Tuesday evening, we were hosted by our own hotel in their elegant ATLANTIC Restaurant (http://www.suninternational.com/Destinations/Hotels/TableBay/Pages/DiningBars.aspx#) with many of the tables with harbor and Table Mountain views (at least until it is dark out!). The chef Conrad Gallagher hails from Ireland, but the ingredients are again local and fresh. Our white wine was a Chardonnay-Colombard blend 2006 WATERSIDE WHITE from Graham Beck, a winery that exports much to the USA. I am not usually a Columbard fan, but here the blending was minimal and softened the chard to perfection. The red was a fun FUNDI which I never did find out the vintage or the origin of. A certain amount of the proceeds of this 80%Cabernet/20%Merlot blend go to the Cape Wine Academy to help students).
I started with the TUNA TARTARE which one of us actually had as a main course, and the portion was huge indeed, A gorgeous beet red dish of tasty tartare was topped with a raw Quail Egg and the plate had two slivers of sauces: a mild Harissa Paste and a Dijon Mustard Aioli. Next to this were two huge thick slices of barely seared TUNA CARPACCIO with parsley crust and there was also a slice I of yummy grilled Potato Bread on which I would put the tartare in scoops for a fun crunch.
Lychee Sorbet was a palate cleanser and my monstrous main course arrived scaring me a bit (because the starter was so big and so good, I had eaten every bite). The WHOLE LINE FISH of the day was a RED ROMAN which was indeed superb. It is a flaky, slightly fishy, white fish that was divine in the slightly rich LEMON BEURRE BLANC sauce. Baby Carrots and Asparagus abounded, and I tried to get through much of the dish, which I ate carefully as it was a whole fish, and hence slowly, and managed to avoid 99% of the bones.
The only disappointment of my meal was the cheese platter. It was a truly gorgeous presentation of three cheeses, but again a portion large enough for me to share with five others and still have leftovers! The tastiest was the BEETROOT CHEDDAR which had a small bowl of fresh mango with chili on the side for pairing, which was nice, but not ingenious as some cheese pairings I have described to you before. The FARIVIEW Blue was also tasty but not as ripe as it should be and a served a right out of the fridge way too cold. It was paired better with Poached Figs. The FAIRVIEW (these are all local cheeses) CAMEMBERT suffered too much from being nowhere near ripe enough.
Exhausted and full, we all headed off to bed after another day of gastronomic gluttony.
I do have to add that guests of this beautiful hotel (as in most hotels here) get a (yes) monstrous breakfast buffet. It was so huge I had to videotape it. There were tables upon tables of wonderful foods from sushis to salmons to 8 yoghurts and more than twenty fruits, pastries, breads and about two dozen silver domed cafing dishes of eggs, sausauges, bacon, potatoes (3kinds), stuffed tomatoes and more.
