Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [107]
Kanonkop is our first stop in the Winelands, a lovely region of majestic mountains, pastoral valleys, and elegantly gabled Cape Dutch homesteads just an hour by rental car from Cape Town. In late spring, wildflowers frolic in the fields, and gardens abound with roses and dramatic agapanthuses with their violet, fireworks-shaped blossoms held high. Like most of the wineries, Kanonkop occupies serene, manicured farmland outside of the town of Stellenbosch and the village of Franschhoek, two of the main burgs in the area. The charming lady tending the tasting room pours us samples of a hearty 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, a classy Bordeaux-style 2002 Paul Sauer blend, and a full-bodied 2003 Pinotage, loaded with luscious berry flavor, that lives up to the promise of the sign over the door.
At the Warwick Estate, just down the road, the 2004 Old Bush Vines Pinotage impresses us a little less, but we love the 2003 Three Cape Ladies, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinotage, and the brightly crisp 2005 Sauvignon Blanc. Although the winery ranks among the most famous in the country, only one other couple joins us during our half-hour visit on the shaded terrace of the tasting room, which overlooks a pond guarded by a flock of guinea hens pecking away at the ground. “This is idyllic,” Cheryl says. “Napa has more tourists and traffic at midnight than the Winelands at noon.”
Bill glances at his watch. “Speaking of the time, we better get on to lunch,” booked in Franschhoek at La Petite Ferme, where we’re also staying for the next four nights. Our drive takes us down the single main street of the village, lined with small shops and restaurants that cater mainly to visitors but also serve the needs of the five thousand residents. European settlement here dates to the 1690s, about forty years after the Dutch established a supply base at Cape Town to provide fresh food—including wine to combat scurvy—for ships going around the Cape of Good Hope to trade in Asia. The Dutch called the valley “Oliphantshoek,” because large herds of elephants roamed the area, before French Huguenots, fleeing the Protestant persecutions of Louis XIV, recognized the fertility of the soil and obtained land grants for farms. Within a few decades Franschhoek took its present name, meaning the “French corner.”
Despite its diminutive size, promoters call the village “the culinary capital of South Africa,” a bit of an understatement actually. By the end of our visit, Bill proposes a new boast: “The culinary capital of the world for affordable excellence,” which is certainly true on a per capita basis at least.
The restaurant and five guest suites at La Petite Ferme (the little farm) overlook the town and valley from a fabulous perch on a mountain pass. A friendly, relaxed receptionist welcomes us and shows us to our Champagne Suite, a handsome cottage with a small swimming pool on the front patio that’s in picking distance of a hillside of Sauvignon Blanc grapes. After dropping our bags, we stroll over to the dining terraces for lunch, the only meal served other than the breakfast provided to guests of the inn. As on most days, the restaurant is full, with many of the patrons lounging before their meal under stately pines on the grassy lawn, sipping wine while looking back and forth from the menu to the grand view.
Chef Olivia Mitchell and sous-chef Carina Bouwer give them plenty to think about in choosing dishes. The “femme-force,” as owners Mark and Josephine Dendy Young call the duo, artfully meld African, Malay, and international influences into their ambitious and sophisticated cooking. Appetizers range from Asian fish cakes to warthog bresaola, but both of us are in the mood for vegetables on this sunny spring day. Cheryl orders green asparagus served over roasted parsnips with a green-olive tapenade and a cream reduction flavored with watercress and Sauvignon Blanc, and Bill opts