My Friday night was spend at Monte casino –at the Christmas in July organised by the Sunday times. We all had to be dressed warmly in something Christmassy with bellies ready to feast. Our 3 courses were served at 3 separate venues in the Monte Casino prescinct. [I honestly didn’t read this part of the brief and was rather upset about all the walking. I wouldn’t have signed up if I knew]
Starters were served at Punchinellos. We had a crab and mussel bisque with red pepper oil. The blobs of red oil in the bisque weren’t too appealing and it had a very pungent fishy smell[someone mentioned that she was highly offended by the smell of Cape town on her plate!] but was rather pleasant and an interesting mix of flavours. I didn’t finish it but enjoyed it nonetheless.
We then proceeded to trek what seemed like 30km through the casino to get to our next venue for our mains. We landed up at a restaurant called Medeo where we had the following:
Honey and five spice roasted turkey, deboned leg of lamb served with balsamic grilled radicchio and Brussels sprouts, caramelised onions and bacon. [And for those who don’t know what radicchio is, check this out.] The leg of lamb and veggies were great but the turkey was a bit of a let down.
Anyway, at the end of this was our next trek…for dessert! This was certainly the highlight of the evening for me. We landed up at Mondo Vino where we had individual molted chocolate pudding and hazelnut praline. I must tell you that I have a serious nut allergy and could die from consuming nuts. I noticed the hazelnts on the plate and had 2 choices – either send back the dessert and live to see another day OR pretent that they didn’t exist so that I could give you all an accurate and full account of the event. I chose the latter, of course, and only because I wanted to do a thorough job at giving you the full details of the courses and event.
Anyway, at the end of this was our next trek…for dessert! This was certainly the highlight of the evening for me. We landed up at Mondo Vino where we had individual molted chocolate pudding and hazelnut praline. I must tell you that I have a serious nut allergy and could die from consuming nuts. I noticed the hazelnts on the plate and had 2 choices – either send back the dessert and live to see another day OR pretent that they didn’t exist so that I could give you all an accurate and full account of the event. I chose the latter, of course, and only because I wanted to do a thorough job at giving you the full details of the courses and event.
The dessert was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. My little chocolate volcano erupted with chocolate sauce spilling gently over my plate as I scooped my first mouthful. It was warm, gooey and sweet - just what the doctor ordered. Oh, it looked pwetty too…
All was well with the world after this. Merry Christmas everyone...
