Eggs benedict at the Steenberg

Over the weekend, I was sifting through my photos of my trip to South Africa last year, when we went to Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve in Greater Kruger National Park.

This was such a wonderful trip.

Smoked salmon at the Steenberg

Then I found some very nice photos from this trip, which I promptly sent off to the Travel Companion, to remind him of what a happy time we had.

Scroll down to read more….

This sparked a bit of an exchange, and I ended up sending him a very long message via my Blackberry.

He replied: “That must be the longest BBM in history.“

I had to agree.

Anyway, I took lots of food photos on our trip to South Africa last year — way more than on our trip to Tanzania this year, in fact — because we had so many delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

So I thought I’d share with you what breakfast was like at the Steenberg, a five-star luxury hotel in the suburbs of Constantia, which is about 20 minutes from Cape Town.

Bananas and blueberries at the Steenberg

It’s the oldest working farm on the Cape, and it’s been voted one of the best luxury experiences in Africa.

I have to say that if you get booked in the Khoi Khoi Suite, which is probably their best suite, it most certainly is.


It’s like having a very nice duplex apartment.

Sparkling wine with breakfast

Breakfast here was excellent, as well.

The Steenberg has a lovely cold breakfast buffet set-up.

And on the menu for hot breakfast items was a Cape Malay omelette, which we decided to try.

It was spicy and so very good.

Cape Malay Omelette

Even now, I remember how wonderful it was.

This was my last proper breakfast, by the way, on this particular trip to Africa, living a never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

The post Breakfast at the Steenberg in Constantia, South Africa appeared first on TRAVELIFE Magazine.

Reflecting at the start of 2013 on the wonderful TRAVELIFE that was in 2012, this is part of a series of blog entries that looks at the best aspects of our never-ending, and never-endingly eventful travels. 

This year was so full of indescribable and inspiring experiences — and we’re certainly looking forward to an even more wonderful Travelife in 2013. 

A blessed New Year to everyone

from all of us at Travelife Magazine.

We wish you a year of happiness

and an amazing Travelife.

————————-

Cape Town’s Table Mountain

In fact, thinking about it now, I don’t know why it took me so long to get to South Africa.

It’s a beautiful country blessed with amazing nature, a great lifestyle, and some of the best wining and dining on the planet. Boy, did we eat in some fabulous places. And it’s not even very far compared to Europe.

From Hong Kong, it took us about the same time to get to Johannesburg as to fly to Paris. 12 hours, and on both ways, we just pushed the “flat bed” button and slept for most of the way. Talk about a pretty painless flight.

And guess what. South African Airways has amazing deals from Manila to Johannesburg via Hong Kong. I saw their advertisement in our current Travelife issue (December 2012 – January 2013) and the prices made me do a double take.

FLY SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS

Manila to Johannesburg for as low as US$795

Manila to Cape Town for as lowas US$928

www.flysaa.com

Tel 884-8129

————————————————————————–

Then came the fun part.

I volunteered to do the basic planning for the trip because no one can really plan a trip the way we can – we are Travelife Magazine after all, the Philippines’ leading travel and lifestyle magazine. Honestly. I’ve seen lots of seasoned travelers plan their trips pretty nicely, but so far no one — absolutely no one — can plan a seamless and truly interesting trip like us, regardless of destination.

We always include really interesting things to do, we stay in very nice hotels, and we never bungle flights, trains or restaurant reservations because we know what to do about these.

But back to South Africa. I did remember to ask my friend for his wish list, and fortunately it was the same as mine: seeing the Big 5 on a best-of-breed safari, discovering the new hype and vibes of Johannesburg, and exploring the great dining and wine opportunities in the Cape Town area.

Read us every Sunday in the Business Mirror

Knowing my penchant for luxury, perhaps, he left all the hotel choices to me, so I basically chose all the places I’ve always wanted to stay in on a South Africa trip.

These are the places I chose for our trip:

The Westcliff

An Orient Express Hotel

Johannesburg

Sabi Sabi Game Reserve Selati Camp and Earth Lodge Greater Kruger National Park

Le Quartier Francais
Franschhoek

La Residence

Franschhoek

The Mount Nelson Hotel

An Orient Express Hotel

Cape Town

The Steenberg Hotel

Constantia

Then, after I was done with the basics, I turned over the itinerary to him as “homework,” to finish off with things he wanted to do – like go to the top of Table Mountain, visit Robbens Island, where Nelson Mandela was jailed for over two decades, and book all those great cutting-edge restaurants he’s so keen on.

After emailing him the basically finalized itinerary, regarding the non-dining and wining parts of the itinerary, I told him: “Everything not mentioned in this itinerary is part of your homework. You can plan the free time any way you wish and I’m happy to go along as long as you leave enough time for breakfast and get us back in time to dress for dinner.”

We have the same general interests and we both like good dinners — even if he is way more of a “World’s Best Restaurants 2012” kind of person than I am — so I was sure it would work out in the end.

FB.init(“d6b2d6569a5491d882e5b05c3089b336”);

The post Best of a Travelife 2012: Our trip to South Africa was the most enjoyable to plan appeared first on TRAVELIFE Magazine.

Towards the end of our trip to South Africa, we visited the winery of our hotel, the Steenberg, on the beautiful Steenberg estate in the wine region of Constantia, for a very enjoyable wine-tasting.

If you ever find yourself in the Cape Town area on a TRAVELIFE, I strongly recommend a stay and a wine-tasting at the Steenberg.

The picturesque Steenberg Hotel

The hotel itself is so lovely, in a very understated way. Everything is immaculate and beautifully arranged, but there is nothing in excess. The houses and rooms you stay in are located in farmhouses that have been in existence for centuries, as this is the oldest farm in the Cape area.

I chose this hotel because I wanted an authentic old-fashioned Cape area experience, but with all the luxuries and comforts of a Travelife. In this sense, it was absolutely perfect.

Wine tasting at the Steenberg

The Steenberg winery itself is about a kilometer away from the Steenberg hotel, but as it was a perfect day in terms of the weather, we decided to walk from the hotel grounds to the winery via the vineyards.

What a nice walk this was, and it made us feel like we were still on safari. We saw all kinds of birds and squirrels.

The nice long walk from the hotel to the winery on the Steenberg estate

The winery itself was modern and beautiful. It has a wine-tasting bar, a tasting lounge, and a lovely outdoor terrace.

When you’re seated on its terrace, looking out onto the manicured gardens and contemporary artworks, you don’t really know where in the world you are. That’s the feeling I had.

You also get a great view of local landmarks like Constantiaberg, Elephant’s Eye and the Steenberg vineyards.

The view from the bar. This terrace is also very popular for afternoon tea and cocktails.

It sort of  looked like Switzerland because of the hills, but the contemporary vibe could be California, and some part of it felt like France. But there we were in South Africa, 20 minutes from Cape Town and an hour away from the Cape of Good Hope, which is practically the end of the world.

What makes this most interesting is that it’s very contemporary in design, but the Steenberg vineyard and farm is actually the oldest in the Cape area.

We sat at the magnificent bar, under an amazing artwork of a chandelier created out of resin and glass and inspired by the grape, of course.

The stunning chandelier of the Steenberg winery.

The very friendly ladies at the bar took us through the wines they had for tasting that day, and we started out with a very dry and yet fruity Steenberg Brut 1682 Pinot Noir 2007. This had overtones of berries and it was delicious.

We sampled all kinds of wines that night, as the sun set on the horizon, including a Steenberg Nebbiolo 2008 and Steenberg Semillon 2009.

But the one that stood out was a wine named in honor of the first owner of this beautiful estate. Her name was Catharina, and the wine — as well as the Steenberg’s flagship restaurant and the main drive — is named after her.

The wine was called Steenberg Catharina, and it’s a full bodied red with dark overtones of Cabernet.

THE AMAZING CATHARINA

The Catharina wine of the Steenberg. And a wonderful 2009 vintage.

Catharina was a widow who stowed away on a boat from Europe to South Africa disguised as a man, in order to start a new life in South Africa. When she got to South Africa, she managed to buy her own property — and this was the beginning of the beautiful Steenberg estate.

This was in the 17th century, by the way, when it was so unthinkable for a woman to either stow away to South Africa or to buy her own property. But obviously she was made of steel.

The last drop of the legendary Catharina

And perhaps the most interesting story here is that she had five husbands, and she outlived all of them except the last one. One husband, in fact, was supposedly killed by a lion on their wedding night; and it was rumored that Catharina went out into the night and killed the lion before dawn.

Obviously, with a woman like that and a story like that, the wine we had was very powerful. I finished my glass deep in thought, my mind on Catharina and her amazing story.

The post The legend of Catharina and wine-tasting at the Steenberg in Cape Town appeared first on TRAVELIFE Magazine.

The understatedly elegant Steenberg Hotel

Our last full day in beautiful South Africa began with a very nice breakfast at the Steenberg, a lovely winery and boutique hotel in Constantia, in the suburbs of Cape Town, that had been one of the hotels on my “must stay at” bucket list.

Our breakfast was prepared by Steenberg’s executive chef Garth Almazan, whose grandfather was actually Filipino, and we had a chat with him when we went over for breakfast.

Garth has never been to the Philippines, though, and I understand that we were the Steenberg’s first guests from the Philippines. Hopefully that’ll change, as it’s a beautiful and historic estate from 1700 run on five-star deluxe standards but offering all the tranquility and beauty of the winelands.

You read about the Steenberg here, by the way…

The scenery from the car, in this part of South Africa. Beautiful, even on a cloudy day.

A prestigious international magazine recently ranked a stay here as one of the top 500 travel experiences in the world — probably for the authenticity of its Cape Town wine experience and its understated elegance.

This was followed by lunch at South Africa’s most famous restaurant, and then an afternoon drive to the Cape of Good Hope, at the very tip of the African continent.

The eggs benedict at the Steenberg

But back to breakfast first.

I ordered eggs benedict for breakfast at practically every hotel we stayed in, in South Africa — so much so that on this very last breakfast day and just I was looking at the menu for hot breakfast dishes, The Boss said to me point-blank: “Stop fooling yourself that you’re going to order something else. Just get it over with and order your eggs benedict.“

The eggs benedict at Sabi Sabi Game Reserve

So that’s what I did. So far I’d had the following eggs benedict in South Africa: 


1) Eggs benedict with ham (at Westcliff in Johannesburg)
2) Eggs benedict in a slightly native style (at the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve)
3) Eggs benedict with crispy bacon (at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town)
4) Eggs benedict with smoked salmon (at the La Residence in Franschhoek).

I’d also had eggs benedict with a very deliciously sour sauce at Le Quartier Francais, a lovely Relais & Chateaux establishment we stayed at with a very famous restaurant attached to it, run by one of South Africa’s most creative chefs.

And that morning, at the Steenberg, the eggs benedict was also very good.

But that morning, on the Steenberg menu, we noticed something we’d never seen so far: a Cape Malay omelette. So of course we ordered that as well, and it came spicy with lots of vegetables, and in an open omelette style so that the bottom stayed dry and the top was moist.

The Steenberg’s delicious Cape Malay omelette

It was very good and a nice change from happy days and more happy days of eggs benedict.

So for my last proper breakfast in South Africa, I had my usual fruit plate to start, and then half an eggs benedict and half a Cape Malay omelette to end.

The awards won by La Colombe

Then for lunch we went to La Colombe, a nearby restaurant that is probably South Africa’s best-known restaurant. It was considered the best restaurant in the entire Africa and the Middle East for several years, but I haven’t really kept up to see where it’s ranked now.

The chef at its height of fame was Luke Dale Roberts, the very chef who went on to found the modern and cutting-edge restaurant called Test Kitchen in Cape Town, where we had a pretty fanastic 11-course meal just before coming to stay at the Steenberg in Constantia.

Click here to read about our 11-course dinner at Test Kitchen in Cape Town.

Scroll down to read more…

Casual atmosphere of La Colombe

But even without its former very famous chef, we found the food at La Colombe was nevertheless excellent and very enjoyable.

We got there rather early so we were literally the first customers. This gave us an excuse to look around, and we were surprised at how casual the restaurant was, considering its global fame.

A SURE GUESS

Some of the famous people who’ve eaten at La Colombe

When we were ordering our lunch, the Boss said to me, while looking at the menu: “You’re having the oysters or the foie gras to start and then that Chalmar beef fillet as a main.”

He was again guessing what I would be ordering. Then he looked at me with his usual confidence about everything in his world and said: “Tell me I didn’t guess right.”

Yes, he was right, as usual. He knows what I like to eat and he even knows stupid things such as when I like more salt on my food. Sometimes, he doesn’t even say anything, and he just sprinkles more salt on my food because he thinks it’s going to be too bland for me.

And because the oysters hadn’t arrived yet when we began to order, I had the foie gras first. Midway through the meal, the oysters were delivered so I just had to have these as well, delicately poached in champagne. They were luscious.

This lunch is going to be written about as part of our Africa special in an upcoming issue of Travelife Magazine so I’m not going to dwell on the details, except to say that we had a couple of knock-out dishes in a lunch that consisted of two starters, two mains and two desserts — plus a complimentary starter given to us, maybe because we’d come early.

The after-dessert at La Colombe

THE END OF THE WORLD

Don’t miss a drive to the Cape of Good Hope if you find yourself in Cape Town. We’re so glad we didn’t.

From La Colombe, we headed straight to the Cape of Good Hope, which is about an hour’s drive from La Colombe via picturesque seaside towns and pretty amazing stark scenery.

We had a very nice car but it had the lousiest navigation system in the world. Fortunately, we never got lost on our journey to the end of the world.

Baboons were everywhere in the Cape of Good Hope. I took this from our car.

The weather wasn’t very good, but we’d made up our minds to go and see this last thing on our bucket list for our last day in South Africa.

On the left is the rough Atlantic Ocean, while on the right is the calmer Indian Ocean. You can only see a sliver of the Indian Ocean in this photo.

The Cape of Good Hope is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean, and we climbed all the way to the point where you can literally see the rough seas of the Atlantic Ocean force itself on the calmer Indian Ocean.

Miraculously, the sun shone just as we reached this very crucial point of the earth, and we saw the two oceans meet in great glory.

For a Travelife, it was certainly a must-do to see this point of the earth with our own eyes. And this is exactly where I want to end the story of this journey. At least for now.

The Steenberg

www.steenberghotel.com

FB.init(“d6b2d6569a5491d882e5b05c3089b336”);

The post Lunch at La Colombe and a drive to the Cape of Good Hope for a last day in South Africa appeared first on TRAVELIFE Magazine.