Vinatics

Ha ha – I only put that in to make you look! Of course it wasn’t cultured – Vinatics? C’mon now – surely you know us better than that! Somebody did mention Paulo Coelho at some point, and I believe somebody tried to convince us that some of the books are quite good (mentioning no names, but he likes to braai a lot) but we were about to get unfollowed by everybody on Twitter for even mentioning the P-word, so we fined him a glass of Shiraz and carried on. Yes folks – it’s that time of the month again! Vinatics dinner!

KWV wines keep giving us their lovely lifestyle collection and as the seasons change, it’s been a great opportunity to prove their versatility and enjoy them with everything from a braai to a picnic. This month, it was the turn of the latter – if only somebody had told the weatherman.

Assembled at Caro’s house were two of our fave bloggers – the divine Jane-Anne from Scrumptious and her obliging, quote-giving husband Philip, and – finally – Potjie, the lovely Barry, with Mrs Potjie, Alice. Just to intimidate Chef Caro and warm her up for next month’s guests (more later), we invited Kirsten aka Miss K from the fabulous food shop of the same name in Green Point and Irish chef Rachel from the Chefs Warehouse. Add in the three C’s – Cath, Cathy and Caro – and we’re off.

We started the evening with a ‘last minute dot com’ on the quiche. Kirsten had kindly volunteered to make this for us. And promptly forgot about it. So she arrived clutching a pastry case (sweet pastry, as we later discovered, but it tasted just fine to me), some bacon, butternut, feta, cream and eggs and proceeded to whip up a divine looking quiche before I’d even poured out the first glass of wine. And let me tell you, that takes some doing.

In the oven it went and then outside for a good chinwag as to the ins and outs of being foodies in Cape Town – all the gossip, all the ‘Noooo!!!’s, and all the half-arsed opinions – all there and a thoroughly enjoyable conversation it was too.

This Vinatics was a picnic, so we had decided not to be too formal, to serve all the food at the same time and to just enjoy it all with the different wines and see if we found a fave. Right from the start, Barry was batting for the Shiraz and showing reluctance about having the quiche too near him “Real men don’t eat quiche you know!” he bridled in the corner. Luckily, Alice was having none of it and since I noticed that the slice she put on his plate wasn’t there 5 seconds later, I think we can definitely conclude that Potjie is a closet-quiche-lover. Expect to see him in a feather boa and high heels soon.

Having made the quiche, Kirsten was now (at Cath’s star-struck prompting) regaling us with tales of her time as personal chef to Tiger Woods and Cath revealed her sad cravings for fame “I always used to beg Kirsten to bring me something of his and eventually she gave me a plastic cup from the US Masters. I still use it as a toothbrush mug!” Sweet.

I always love having Jane-Anne and Philip at Vinatics dinners because you can rely on the former for good foodie comments and the latter for just good comments. In his opinion “The Pinotage and the quiche is a marriage made in heaven. Both are extremely luscious and remind me of Amanda Holden’s crop circles!”

I am sure that most of you don’t understand this at all, so let me just say www.dailymash.co.uk and leave it there. If you want to know more – on your own head be it. But he was right – the Pinotage was going great guns with the crispy bacon, as – surprisingly – was the Chardonnay.

Most people preferred that with the Honey and Mustard Chicken skewers however, whilst the Smoked Mackerel Pate was best with either the Chenin or the Shiraz. In fact, if we’d listened to Barry, then everything would have gone with the Shiraz, including the green salad and the bread. I think he quite liked it.

Philip produced another good quote about the pairing of the Sauvignon and the Pate “The pate makes the Sauvignon seem shallow and lacking all charm – like Kim Kardashian!” and then topped off his quote night with “The length of that Cabernet is longer than Kim Kardashian’s marriage!” – we’re so up to the minute at Vinatics.

As always, we had now reached that certain, delicate point in Vinatics when I stop recording what people say (mostly because it’s unprintable anyway, but also because pens never seem to work after 9pm….) so some of the later conversation comes from memory.

Which is fine as far as Cath is concerned. She was on rollicking fine form with one excellent quotable line after another dripping from her cherubic-looking lips – she looks like an angel but with the mouth and mind of a fishwife with Tourettes. Barry was reverting to his outward show of masochism and claimed that all green stuff is only garnish, whilst secretly forking up the feta and Caro came to the table with the Chocolate Brownies.

Interestingly enough, the Brownies caused more conversation than the other dish when it came to wine-matching, with most people marvelling at how the chocolate completely changed the Cabernet “The wine doesn’t taste so sweet now” opined Barry whilst Philip declared “I love the mintiness on the Cab now you have it with the chocolate.” But overall, we decided to go with Barry’s choice (he’s considerably bigger than most of us so it seemed sensible) and opt for the Shiraz as food-matcher of the evening.

Another Vinatics, another evening of good food/wine/company and conversation done – with thanks to KWV, all our lovely guests and Chef Caro and Miss K for divine food.

We want to give you a case of wine!!

Yes – we do. Really. So buy yourselves a bottle or two of the KWV Lifestyle collection wines (available in most large retailers), pick a couple of your favourite picnic dishes from the list (or one of your own), enjoy, photograph and tell us all about it! Send in your report to editor@food24.com or link to your blog before the end of the month and we’ll send a case of wine to the best entry. What are you waiting for?? Get picnicking!