Tony H the Chocolate Man

A week or two before I left on my incredible journey I met up with Tony, a retired former businessman who has taken up chocolate making and makes the most incredible artisanal chocolates you have ever seen, heard of or even tasted!

Coffee and Chocolate Tasting with Tony at Pastis

All his products are 100% handcrafted and individually made using home grown and natural ingredients, focusing on the seasonality and sustainability of the product.

Tony definitely knows the way to a girl's heart because when we met he brought me a delicious variety of tasters, showcasing the finest chocolate with the most deliciously flavoured and creamy fillings.

Box of Hand Made Chocolates Anyone?

He is also big on experimenting with flavours, and while he does stock the most delicious salted caramel truffles, and the most peanut buttery peanut butter chocolates, some of his more exotic flavours include beer, pink champagne and pomegranate, passion fruit and habanero liquor and even  goats cheese and lemon truffles.

Want to get your hands of some of this deliciousness?? 

Go find him at some of your local Cape Town Food Markets, including the Earth Fair Market in Tokai on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and let me know what you think.

Tony and His son doing what they do at Earth Fair

Equally, have a look on his website to place your order.

www.tonyh.co.za
 

Tony even takes chocolate suggestions, so if you have any awesome new ideas for chocolate flavours, let him know and I'm sure he will give it a bash! I know for a fact that he is busy working on my new favourite flavour as we speak and I absolutely cannot wait to see what he has created!

If you like what you see you can also find him on Facebook for regular updates on where he will be and to hear about all his new stuff.

Happy chocolate eating!

ps. All these photos were stolen by me, directly from Tony (thanks Tony!!) because I am such a greedy guts that I ate every last crumb before I could even think of taking a pic.

Le Private Chef

Officially, almost 3 weeks into my new job, yes- there was I reason I came to Europe, and no- it was NOT to eat lots of food, or to get fat(although it seems like this may come with the territory).

I am now at Chateau Gaby in beautiful Fronsac, near Libourne, about 30 minutes outside of Bordeaux, happily cooking my heart out with some of the most amazing ingredients I have ever seen.

Although the work is tough, and the hours are long, the experience and the results are so worth it.

I have been able to cook some really yummy things, and given lots of creative freedom, and I promise as soon as I can get my act together for long enough to write them, I will share all of the recipes!

For now though, here are some pictures of my journey so far...Unfortunately, despite my annoying photo habit, I have forgotten to take photo's 9 times out of 10, but here are a few just to give an idea of what I've been up to.

Confit Vine Tomatoes

'Fish n Chips' with pea puree, herbed aioli, confit vine toms and polenta chips

 This one I have written a recipe for- 

Check it out here :)

Chilli and Coriander Fish cakes with lime mayo and garden salad

Beetroot and orange salad with feta and crystallized hazelnuts

 There is also a recipe or this one:

Roasted Beetroot and Citrus Salad

Creamy white wine and garlic mussels

 The day after Damien made those amazing smoked mussels, I won over the hearts of some of the staff here by cooking them the last 7kgs of mussels like this... 

Strawberry bavois with vanilla shortbread and strawberry and lime salsa

Honey and cumin roasted aubergine bruschetta with pomegranate and rocket

 ANOTHER RECIPE! I'm not doing to badly here.

Aubs Bruschetta

Of course it hasn't all been work and no fun... I have met some incredible people, and been bunked up with the nicest roomies I could possibly have asked for. We spend a lot of time laughing together, eating yummy stuff, and of course drinking...

On Monday was Bastille day and we took ourselves for drinks in Saint Emillion, about 20 minutes away from here. Don't think we could have chosen a more beautiful spot if we tried...

This is Beautiful Saint Emillion, where the macaroon was invented

A bottle of Les Domeniers Rose

And the other day, much to Tiphaine,our French roomies, disapproval we went for beers in Libourne... Right out side her high school. Oops.

After work beer and crisps in Libourne

Seeing as we live in such a beautiful spot, and the weather is so gorgeous at the moment, it's also rather nice to just kick back and watch the sunset from our stoep... I bring over the left overs from that days lunch or dinner, someone else whips out a cold beer and we just enjoy the scenery and each others company.

An ice cold beer and a beautiful sunset... Doesn't get much better

 I've even been lucky enough to try some really good wine. A couple of nights ago, my bosses treated me to a glass of one of the best wines in the world- Chateau d' Yquem. What a lucky girl I am!

Chateau d' Yquem

This was literally the first time I've tasted a dessert wine and really liked it. Though 'like' may be an understatement. I loved it!! Especially paired with the summer fruit pavlovas I made, with fresh figs, nectarines, strawberries, granadilla, and Chantilly cream. YUM!

 

On that note, I've just heard someone come home, the weather is gorgeous outside, and I'm sure we have some wine downstairs... 

Happy Thursday and Happy cooking :)

My Food Adventure Begins

I have spent so much time, starring at photo's of other people's adventures. So much time being jealous and wishing I was on an adventure of my own. In another country, learning new things, experiencing different cultures and eating everything that crosses my path.

It still feels like a dream, but I am finally on that adventure... I am taking the photo's and sharing them, as memories, and also with the secret hope that someone back home will be just a little jealous of my adventure.





Chateau Gaby

Meet Gaby, my place of work and home for the next 3 months! She is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She also has 2 beautiful kitchens. I can't wait to use them!!

I know it's really hard to believe, but the view from Gaby, is even more spectacular than the view of Gaby. It's all green, the gorgeous vineyards, that by the end of the summer will be covered in grapes, and the beautiful Dordogne River in the back ground.

The view from my bedroom window

Of course though, this is a food blog. Not a NA-NA-NA-NA-NA look how beautiful France is blog, so let me tell you about the food!

On my first night here, I was all alone, but some how it is so beautiful here I was too distracted to be lonely. I cooked myself a super simple dinner, seeing as I was starving and exhausted.

Roasted veggies and cous cous. I just threw a courgette, a yellow pepper, some rosa tomatoes and a shallot in the oven with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Made a basic dressing for my cous cous, and had a romantic date with myself.

Cous Cous Salad

I woke up early the next day and asked Damien, the wine maker to take me shopping... All I bought was bread and cheese. It was all I wanted.

 

I then had an even more romantic cheese date with myself, and the most incredible unpasteurized camembert I have ever tasted. It smelt like sweaty gym socks, but tasted like waterfalls and rainbows... Or maybe Grape Vines and Rivers. Basically heaven.

The new love of my life

Because I was so excited about the damn cheese I completely forgot to plan ahead for dinner, and just as I had resided myself to the fact that I had no dinner, Damien knocked on my door.

 

French(that is important) Damien asked me if "I like to come drink wine and eat braai(yes, he said braai)." Um, let me think about that... Wine and food?? YES I LIKE TO COME DRINK WINE AND EAT BRAAI!!! YES, YES, YES!!!

 

I arrived next door at the tasting room to find the most amazing group of people drinking wine and being festive. There were torn baguettes on the table with cured meats and andouillette and OH SO MUCH wine!

 

I wish I could have photographed it all, but I couldn't explain my trigger happy photographic ways, so I decided to let it be a memory. A beautiful memory.

 

Although everyone was French speaking they all made a special effort to include me in the conversation, no matter how good/bad their English was/wasn't.

 

We drank tons of gorgeous wines from all over the world, and then they brought out the braai.

Isn't this just the most picture perfect braai?

When Damien had told me we weren't braaiing anything special, "just some beef-tsss tsss" I had no idea he meant we are braaiing half a cow.

 

I have never in my life seen such big steaks, all of which were cooked to absolute medium-rare perfection.

Damien, and a dinner plate sized steak

And all this beef was served with some of the most delicious, fresh salads- tabouleh, mimosa and a pickled tongue salad.

 

Yum!

 

Followed by- Cheese... So much yummy cheese. And then?
3 beautiful cakes from a near by patisserie.

 

Oh and let's not forget, MORE WINE!

 

Needless to say, the next day was not my best, but where better to sit and read a book, sip home-made ice tea and work off a hang over than on a French wine estate??

 

Home-Made Berry and Rooibos Ice Tea

Today we went to the market, and to visit some of the patisseries in the near by town Libourne. It was like a died and went to food heaven. I didn't know where to start or how to stop.

some of the beautiful pastries

More pastries

And More!

Selection of massive meringues

So much beautiful seafood to choose from

Yet another set of pastries

The biggest, most beautiful artichoke

 

Amazingly there was some level of restraint, and all I purchased was a coffee caramel éclair(that tastes even better than it sounds) and lunch.

Lunch

Lunch consisted of a fresh baguette, some cured ham,  my new favourite cheese, sundied tomatoes and marinated artichokes.

 

I could eat like this everyday. It's absolute heaven. Now just to figure out what's for dinner. Any suggestions?

 

Germany 14

I could literally spend hours talking about the experiences I have had in beautiful Cologne over the past 3 weeks, but I could spend days talking about all the food (yes, I have eaten that much). Right now I am too scared to stand on a scale as I have no idea what it might tell me, but I have not been this happy in a long time!

 

Aside from the most amazing breakfasts with the largest selections of cold meats, cheeses, breads and pastries. Lunch is a pretty serious thing here.

 

 Here we eat a warm lunch rather than dinner, and ignoring my Grans protests, I managed to photograph some of them.

 

We have eaten schnitzels with potatoes(Oh my Oh my do they have yummy potatoes here) and salad, kgs upon kgs of white asparagus, including an asparagus ragu with spinach linguine, Bratwursts, Braai's with ALL the trimmings(including South African style ribs which I made by Opi's request, as according to him- WE DO THEM BETTER!!!), roasted veggies with lentil fritters, dumplings, pizza's and so much more.

 

Schnitzel with Grilled Potatoes and Salad

Roasted Veggies with Lentil Fritters... AND BEER.

Aside from all the amazing cooking we have done(my gran has done and I have sat next to her in the kitchen so I could take credit), I have also eaten out a few times.

There were of course the impromptu visits to the chip stands for cones of pommes frites, and the sneaky little spinach and feta pastry from the bakery around the corner, but we also visited some restaurants... 3 times to be exact, and all 3 times happened to be Italian... Maybe I like Pasta???

 

Firstly we went to the cutest little Italian place down the road, with real Italians in the kitchen, where I had an amazing prawn pasta, set my mouth on fire with their "slightly hot" spice mixture and fell in love with the décor...

 



Tables were decorated with glass on top

 

I NEED THESE APRONS!

 

My delicious prawn and spinach pasta

 

The best kind of salad, the sauce is so yum you forget you're eating something healthy

 

The second time my sister took me to lunch in Bonn. We went to a more modern Italian restaurant and ate raviolis... She had Sundried tomato and fig ravioli, with sage butter and pine nuts and I had Salmon and cream cheese ravioli with lemon and herb butter. Unfortunately the food looked so amazing we swallowed it hole before either of us remembered my annoying habit of taking photos of food :/
 



I did how ever take a photo of the Menu

The third and last time, we ordered pizza... HOLY MOLY! I have never quite eaten such a tasty pizza with such yummy toppings, not even my home made ones...

 

Salami, mushrooms, olives, peppers and onions
 



Gran was slightly shocked at the size of her pizza and convinced they sent her a large instead of a medium. I jokingly suggested she just measure it... So she did. It was big, but it was medium :) I was happy because I had left overs.

 

As if lunch was all... We are also firm believers in tea time. Not just tea time, but actually tea and snack time... Tea and sweet snacks to be exact. Or coffee and sweet snacks for that matter.

 

We have eaten every variety of bought pastries and tartlets, as well as at least 10kgs of strawberries, but on the odd day where we thought the kitchen looked inviting we also baked...

Lemon Meringue Cuppy Cakes with Marzipan Roses and White Chocolate Shards

 

I've created the worlds youngest, and greatest cupcake fan :)

Because he was such a great fan, he got his own Teddy Bear





Super excited about his very own "African" Snake cupcake

Chocolate Brownies as per request :)

Recipe?? Check out the video ;)

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

 

Cheese cake and ice coffee :)
 

 

Antique coffee shop where everything was for sale, and nothing matched

 

Let's not forget the tiny little Ice-Cream's we reward ourselves with after a 20km cycle...

 

Yes... That is what you think it is! Toblerone :)

And all the drinking... Punches and Hugo's and Beer... LOTS OF BEER... and Wine in 1l bottles and Liquorschens and and and...

Our Sangrea

 

All this, and the real adventure hasn't even begun. On Wednesday I am off to France, Bordeaux to be a little more specific, to spend the summer working at a Chateaux... Yes, summer. I am missing the miserable winter back home to have a year long summer. Man, I love my European passport.