As much as I love Cape Town when the south-easter blows it puts a serious dent in my lunch time plans.
In summer, during the day I favour outdoor eating. It’s just so much more interesting when you have the passing parade of the world to accompany your meal. Never mind all the beautiful locations our city has to offer. Plus you can smoke, although who knows for how much longer.
But when the wind is pumping thee are limitations. Faced with this dilemma I scoured the new Eat Out guide for something suitable for a late, leisurely Saturday lunch with a dear friend whom I hadn’t seen for far too long.
I found it in the form of Fork, which worked out brilliantly right from the get-go. I rang them up to find out if they could accommodate us. Ed Saunders, who is one of the owners, answered the phone and said we were most welcomed to come along any time we were ready. Yes, indeed, I could smoke in his establishment, either downstairs or outside in the tiny balcony. Is it not windy, I inquired? Not at all, he reassured me. No need to book either he said. “Come. We’ll look after you”.
All right then.
Fork is a tapas bar, and that style of eating seemed perfect for our needs. Small potions made with sharing in mind, and enjoyed over a couple of hours were just what we needed while catching up on months’ worth of gossip.
Fork is quite a small, intimate venue, with lots of dark wooden beams and exposed brick walls.
A fat leather couch sits in front of the ground floor window, looking out onto Long Street and a steep, narrow staircase leads to the upper level. The balcony is the size of a postage stamp but has two massive white leather couches flanking a low table, and two more small tables with chairs.
As it happened, the wind had picked up in the hour since Ed and I spoke, but it was still pleasant outside, so we chose to sit down there. Small as it is, we didn’t feel crowded or cramped by the other customers.
From the small but comprehensive wine list we chose a bottle of Krone Borealis (R135) with a bottle of mineral water (R16) on the side. Ed brought us some complementary bruschetta topped with tomato and basil, and tuna mayo.
Fork has a brilliant lunch special of five tapas plus a wine and coffee for R50. It was an offer too good to refuse and gave us something to nibble while we chatted and decided what else to order. Because we didn’t have the wine or coffee, Ed made good by giving us a free glass of bubbly later.
The five tapas- one portion of each- were a ball of deep fried goat’s cheese with sundried tomato biscuits and port and onion marmalade; smoked salmon roll with goat’s cheese; a Moroccan meatball in rich tomato sause; a chicory leaf filled with cos lettuce in a gorgonzola dressing; and a triangle of puff pastry stuffed with roasted peppers. It was an excellent start.
We were given a plate each topped with a useful thick tea towel to serve as a napin, and a fork. There are no knives because the food is served in small portions which can just be popped in the mouth.
Some time later we ordered full portions (four on a plate) of tiger prawns wrapped in pancetta with yellow pepper sauce, diced tuna loin (perfectly medium-rare) with cannelloni bean salad and an artichoke and pecorino salad.
Most of ht tapas are either R45 or R30, with three at R15. The hardest part of your meal is going to deciding what to order. There isn’t a single item I would turn my nose up at, from grilled Portuguese sardines or a fried nest of pasta with basil pesto to pan-fried quail or mini kudu fillets with orange potato puree.
Later, I gave in to the Serrano ham and onion croquettes, which were fabulous. Actually, everything was- the food, the setting and the friendly service. Our glasses were never empty, which is always a good sign. I look forward to working my way through the menu.
The bill came to R383 without a tip, and herein lies the danger of eating tapas- it’s very easy to get carried away.