food24.com Nov 2010

Fork does tapas best

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Fork on Long Street. Too long. I went to the first in their series of “Wine Dinners” there on Tuesday evening and for R250 you get to taste great wines accompanied by astonishingly good tapas and meet interesting winemakers. Sound good yet?

Fork do tapas differently – they really do need to invent a new name for their brand of tapas. One of the first times I went to Fork I was with my friend Louis, who was visiting from Ireland, and whilst he was thoroughly loving every mouthful he kept saying to the waitress that she could now bring the main course. Some people would agree this is not a good thing, but I don't - because most of the times I eat out the starters always seem to trump the mains in flavor and presentation and I find my taste buds lingering over those clever combinations and nuances of flavour and feeling a little irritated by the arrival of the bulky main course. This is the appeal of tapas and Fork does brilliantly to tantalise your pallet all night long.

On Tuesday we were there to learn more about Reyneke Organic Wines and the winemaker Johan Reyneke gave a hugely interesting talk on biodynamic wine farming. A step further than organic – I was informed. Impressive stuff and very inspiring. Johan studied philosophy at university and this was charmingly evident in his commentary on the wine and the farming style. I thought he was delightful and his wines definitely give you a buzz, as Christian Eedes so aptly put it – especially the whites - but read more on the wines on Christian’s blog post about it.

Chef Jonathan Japha did a sensational job pairing the wines with the tapas and the combinations were nothing short of genius. St Maure and Parma ham with sauvignon jelly paired with the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc (Christian’s favourite). Pan-seared ostrich with spiced apple chutney and lamb cutlet with creamy spring onion and cumin sauce to partner the red blend – the Cornerstone 2008. Crumbed mussels with white wine and cream to partner the Reserve White 2009. Oh and... whoa what a wine! The flourless chocolate cake – I can’t even tell you how many people I have told about this cake. I need that recipe.

So 5 courses of tapas paired with 5 amazing wines and a chance to meet and eat with the winemaker - for R250.

Count me in. Again.