August-Inspiration

Last night I attended the thirteenth GeekDinner.  Or the first.  Or 10½.  It depends on how you look at it.  Because it was a very special GeekDinner; for more than one reason, as it turned out.

For a long time, we who live in Stellenbosch have been campaigning for a GeekDinner to be held in the Stellenbosch area.  I had promised that, when I find the time, I would join the organisers’ mailing list and actively lobby for a Stellenbosch GeekDinner.  After the January GeekDinner, I joined and, low and behold, GeekDinner came to Stellenbosch!  The best part is that I didn’t even lift a finger!¹  We had a willing-and-able person who organised the whole affair nearly singly handedly and, boy, did she do a good job!  It was still decided, however, to hold the dinner in an “off month” to test the water and the willingness of Capetonians to drive “all the way to Stellenbosch”.  We didn’t have a full house, despite the fact that the venue could only accommodate 55 people, but there are other factors involved as well.  Personally, I believe that GeekDinner will return to Stellenbosch in the not too distant future!

And there is good reason for this optimism, which brings me to the second factor which made last night so special.  GeekDiners now have a new standard whereby to measure quality and service.  Our hosts, Lovane Boutique Wine Estate (a small start-up just outside of Stellenbosch), outdid themselves and, to be quite frank, most of the venues in the recent history of GeekDinners.  The venue itself was small, but the tables were well placed and spaced, and everyone could see the screen (a problem we have been having of late).  It is always interesting to see the menu we get for a GeekDinner and this one had my mouth watering from day one of the planning: beetroot stack with goats cheese starter (which I quite enjoyed, despite the fact that I am not a big fan of beetroot), sirloin steak served with a mushroom sauce and butternut ravioli (for the vegetarian option) for the main course with a side dish of rosemary and garlic potatoes, vegetables and salad served with apples, avocados, walnuts and spring onions, and, finally, homemade ice-cream served with a chocolate sauce and coffee.  At first sight I was a bit sceptic of the steak, as it was quite clearly rare to medium (I prefer my meat well done), but it was delicious, soft and succulent either way!  But the best part was the fact that it was a buffet.  This meant three things: I would be able to try the butternut ravioli (which was really tops in itself, although I doubt whether something can be called ravioli if it doesn’t contain meat…), we could pile our plates as high as we wished (no chic bird-dropping-sized portions) and there were seconds!  And, as a final, unexpected treat, after we finished we were all invited down to the cellars for personal tours.

So, what can I say?  Good venue, awesome and friendly hosts and staff, and food to die for.  Really, I don’t owe anyone any favours—when I say this, it is the real deal: go to this place for the food, go there to chat to the people, just go there.

But despite the rave of the “new kid on the block”, we haven’t forgotten our faithful wine sponsor, Perdeberg Winery for sponsoring us in this “off month” with their delicious wine!  You guys really are tops!

Oh, one final tip.  If you decide to go to Lovane, schedule your visit to coincide with sunset.  I didn’t explore the grounds as I was late in getting there, but on my way I saw the stunning sight as a blood red sun setting behind a tree (think of Lion King) directly in front of me along the middle of the road.  Yes, yes, I know it is bad for your eyes, but it was just so beautiful….

PS Sorry, I didn’t take any photos.  I went home thinking it was 17:00, realised it was 19:00 and turned around and went straight to Lovane.

1. I call this the “demi effect”, as in my years of being a student assistant, I have miraclously solved many programming problems by just arriving at a confused pre-grad. [↩]

This year I have decided to start exploring the Cape from a culinary point-of-view.  Cape Town is a wondrous place with many splendid sights, sounds and people.  But there is something special in its food and its flavours.  I hope to use journey of exploration as a springboard to other discoveries the complacent Capetonian often misses about his or her beloved home.

Just to be clear, when I say “Cape”, I mean Cape Town and its surrounds, as far as my current home in Stellenbosch.  Stellenbosch is a small and quiet little town with multiple personality disorder and which is neither small nor even quiet.  It is a symbol of patriotic pride for many Afrikaners who wander underneath the alien oak trees; it is a raucous student town and a peaceful tourist town; it sports history and cutting-edge technology (uh, I mean research); it sells the cheapest alcohol you can legally buy as well as some of the most expensive meals in the country.  It is at the same time deceptively large and deceptively small, especially to the casual observer.  For years I only knew the “student” side of the town and beyond.  It is only in recent years that I have slowly begun to venture into the other side of town.

Picture four friends walking down Victoria street on a Friday afternoon in the summer on which the sun does not casts down as much heat as it does laziness.  They are hungry and looking for a place to eat—some place where they have not been before.  They turn left in Ryneveld street and continue on a bit and cross one of the many lines of demarcation in Stellenbosch.  This one, like the others, is not marked or indicated in any way.  It is more of a feeling that comes over you as you walk along.  Somewhere between the church and the synagogue you cross over from the “student” part of town into the “tourist” part of town.  Here prices triple or quadruple and there is no mention of Tassies.  You hear strange accents and see people walking around with cameras around their necks.  There are loads of little cafés and restaurants sprinkled between the businesses which some of the locals frequent.  We continue past Plein street, discussing what we are in the mood for and ford Church street (the epicentre of the tourist part of town).  Suddenly we find ourselves at the end of Ryneveld street and finally decide on a small, unremarkable place: 5 Ryneveld.

5 Ryneveld

This is not the type of place I would normally dine at, primarily because of they charge for their food (although, in retrospect, it wasn’t unaffordably expensive, except for the R1399 burger which includes a bottle of Dom Perignon).  But we were young, foolish, hungry, and there was the unspoken significance that this was a farewell for one of our friends.

A large section of the 5 Ryneveld menu is devoted to burgers.  They have a wide variety with interesting toppings.  The “Ronin” chicken burger caught my eye.  I cannot remember all the details I would like to of that day, but what is important I do remember and that is how delicious that burger was.  It had the slightest of zing—perhaps it would be too little for other people, but it was just right for me.  The flavours fused in my mouth and I was a thorougly happy chappy!

My friends enjoyed their burgers as well, but had minor complaints.  I had none, which leads me to the primary conclusion that not all of 5 Ryneveld’s food it for everyone.  They try interesting things on their menu and sometimes it works, but sometimes the menu description creates an expectation which isn’t quite lived up to.  Personally I would recommend 5 Ryneveld, even if only for you to decided for yourself if and what you like.

One thing that is an annoyance is the website of 5 Ryneveld.  Before starting this post, I thought I would go brush up on the menu a bit.  However, their website features a pulsating logo, and while it is a nice logo, it only features the logo.  So, don’t bother going there, unless you are high and need something to completely zone out on.

Location of 5 Ryneveld.

The next restaurant on my list needs no introduction.  Over the decades, Stellenbosch has had many legendary establishments which became (in)famous among the student populace.  Some have weathered the onslaughts of Change, while others have perished and are now only memories to some of the alumni.  The Brazen Head is relatively new, but it is already firmly established in Stellenbosch and I don’t believe that it will go away any time soon.

Brazen Head

The Brazen Head has served me well over the past few years.  Nearly all the students in Stellenbosch know The Brazen Head and, of that group, I would say most of them know it well.  It spans two storeys and a courtyard.  The ground floor is the “bar” area and has several smaller rooms in which you and your friends can kuier in relative peace.  The top storey is reserved for bookings and is more of a restaurant area.  But I think it is the courtyards which is everyone’s favourite.  Even in summer, because the tables surround a soothing fountain and the addition of mist sprayers ensures that this area is always cool and comfortable, even on the warmest of days.  What I consider a loss, however, is that fact that they have covered up the balcony area.  When this was still uncovered, it provided a slight view over the town and, sometimes, some quite from the crowd below.

But what about the food?  The Brazen Head offers a wide variety of meals.  I have eaten there before and enjoyed it, but on the occasion I want to highlight now I had a plain old beef burger (yes, I went with the budget option).  The burger was nice and succulent.  It reminded me of a Spur burger which, lets face it, is not bad at all.  The meat was softer than that of a Spur burger, but it also had an after taste which wasn’t necessarily bad, but wasn’t what you get from a Spur burger.

The Brazen Head is too expensive for the average student to eat there more than once in a blue moon.  I reckon they make most of their money from students who stop by for a beer or two.  And they seem to flourish on this business model, so who am I to meddle with the status quo?  There is just one teeny, tiny suggestion I want to make, if the proprietors are reading this: just make a plain old plate-of-chips option available.  Something affordable on which student can munch while drinking their beer.  Not having this option is hurting you, I’m sure.  But, if you are going to do this, you are going to have to get a new recipe for chips, because what I got with my burger was below standard and will be even for a drunk student.

Still, maybe I am just being fussy.  The Brazen Head is a good establishment overall and well worth a revisit.  Whether you decided to go to The Brazen Head for the food, the drinks or just the sprayers, I’ll see you there!

Location of The Brazen Head

PS I am not a professional food critic and have not had any “training” apart from “open up, here comes the train…”.  I write these reviews solely on the license of free speech the Internet so unfortunately provides.  Any views expressed here are mine alone.  It is up to you to use commen sense and sound judgement in deciding whether to eat at a certain place or not.

Everyone remembers their first car.  And the worse it was, the more you remember it.  You remember all the tricks that you had to do to make it start.  You knew how to caress (well, hit) the dashboard to fix that ghastly humming.  You where an expert at fingering the choke to get optimal performance.  You knew exactly what to do when the engine started to overheat.  Like one who knows all the nuances and delicacies of his lover, you knew how to deal with your cantankerous automobile.

You first car is a lesson in a love-hate relationship.  But, when you lay those keys down for the final time, you realise that there was much more love than hate.  When you lay that baton down (probably to be picked up by another lover who will woo and charm your car through hours of frustration and swearing), a chapter of your life closes.

Depending on where you are on the social ladder, your next car will be second hand as well.  Not as old, but still far from new.  And the next will be newer, but not new.  Eventually you’ll end up with a brand new car, or your “dream car”, or both.  The number of cars a person has in his or her lifetime varies; some will be forgotten, some will bring precious memories.  But nothing will ever be able to quite edge out the memories of your first car.

Yesterday I lay down that baton and met up with that bitter friend that is Goodbye.  I bind fond adieu to my car which served me for five and a half years.  But I shed no tears, for I take with me the memories of the times in that car.  For it was inside that car that I discovered one of my favourite pastimes.  But the truth is that that car has grown old.  After nearly twenty years and almost a quarter of a million kilometres on the clock, it is in desperate need of some TLC (and quite a bit of cosmetic surgery)—something which I do not have to give at the moment.  But I won’t dwell on a long goodbye, but rather kindle the memories while I speed through the night in my new car.  Thank you, Mr De Villiers!

The whole transaction happened rather serendipidously, as I inherited the new car from within the family.  But, ironically, it is not that much of a change.  It is the same make and model car and very nearly the same colour as well.  The instrument panel in front of me looks exactly the same, save for the emergency indicator button, which is now an actual button and not just a tiny exposed light bulb.  But, the car is a few year younger, has a larger engine, power steering, an automatic gearbox, electric side mirrors and, theoretically, air conditioning!  The car is in great shape and all the trimmings on the inside clearly point to the fact that this was the top range model.  Combine that with the facts that the car has been well taken care of and has less than half the kilometres on the clock that my previous car had, and you have something that looks, feels and works great.  Well, great is one word—stately is another one which can be used.

I am very happy with this car.  And I shall remain, like anyone who gets a new car, starry-eyed until the first dent or minor accident.  Lets hope that does not happen for a very long time.  Until then, happy driving!

Fires are not at all uncommon in the Stellenbosch area.  For the five years I have been here, I have seen some pretty bad, as well as spectacular, fires.  But none of them compare in scale to the one raging at the moment.

Apparently¹ the fire started in the Jonkershoek nature reserve.  The reserve itself is very close to town—in fact, the gate faces towards some of the rez’s.  From there it spread up towards the Stellenbosch mountain.  This all happened on day one.  It seems like it was contained towards the town, but slipped over to the other side of the mountain.  Meanwhile, as I noticed this morning, the fire’s flank maneuvered past the fire fighters and was also rapidly heading in the other direction: closer to where I live.  It is still far away, but things seem really bad and the usual scaremongering is rife on campus.

Notable buildings threatened (but which did not burn down) include the gym at Coetzenburg and the Tokara restaurant/wine farm outside of town.

On the first day of the fire I heard the initial reports on the fire, but didn’t think much of them.  I then went to sleep and woke up late in the afternoon.  By then, it looked like the apocalypse: a thick blanket of smoked covered the town and the rays of the sun which managed to break through illuminated the town in an eerie and foul orange glow.  I was a very unnerving sight to wake up to, especially when one considers that my bedroom window overlooks a part of town from a small hill.  For the next two days, our blanket of greenhouse gas (and perhaps some radiance from the fires themselves) helped heat the town to a few degrees more than it should have been underneath the summer sun.  All across town, furniture doubtlessly smells like smoke and people opt to drive rather than walk, not wanting to expose their lungs to the foggy smoke.  This evening, as I drove home, the sky looked clearer to the west, but in the east (where the fires are), was covered in a thick, low laying dark grey cloud.  It looks like heavy thunderclouds, but in stead of large rain drops, these clouds spew forth red embers.

Conditions for fire fighting could not have been worse.  Not only were there no incoming rain, but a strong, warm wind blew, which obviously fed the fire like petrol.  Today the wind had quieted down, but it seems like the fire is still spreading.  These conditions incubated not only the fires around Stellenbosch, but also nearly half-a-dozen other fires throughout the Western Cape.

Lets hope and pray these fires are soon extinguished!

1. Please note that all my information comes from second-hand sources.  I disqualify all the insane panicky rumours, but I believe a fair amount of the the reasonable sounding news I get, as the fire are hard to ignore where they are burning just a short distance away. [↩]