Friday 3 August 2012

Boerewors Belt now the Wyngordyn. Indeed.


Sundried tomato, goat's cheese and basil phyllo  tartlet




Not that growing up in suburban Milnerton was all that hip and edgy but at least we lived 5 minutes walk away from the beach. My cousins, on the other hand, lived in Durbanville - what we regarded as the height of suburbia. According to us, they lived in the Boerewors Belt. Called thus because it was perceived that only Afrikaans-speakers lived there and so, of course, ate boerewors. Not that we didn't speak Afrikaans at home and if my oupa had his way, we'd eat boerewors every night of the week. We'd visit them by driving the back roads from Table View over Contermanskloof, past the farmlands and wheat fields before entering suburbia again -  their suburbia being an exact replica of ours. I thought about those days as I drove to a press lunch at Nitida Wine Farm last week. The wheat fields have been replaced by vineyards as the Durbanville Wine Valley is now on the hot list of any wine lover. And it really is pretty out there and the wines don't have to stand back for the Stellenbosch or Franschhoek crowd. No more Boerewors Belt, Durbanville is firmly behind the Wyngordyn alongside the traditional winelands stalwarts. So, a lovely women-only lunch introducing Cassia's ( the restaurant on Nitida wine farm) August special lunch menu for women got me thinking of my Tannie Nettie, who still lives in Durbanville and how she doesn't have a bad bone in her body and how she is always happy to see us and how she lives for her husband and children and grandchildren and I realised that it is the Tannie Nettie's of this world who need to be acknowledged as much as the great movers and shakers, the feminists and the femme fatale's, during this month in which we are supposed to celebrate women.  Because it is their extraordinary ordinariness, their generosity in wanting only the best for those they love, in spite of the cost to themselves that forms the backbone of our society. And so I will be taking Tannie Nettie out to lunch, because she has only been good to me. And because this menu really is delicious and because we don't honour those we love nearly enough. This is a good month to start doing so.

Cassia restaurant is on the Nitida Farm, Tygervalley Road (M13) Durbanville.
Open Monday - Saturday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sunday for breakfast and lunch.
Telephone: 021 976 0640

The 3 course meal special for Woman's Day at R185 per person includes a glass of The Matriarch or the Matriarch in red MCC as well as a glass of Modjadji Noble Late Harvest with the fabulous chocolate fondant dessert.

Starters
Sundried tomato, goats cheese and basil tartlet with a seasonal salad
OR
Hearty Minestrone soup a la Cassia
Mains
Traditional coq au vin, mustard mash and green beans
OR  
Pan seared Norwegian salmon served with saffron risotto
Dessert
Chocolate fondant, Modjadji and a rose petal cream

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