I had no idea what to expect food wise of South Africa. Sure, when being closer to the sea obviously there is a larger variety of fish. And also when being more in the wild, it feels more logic to find 'common game' (wildlife like kudu, zebra, or springbok) for dinner.
And also since there is a fantastic variety of fruits and veggies througout the whole year because of the climate, there is a surprising amount of very nice food to be found.
Also when looking at how basic or how fancy meals would be, or in what kind of price...I literally had no idea what to expect.
After a long drive on a random day not really checking the map, all of a sudden we landed in a sort of green oase. It was near Franschhoek which known for their vineyards.
But you can also head down over there of food. Damn, that was the largest amount of fine dining that was 'all of a sudden' there! And after a long time of very diverse food I was very surprised to find this here.
Drive up a random building?
After a night of camping around and having some really shitty meals (own fault!!) driving into Franschhoek on the hunt for some good lunch, I had no idea what this town was about. Fancy stuff, fancy people, what..is this also South Africa?
I drove up this nice porch and all of a sudden we had arrived at the Chefs Warehouse at Maison. And and a garden was behind there all of a sudden? What a view!!
The thing with fine dining in South Africa? The flavours are diverse, the kitchen is super broad in variety and also pricewise compared to European prices for this quality food is really a bargain.
So why not treat yourself while there? Those chances don't pass by every day!!
Combo dishes a deux
Every round was every time with two dishes in there. The dishes were totally different by really enhanced each other. And they were damn strong in taste, with character.
Naturally being on a vineyard this was also with wine pairing, but since it was lunch and the middle of the day, that didn't really seem like a wise thing to do.
But looking at this local goat cheese with nuts on the one plate a piece of braised fish on the other plate...
Well that is again just something else with a sweet white wine. The amount of deep flavours are crazy!
Out fo place?
It felt out of place walking in here in this fancy place. Walking in on flipflops, maybe slightly stinky from the day before, and surely not as fancy dressed as the other people who were there.
I only noticed this after looking around where everyone looked like they came from a magazine, not like they came out of their camper. Oopsie!
But food is the common denominator for everything. There is always a little log fitting for everyone and I really enjoyed the meal!
I wsa also very surprised to find a a last course these dishes that almost felt like winter food to me.
Risotto with pulled meat and truffle sauce, wow it was delicious. And what abour this braised lamb with some ketjap taste in there, but also combined mild sauces and brussle sprouts.
That chef is a genius!
And all of this as a lunch? The sun was shining, people were having a good time. And what did we do? We sat on our stinky flipflops and shorts, enjoyed the sun and the company.
We laughed, we truly enjoyed and as always we realized how good life is.