Time for a Taste

So, this weekend was the annual Taste of Joburg festival :) I went (as always) to the Saturday afternoon session and I'll be honest and say I didn't think this was the best one I've been to, but purely from a food perspective. Usually I really struggle to narrow down my choices and leave completely stuffed unable to eat any dinner in the evening.

Like last year it was a sweltering hot day to be wandering around eating and drinking in the sun. But I did try some awesome things. I think *everyone* thought that by far the favourite of the day was The Dining Room at The Grace's Molecular chocolate and ricotta marshmallow with caramel and nougat sauce. (And it is unusual for me to think a dessert is the best item here, but it was divine!).

I generally stuck with my favourite restaurants (I think I eat at the same restaurants at Taste every year - haha!) but did notice that there was an awful lot of thai/asian restaurants this year. Which I've always tended not to eat at Taste ... I don't exactly know why, but it feels like a waste since I eat thai food quite often.

Anyway, I think my 2nd favourite dish was the Home-cured Scottish salmon marinated in curry infused olive oil, apple and cucumber pickle with sour cream caviar from dw eleven - 13 (a new one to try!). I had heard mention of this restaurant before but have yet to actually eat there myself.

I wasn't super impressed with the Crispy chicken, cranberry and pistachio ravioli with wild mushroom ragout from Piccolo Mondo at The Michelangelo. It was like they deep-fried the ravioli and the flavours were quite what I was hoping for. But, that said we did have the most delish Creme Brulee Milkshakes from their stall :) Yummy.

That said, there is always something that every restaurant is offering. Last year the thing that sticks in my memory is that everything seemed to be served with risotto, this year it seems to be ravioli. I far prefered the Black tiger prawn & pea ravioli with champagne chervil butter from The Attic to the one from I had from Piccolo Mondo.

I tried some Deep-fried Dalewood Wineland Blue camembert with Cape gooseberry compote from La Belle Terrasse at The Westcliff which was also very nice although I'm not a fan of the deep-fried bread crumb stuff.

I also couldn't come to Taste and not eat something from roots @ Forum Homini, so I had their Strawberry crumble with ginger ice cream. Wow, the ice cream was divine :)

I finished the day off with Karma's 3 nut curry (Creamy butternut, cashew nut and coconut curry with roti). Ordinarily I also wouldn't eat at Karma here, it feels too boring. But I haven't eaten at their actual restaurant in years (since I discovered Ghazal's!) and now we're even thinking of doing one of Karma's cooking evenings, it sounds like fun!

The only thing I missed from last year was the Amarula tent :( But this year I did buy myself an awesome little Indian cook book by Yudhika.

On Sunday I woke up with a plan to get stuff done. I hit builders warehouse in a quest for crafting supplies (wire, pliers, super glue) and got started on my digital dress-up outfit for a party later that day. I also bought some seeds and cleared out the dead pot plants and got sowing as well as cleaning out the fish pond. Wow is that a marathon task! Also, I sure hope my 2 remaining fish survive now that there's less place to hide from the cats :( It felt good.

And then it was off to ami for a party with the work-crowd dressed in digital.