Cappuccino

RB magazine rated Vida e Caffe, Mugg & Bean, Woolworths, Indulge and Nino's.

Criteria were price, service, accompaniments, how served, froth, appearance, temperature, quality. We're Vida loyalists so were surprised to find it was beaten by Woolies Cafe and Indulge.

The overall scores were as follows:

Woolies Cafe - 166

Indulge - 152.5
Vida e Caffe - 151.5

Nino's 148.5

Mugg & Bean 125

Woolies scored high on foam rating, price and quality. Although they're not the cheapest the judges felt it offered value for money.

Indulge got highest score out of all the categories for way it served its coffee. Vida got good marks for temperature. Mugg scored lowest on froth, appearance and quality.

Cappuccino prices charged at the outlets:

Mugg & Bean 14.90 - most expensive with worst overall score.

Vida 13.00

Woolies 14.00

Indulge 13.00
Nino's 13.00

Apparently the magazine is going to be doing these kinds of surveys regularly so we'll keep you posted.

Let us know where you've grabbed a decent coffee lately!

Source: Restaurant Business May 2009

Frugal Food

Cape Town Restaurants Winter Specials:

Andiamo Two pastas + two glasses of wine R100Everyday, lunch and dinner
021 421 3687
Alba Lounge Two pastas and two glasses of wine for R100 Everyday
021 425 3385
Aubergine Two courses R185 / three courses R245 Everyday
021 465 4909
Bravo 1kg of prawns for R69 Monday to Friday lunch and Tuesday evenings until the end of June
021 439 5260
Beluga Two course lunch R125 / three course dinner R165 Every day until the end of September don’t forget their year round specials: 1kg prawns R100 / 26 piece sushi platter R100 / half price sushi until 7pm
021 4182948
Bungalow Crayfish R100 / Lamb Shank R100 / half price cocktails & tapas between 5pm and 7pm Everyday
021 438 0007
Caprice Two of their legendary burgers for the price of oneLunch and dinner, Monday to Thursday 3 course meal with Heineken R80 Friday nights
021 438 8315
Catharina’s Two course set lunch menu with glass of wine R125 / three course set lunch menu with glass of wine R165 / three course set dinner menu with glass of wine R195 Everyday
021 713 3222
Five Flies Two course menu + glass of wine R125 Monday, Wednesday & Friday
021 424 4442
Geisha Half price sushi & dim sum before 7pm / 25% of noodle dishes Everyday
021 439 0533
Harbour House Three course R150 / two course R130Everyday except Sunday lunches
021 788 4133
Henri’s in Somerset West Three courses R120 Everyday until end June
021 852 6442
Myoga Six course menu R150, paired with wines R225 Dinner only, everyday until end August
021 657 4545
Pepenero Rump with fries and sauce R80 / half price sushi / seafood platter for one R110 / 1kg of prawns with chips or rice R100 / oysters R9 each / sushi platter R90 / Osso Bucco with mash R90 / pasta of the day R55 Everyday
021 439 9027
Salushi (Claremont)Half price sushi until 5pm / standard starter + noodle dish R70 Everyday
021 671 4271
Sinns Two courses with a glass of wine R100 / three courses with a glass of wine R125Everyday
021 465 0967
Tank Half price sushi Everyday 021 419 0007
The Foodbarn Three course meal R175 Everyday
021 789 1390
The Kove Parties of 4 get one of the meals free / half price on entire menu between 5pm & 6:45pm / 2 courses with glass of wine R100, 3 courses with glass of wine R130 Everyday
021 438 0004
Tobago’s at the Radisson 25% off tables of 4 or more Until end of June
021 441 3000
Tuscany Beach Order two main courses, get one free / 20% of all sushi and oystersEvery night and lunches Monday to Friday
021 438 1213

Buitenverwachting Three courses + carafe of wine R230Everyday until end September
021 794 3522
Constantia Uitsig Three lunch courses R200, with carafe of wine R230 / 3 dinner courses R240, with carafe of wine R280 Everyday until end September
021 794 6500
Cuvee at Simonsig Two courses with a glass of wine R125 / three course with a glass of wine R165Until end June
021 888 4932
Jonkershuis at Groot Constantia Starter & main from the Cape Malay themed buffet R100 / add dessert R110 6pm to 9pm weekdays until end August
021 794 6255
La Colombe Three lunch courses R210, with carafe of wine R240 / 3 dinner courses R250, with carafe of wine R290 Everyday until end September
021 794 6500
Terroir Two courses R150 / three courses R195 Everyday until end September
021 880 8167

Cape Colony restaurant at the Mount Nelson Four course pairing R350 Last Thurs of each month until end October
021 483 1948
Salt at the Ambassador hotel Four course pairing R350 Last Thursday of each month until end October
021 439 7258
Cafe Sofia Cooked breakfast for R20Every day
Sevruga Twenty six piece sushi platter R110 / seafood tasting platter R110 / sushi half price between 2pm and 5pm and all day sunday
021 421 5134
Societi Bistro & Labia Two pizzas + two Labia movie tickets R70Monday and Tuesdays
021 418 9483

Personal Food

You've heard all the lingo - traceability; sustainable; local etc. A company in USA have taken this trend and actually implemented it to service all customers; not just those shopping at organic farmers markets.

“Stone-Buhr has created a simple, easy-to-use website for you to locate the family farms that grew the grain that we milled to create your flour. We believe it is important to support these multi-generational family farmers who are producing quality wheat in a responsible and sustainable manner. Simply type in your product's lot code in the field to the left, and we'll introduce you to the local growers responsible for the final product you hold in your hands”. Check out http://www.findthefarmer.com/

The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of chocolates, oranges and other foods want to create relationships between consumers and farmers, reverting back to pre-industrialised food manufacturing, where close food ties had not yet been broken.

Traceability can be good for more than just soothing the culinary consciences of foodies. Traceability can be used as a way to minimize the impact of food scares like the recent peanut salmonella crisis in USA (The Peanut Corp. of America had to recall hundred thousands of dollars worth of product after a salmonella outbreak! To date 2100 products in 17 categories affecting 200 companies!). The theory: if food producers know they’re being watched, perhaps they’ll be more careful?

Apart from accountability, food manufactured with trace and locality offers a "made with care", "personal" appeal. We are going to bite into that bread or pastry and know whose hands were on the product. When eating your scone you’ll now say ‘Oh my, there’s a real person behind this’.

We've all seen the enlarged photographs of farmers on display in Woolworths. This website concept takes it to a whole other level.

Way to go!

sources:

http://www.findthefarmer.com

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/Salmonellatyph.html

http://www.nytimes.com

Easy Peasy

We thought we'd give you something quick to make while you're at home these public holidays:

Mushy Pea Dip

500g frozen peas, cooked according to packet instruction then drained
1 Tbs butter
1/4 cup sour cream or smooth cottage cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Blitz all together in a food processor until smooth.
Serve with pita chips / nachoes or even with fried fish and chips, yum!

Tweet Tweet

We love twitter!

Some of our favourites:
www.twitter.com/cookbook

www.twitter.com/jamie_oliver

www.twitter.com/vidaecaffe

You may ask what use is twitter to us? So big is this phenomenon that Pizza Hut has advertised a job for a “Twittern” – a social media whiz with the ability to communicate in 140 characters, to help manage their twitter account!

Come follow us and tweet!

www.twitter.com/C3FoodServices

Cape Town Pride

Jamie Oliver’s new magazine features Gugulethu restaurant, Mzoli’s Place. Apparently Jamie Oliver sampled a variety of meats and swapped recipes with Mzoli himself. Fantastic international recognition for Mzoli! Perhaps the next venue for our quarterly meet?

Check out his website www.jamieoliver.com/magazine for a preview of the article.

Wish we were there...

Deidre won a trip to Israel and sent us this update! Lucky fish!