restaurant of The Cellars-Hohenort. We chose the Chef's tasting menu (8 courses) with wine package, coffee with petit fours and it cost roughly 200 CHF (so about 165 EUR) altogether. I did take a photo of each course because we were seated in a way that I could do it without bothering anybody else and we had our better camera with us. The Greenhouse in Internet: The Cellars-Hohenort

Various breads and spreads

Varieties of Cabbage and Local Duck; roast breast, confit leg, seared offal and jus, white, young, savoy and red cabbages. Wine: Groot Constantia Shiraz 2010

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The last place is called The Harbour House in Victoria & Albert Waterfront in Cape town. This is a moment I can remember so good and I come back to it every now and then. On our last evening in Cape Town we stayed at the Waterfront to have a sundowner in the lovely atmosphere. We found a place on a second floor serving sparkling wine, sushi etc. We decided to order a bottle of MCC sparkling wine. We were actually planning to go to have a dinner in some place nice but because we liked the waterfront atmosphere, warm evening and the place so much we ended up ordering some sushi. This place is special for us because of the memory: perfect last evening of the perfect holiday and at the same time looking forward to go back home to the cats. 

Here you can check out The Harbour House

Fresh and tasty

Sunset and lots of happiness on our last evening in Cape Town. Such a great memory.

There are, of course, many other great food places we have visited. For this post I was trying to choose those places we still remember very well even after a bit longer time and which we will probably never forget. One can't really put these places on the same line because they are so different of character and that's why I did't want to make any Best of - list. I would still have many other places I would love to tell about and it might be that I'll still make a second food memory post at some point.