Sunday Luncheon @ Nineteen

What a setting. Sunday Lunch at Nineteen at Steyn City. With Friends. What's better than that?

After quite the drive once you get through the gates of Steyn City and along the golf course and a few residential construction sites, you arrive at the club house. And in the club house is the restaurant - Nineteen. The design reflecting a Modern African inspired look, extensively using stone, wood, glass and steel and is breath-taking.

Not much beats a bottle of Graham Beck bubbly on arrival in my opinion.

Sharing starters is always such a nice way of breaking the ice at a table (not that we needed it, but I would recommend it any time.)

The Cobb Salad seems to be making a very huge come-back onto many menu's, And it is definitely about time. The perfect balance of blue cheese, egg and avocado.

Seared scallops with a citrus & fennel salsa with an apple & vanilla puree served with home-cured pancetta may seem underwhelming at 1st glace. However, the burst of flavours is something that one finds very hard to describe as the flavour moves around your mouth.

Buffalo Mozzarella with Green Olives, Parma Ham & a Sundried Tomato Dressing sure surprised me. What is usually something that I never order off of the menu is now something that I will always consider to try.

Potted Duck Liver Parfait with Crisp Bread & a Gooseberry Marmalade. This was my favourite. Probably only because it reminds me so much of my Gran and her own Liver Parfait that she used to make for the Festive Season. 

Sliced Smoked Trout with Cream Cheese & Red Onions, Capers, Avocado & Lemon. The perfect fresh and light meal to have if you are not in the mood for something heavy and would be great on a summer afternoon.

All that sharing of food was already so much, but then we decided to delve into the main meals to.

The Sumac Crusted Springbok Loin with sweet potato gnocchi, pickled kumquats &  crumberd baby carrots

Mediterranean Chicken Curry served with parsnips, peppers on a bed of Jasmine Rice with salsa & poppadum's. 

Seared Scottish Salmon with wilted spinach & broccoli with a potato salad. 

Homemade Prawn Tagliatelle pasta with cherry tomatoes, basil & garlic.

And in my opinion, the most 'photogenic' dish of the day. The Roast Pork Belly with Courgette & Potato Rosti, Red Asian cabbage, Apple & Vanilla Puree and Beets.

Just when you think that is the end of the day, then it was time for a dessert.

Apple Tartan - Puff Pastry, Apples, Caramel Sauce & Vanilla Ice Cream.

And my favourite: A Spiced Poached Pear with Pistachio Crumble & Chocolate Ice-Cream.

The verdict. Well, The pictures speak volumes. The flavours you will have to go test out yourself very soon. Just remember that you need to make your booking before you head on out.

Find Nineteen on Social Media:

Twitter - @19_Restaurant

Facebook - Nineteen at Steyn City

Harissa Bistro

A Hidden Gem... 

Recently discovered this little gem of a restaurant in Waterkloof at The Club Centre. Harissa Bistro, is actually a sister restaurant of The Green Peppercorn in Johannesburg. They too serve tasting plates. (I love this idea of dining. This way, you are able to get a good serving size of more than just one of their dishes and you are able to taste a variety of meals in one sitting.)

I decided to treat myself one Friday evening to a dinner-for-one and totally by chance 2 of my close friends had also made reservations for the same time and we had actually been seated next to each other and so my dinner-for-one turned into a intimate dinner with friends.

So, Harissa Bistro, does not have an actual wine list that you choose your wine from. They have an actual wine display in the restaurant where you can walk in and look at the wines, read the labels and check pricing. It is quite the pleasant experience as the sommelier really know his wines and the finer details. I had explained to him that I was in the mood for a red wine, that is not heavy and has a nice creamy finish to it. Immediately he pointed out 3 wines that he suggested that I consider. Eventually I opted for the Almenkerk Lace Vineyard Blend. This is a Syrah, Merlot, Cab Franc, Cab Sauv & Viognier blend that is aged for 23 months in French barriques coming from the Elgin region.

Our server brought out some fresh bread and a hummus dip to tease our taste buds whilst we had a look at the electronic menu. 

I decided on the tasting plate starter. 
- Beef Bobotie Samosa 
- Chilli Salt Squid (they were my favourite on this plate.)
- Goats Cheese Bouche (basically puff pastry with a great mix of goats cheese, beetroot & carmelised onions.

My friends opted for:
- Lamb Ribbetjie. This lamb has been marinated in a beer and marmite mixture that had me picking off of his plate with some of the butternut polenta. 

- Crab Briyani. As soon as this dish came out of the kitchen and I smelled it, I was jealous. The smell of the coconut milk is incredible. Mozambican Crab, Prawns and Mussels served with Basmati rice.

I again decided to try the tasting plate. Beef fillet served 3 ways.

My new thing is have a side salad with meals, instead of fries. (You know, the 'healthy' option...) Lots of Feta. Just that made me happy already. Really fresh ingredients and everything still had that crunchy freshness to them.

So. It was time for dessert and honestly, I had already eaten so much and I kind of figured I was going to regret having dessert. But something told me I just need to try the Chocolate Fondant with Amarula Custard & Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. Wow... Lets just say I most certainly did not regret anything after having this. Lets start with the Ice Cream. It is freshly made and it still has some of the vanilla pod scrapings in the ice cream. So nice, light & creamy at the same time. The coffee chocolate Fondant. It should be a death by chocolate, so I couldn't finish all of that. The centre wasn't entirely molten as I had hoped it would be though.

BUT. Now... To tell you about this Amarula Custard. It will blow your mind. The texture of Caramel Treat. The taste of heaven. It would melt in your mouth and as it spread, you would taste the different flavours of the custard & Amarula. It is probably the best dessert that I have had in a while.

Tomato? No Zomato...

Have you found yourself sitting at home and wanting to go out? However you find yourself unsure of what restaurant to go to or where to go get takeaways. Then you always end up sticking with your usual choice because you know it is "safe" and you know what to expect and what you will be getting for the money you paid.

Where is the adventure in eating out and looking to find new and exciting places to try and discover new dishes that could possibly blow your taste buds away? 

I discovered this app called Zomato. No, not Tomato! That is no spelling mistake. You read right. Zomato! 

Again, I like using pictures in my articles. So, here is what Zomato is all about and what they offer.

So what basically happens is that when you log in on the app or the website, you set your location or if you are fancy, it uses your gps and automatically locates where you are.

You then have various options to 'filter' restaurants in order to find some new and exciting restaurant that you have never heard of to try tonight for a family dinner, tomorrow for a business breakfast or on Saturday for a lunch with friends. It does not matter what type of place you are looking for you can filter according to the 'time of day' eating orders by using a quick search. With the click of a button a whole list of restaurants that are in your area will pop up and you then have a further option for filters: popularity, location, cuisine, establishment type, approximate costs for two, alcohol, outdoor seating, credit cards, WiFi and generators for those nights you are sitting in the dark suffering from loadshedding and need to feed the family. Your options are endless. 

Finally found a restaurant that you like and you want to find out more. Click on it. Its like a mini website for the restaurant that opens.
The contact numbers of the restaurant. A map with the exact location. Images of the actual menu's. Photographs of the restaurant and of their food.

And the best part. Reviews of the restaurant by actual people that have visited there and haven't been wined and dined by the owner or the manager just to write a good review. This gives you a true reflection of what some people think about the restaurant. No biased opinions. If a person wishes, they can rate their experience out of 5.
Therefore after reading a few of these reviews one quickly gets an idea of what to expect from that specific restaurant and then proceed to decide on whether or not to try it out or move on to the next listing.

In the side bar next to the restaurant details, Zomato provides you with a list of restaurants that have a similar vibe or similar menu to that one which you are having a look at, at present. So you basically have so much information about so many restaurants right at the tips of your fingers which can lead you to make an informed decision about where you are heading out to have your new culinary experience.

Have a great time? Or you find that your experience was not as pleasant as you had hoped, you can write your very own review on a restaurant and help out other people who are in need of making a decision on which restaurant to choose.
Like a review? You can favourite it and build up your own list of favourites and best restaurants. You can follow individuals that are foodies and that have provided you with useful reviews to keep up to date with their latest culinary experiences. 

So if you are someone like me who just loves eating out and keeping the kitchen clean, but tired of going to the same old restaurant over and over and in need of a new adventure into the amazing restaurants that are in your area. Go have a look at this website and download the app on your phone for when you are sitting at work and wondering what's for dinner tonight. It's the best restaurant directory in the palm of your hand.

Check them out on the Web: www.zomato.co.za
They are on Twitter: @ZomatoSA
Facebook: Zomato