It seems like the beverage I imbibed the most in the Cape Town area was wine. They have a wine region about an hours drive from Cape Town. We rented a car and drove, which took some getting used to. Here are the tips we picked up when driving on the left side of the road:
1. Hug the left – when you turn left, you keep to the inner left lane and when you turn right you need to go to the outer left lane.
2. The left/right turn signal is located on the right of the steering wheel, otherwise you will be turning on windshield wipers if your try to turn the signal on with your left hand.
3. There are a lot of “round-a-bouts” and the vehicle on your right always has the right of way. Exits are on the left side of the road.
4. Cape Town pedestrians love to jay walk and walk right in front of cars, so you need to be aware.
We went to a couple different wineries and Rust En Vrede was definitely the best experience. There is a winemakers lunch Monday thru Friday on a first come, first serve basis. When we went, the options were either salmon and potatoes or steak and fries. I went with the steak and fries and it was perfectly cooked and seasoned. And get this – it only costs R240 (240 Rand is about $20 US dollars). And it is paired with a glass of red wine.
I also did the tasting of their higher quality single vineyard wines: 2014 Syrah, 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, and their high end “1694 classification” series. 1694 was the year the winery was founded so they honor this with their most expensive wine. Since we could order wines to ship to California I ordered one bottle of the 1694 (R1300 or about $140) to ship back home, and I bought a bottle of the Syrah (R950 or ~ $79) to bring in my check-in (it also comes in a solid wooden box).
Pacific Oysters (from the East Coast of Africa)
African oysters are pretty damn good. I only tried west coast oysters from Zenzero at the beach area called Camps Bay and east coast Pacific oysters from Kynsa Oyster Company at the V&A waterfront. I didn’t catch the specific name of either oyster but both were very briny and paired well with the Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc. At Kynsa they also offer different sizes (xlarge, large, and medium) and they were all very delicious but the smaller ones were tastier.
Origin Coffee
This was a serious coffee spot. If you are a coffee person you owe it to yourself to visit Origin and go for the Trio Tasting Board. You choose a coffee bean from a single origin and they make the coffee for you in three different ways. The first two are given: espresso and a flat white. But the third method you can choose. You should watch the baristas as they make your drink – they really are skilled and knowledgeable. I chose the siphon method and it really makes the drink much smoother and palatable without any need for additional sugar or creamer.
Here are some pictures of the other food we tried in Cape Town:
An hour south of Cape Town is a cool little place called Boulders Beach where you pay 70 Rand to enter the park and walk amongst hundreds of cute little African penguins. Totally worth the drive because I don’t think I could get this close to penguins anywhere in the states.
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