I didn’t want to hit up any of my usual spots, so I decided to consult my trusty EatOut website.  They do this “Best of” thing, for example “Best of… sushi” or “Best of… bistros” and then they give you their top picks for each major city.  In the “Best of… Italian” list for Cape Town I spotted Massimo’s out in Hout Bay.  I checked out their website and looked at one or two online reviews, liked what I saw and decided this would be the dinner spot I would drag two of my friends, Lara & Grant, to that evening.

Now just a tip for getting there.  It’s on Hout Bay Main Rd, but if you’re coming from Cape Town via the Llandadno side and then hit that traffic circle which gets you into Main Rd, turn left at the circle towards Constantia, not right towards Chapman’s Peak.  You see I made this mistake and then got horribly lost.  Add to that the fact that I have seriously poor night vision and that area (and the road to get to Hout Bay) isn’t well lit, you get a minor panic attack.  But hey, nothing a glass of wine couldn’t fix…

Massimo’s is part of a little country style shopping center and sits snug in the far right hand corner.  It’s definitely got a strong country kitchen feel, nothing too flash, just nice and cosy, with lots of wooden details and a big pizza oven right where everyone can see the action.

For starters I tried their soup special which was green pea & mint.  Lara had the Bresaola (air dried sliced beef with parmesan shavings & extra virgin olive oil – R42).  And Grant had the Tagliere (Coppa ham, salame felino, Mortadella, bread & preserves – R42.  So his was basically a plate of meat – just the way die manne loves it right.

My soup was quite blah.  I would have preferred it to have a thicker texture and I needed to add quite a bit of seasoning.  Lara & Grant enjoyed their starters.  Of course, there wasn’t any cooking involved in those 2 dishes, but the ingredients were fresh and tasty.

For mains I was initially totally set on having a pasta.  But as we were sitting there beautiful pizzas kept coming past us and the smell of those freshly prepared stunners totally got to all of us.  Pizza it was!

Lara and I both opted for the half & half option (you only pay R7 extra).  Grant wasn’t as indecisive as us and opted for a normal pizza.  Below you have mine on the left.  I went for half Pere (olive oil, gorgonzola cheese, sliced pears – R72 for full) and half Cacio (garlic butter, Italian sausage, cacio cheese, roasted peppers – R118 for full).  So the cost of mine came to:  R36 + R59 + R7 = R102.  On the right below was Grant’s pizza, he opted for one of the special pizzas for the day.

This pizza was right up my alley.  Super thin and crispy base.  Not too much heavy, rich sauce, like with damn Debonairs pizza. Blegh.  A solid spread of toppings.  Fresh ingredients.  To me it was pizza heaven.

After starters & and a BIG pizza, we were totally stuffed.  Dessert was not on our minds at all… well that was until the table next to us got the most amazing looking baked cheesecake.  We basically drooled all over their table and then were like “for us too please!”.

Yeah, nothing soothes the soul like ass killing cheesecake WITH ice cream… Mmmm…

Now when I mentioned on Twitter that I was heading to Massimo’s, I got a mixed response.  But I must say we really enjoyed ourselves there.  I will give Massimo’s an overall Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating of:

And I will have to go back to try the pasta at some point.  But before I do that I’ll have to do lots of running to get rid of the after effects of this meal first.  I hear “muffin top” is like so not a good look with your skinny jeans this winter.

xxx

It’s a cute little spot which serves up a mix of Italian fashion & food under one roof and then I hear they also serve up some great cocktails.  The menu apparently changes daily and therefore only has a limited number of options.  Decor wise, I absolutely loved it.  It’s quirky and fun with lots of awesome little details which makes for a cool visual impact.

BUT the prices were just plain crazy.  Most lunch options were around the R120 mark and a spaghetti bolognaise was a whopping R130!  I’m sorry, but on no planet am I spending that much on a spag bol daahlings.  Even in Italy, when I was paying in euros, I did not spend that much… craziness I tell ya.  All 3 of us agreed that there wasn’t anything on the menu that looked enticing enough for us to “fork out the cash” so to speak, so we decided to rather opt out and find another place to dine…

We figured we would just walk around the area and see if we could find something else we hadn’t yet tried.  Thing is at that point it was almost 2pm and a lot of the freestanding smaller dining spots in that area close their kitchens at 2pm… problem.  We also tried Cape Quarter, but we weren’t really feelin’ any of the options there.  I was however quite surprised to see that a few places had actually closed down recently - Aqua in the old Cape Quarter for example and then also Vanilla which used to occupy quite a big part of the new extention.  To be honest, neither was a favourite of mine.  Guess other people felt the same.

Eventually we settled in at Soho - a Thai restaurant which is part of the Village Lodge, a 15 room boutique hotel offering bed & breakfast accommodation on Napier St.

Love the building…

The restaurant interior is quite nice.  It has a chic, cosmopolitan feel with lots of rich colours and a very cute bar area:

It was relatively decent weather though, chilly but the sun was out, so we decided to soak up some rays outside instead.  We would have preferred the roof-top pool bar area (which Joe & Ben assure me is a must see), but sadly it was closed for the afternoon.  Not too much of a loss though as it was very chilled out there on the stoep.  They had Cafe Del Mar style tunes pouring out onto the street and you got to take in the beautiful street view:

De Waterkant just has a special feel about it… doesn’t it?

Totally starved by that point, I was ready to dig in.  Joe (who cheated and already had lunch round 1 at home) decided to go for something light.  So he got the fishcake starter and some Tom Yum soup (didn’t get the prices of these two dishes – sorry):

Tord mun pla – deep fried spicy fish cakes served with cucumber salad and a delicate sweet & sour sauce

Thailand’s most famous soup – a spicy hot & sour soup served with mushrooms, lemon grass & coriander.

I on the other hand needed something more substantial, so I went for a green chicken curry (R90 – steamed rice included):

Kaeng kiew wahn – green curry cooked with coconut milk, fresh herbs & thai aubergines

Then Ben who NEVER eats light (seriously this guy can eat… don’t know where he puts it all!), opted for their Phad thai noodles (R85 – also the chicken option):

Phad thai – famous thai noodles with peanuts & bean sprouts

Now I can’t fault the food, everything was really good.  My green curry had such a lovely flavour and just the right amount of burn to go down like a treat.  Joe also said that his Tom Yum soup was the best he has had in Cape Town.  But we did wait quite a while for the food to come out and I did think the prices were a bit steep compared to some other good Thai options in town.

I will give Soho the following Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings:

• Vibe & Food: 
• Service & Price:

And I definitely want to go back for some drinks at that roof-top bar at some point.

xxx

Now as much as I love the city centre, I absolutely hate the limited parking.  Add a big event with lots and lots of guests and what do you get?  PAIN… and lots of it…  Sure I have considered getting a scooter, but it’s just too damn cold here in winter PLUS you don’t get any street cred on one of those and I’m far to cool for school…

Anyhoo, when we finally got there I had to first stop to do the obligatory “pic in front of massive banner” photo:

Ta da!!!

Apparently thanks to that we just missed out on the last few free Brutal Fruits they were handing out.  Damn my love of being in the spotlight!

Bjorn and I were teased because we apparnetly looked like we had totally coordinated our denim looks.  But I don’t see it…  Yes we were both working the “double denim” trend (that’s when you wear a denim shirt with jeans, in case you didn’t know – the key to this look is to make sure the two items are totally different shades or even colours of denim, matchy matchy is like a massive no-no).  But I was rocking some red and he was doing a bit of brown leather…  Ag I’ll let you guys be the judge:

Too close for comfort maybe? Are we just one step away from matching parachute material tracksuits??  With our initials embroided on them??? hahahahahaha.  My home town of PE would be so proud…

My friend Leigh even compared us to the 2001 Brit Brit & JT denim tuxedo crisis!  (Check her comparison here)  Now that’s not fair… we’re like way hotter and stuff. hehe.

Anyways, we were not there to harp on about our fashion choices, instead we were there to check out some winter denim trends from Michiko London, Ackermans, Edgars, Adidas, Donna-claire, Foschini, Bronx & Calvin Klein.

Sadly, as much as I loved the building, it was terribly cramped inside and there wasn’t really any great ramp viewing spots.  This meant I was standing on my tippy toes, camera far above my head, trying desperately to get a few shots of the action.  These were the only ones that came out half decent(ish):

The show had a strong “Wild Wild West” theme, so for the finale they did the whole cowboy/cowgal thing and then tossed their stetsons into the crowd as the last Yee-haw.

Ride along now cowboys…

** You can check out the offical pics on the Cosmopolitan website or on Channel24.

For entertainment breaks in between the fashion we got to enjoy the guitar stylings of Tombstone Pete:

The golden voice of Natasha Meister:

And then my personal fave, the quirky awesomeness that is Yoav:

I’m totally obsessed with this guy…

Leigh being one of those lucky people who always wins random lucky draws and such, walked away with a gleaming white stetson.  I have my suspicions that she probably pushed poor Clouds out of the way to catch it…

Hmmmm, lucky or just reaaally competitive…

Either way, it was her pride & joy for the rest of the evening.  I didn’t stay for the after party because 1) I had a crappy day at the office and was totally pooped and 2) the new Steers at the 24 hr Woolies was calling my name (Steers chip attack!! – my ass has been cursing that place. haha).

So tell me, who out there is brave enough to also give the double denim look a test drive this winter?  I say we should start a mass tuxedo revival and then do a flash mob to “Hit me baby one more time”.  Who’s in? Come now people, you know it’s the right thing to do.

xxx

It’s biiiiiig!

But what’s inside?  Well first you have some wine – 4 glorious bottles to be exact:

Jislaaik, check out all those award stickers… hectic bru.

And then a variety of gourmet “foodie” things:

Mmmmm…

And the best part is that I got all that, including FREE delivery for only R295!  Ooh! Box is a new initiative where you sign up for a monthly “taste box”.  The products are hand picked by the Ooh! Box experts to ensure that you’re getting only the best… and for way less.   This is for example the value of the items in my first box:

• 1 x Avontuur Chardonay Pinot Noir -R58
• 1 x Kanu Keystone – R120
• 1 x Spier Creative Block 5 – R115
• 1 x Zevenwacht Sauvignon Blanc – R67
• 1 x Rio Largo Balsamic Vinegar – R48
• 1 x Morgenster Black Olive Paste – R32
• 1 x Dalla Cia Grappa Chocolates – R85
• 1 x Khoisan 100% Organic Bourbon Vanilla Rooibos – R18

TOTAL  = R543.  So that’s a saving of about 46%.  Impressive stuff…

The contents of the box will change month to month and the saving won’t always be exactly the same (some months might be more, some might be less), but they do guarantee that it will always be a pretty damn good deal AND the subscription price stays the same, no matter what the value of the box is.

Other costs?  Just a annual membership fee of R114.  Minimum subscription is for 3 months only, after that you can opt-out anytime you want.

The only catch is that they only have 1000 spaces available.  So if you’re keen, you need to act fast.  I have confirmed with them that there are still a few of the May boxes available at the introductory price of R295.  The June boxes will be released soon and they have decided to keep them at the R295 price for now as well.  The subscription price might go up slightly at some point, but they are playing it by ear for the moment.

If you’d like to sign up – register over here (they do nationwide delivery btw).  But if you have more questions – check out their FAQ page or just pop them an email to: member@theoohbox.com (they respond quite quickly – I’ve tested it quite a bit )

I’m very excited about the June box.  I hear it’s going to include wine from Waterford, Diemersfontein and Asara PLUS a Bubbly from Moreson called Miss Molly.  This is definitely something which is going to make the cold winter days more bearable.

xxx

Then this past weekend I was paying for lunch at a restaurant and I had to go up to the till to use the card machine.  As I was waiting for them to process the transaction something caught my eye on the front page for the Cape Times:

Seems one of SA artist, Brett Murray’s pieces seriously pissed off the ANC…

I thought to myself… Hey, that painting of our president actually seems quite nice.  It had a cool modern feel, I liked the use of colour…  I really didn’t see anything wrong with it at all.  Why would they even waste ink on printing this story?  Meh.

Luckily the card machine was a bit slow, so I had a bit more time to kill.  I opened the newspaper and as I passed page 8 I had a very stong “Oh… now I see…” moment.

Right… right…

I have learnt a very valuable lesson here – ALWAYS get the full story.

xxx

Me in my element… right next to a shop!

I would say Barra Lodge has a more family friendly vibe.  Flamingo Bay is for couples looking for a romantic getaway, in fact children under 12 are not allowed.  But at Barra Lodge they cater for all ages.  Just look at the pool for example, it’s like a water based playground:

Pimpin’ pool… I like…

Then you can walk right onto Barrra beach which is a beautiful stretch of seemingly untouched coastline:

And you can chill at their beach bar for a bite to eat…

And cocktails of course!

From Barra we decided to WALK to Tofo.  For some reason Bjorn had it in his head that it was only about a 30 min walk (you see he had stayed on Tofo beach once before a few years back).  So I was like yeah why not.  It sounded like some good exercise, especially with all the food we were eating and this would be a great opportunity to check out the more scenic route.  But we knew we had made a very poor choice when about an hour in a local fisherman asked us where we were heading.  When we said Tofo he said “Tofo!?!  That’s really really far.  Are you really going to walk!?!”  Hmmm…  30 min hey… yeah right…  About 3 HOURS later we finally made it to Tofo.  I was proud that I didn’t try to drown Bjorn along the way in a fit of rage… but I seriously considered it though.

Things were cool again after we settled in at Fatima’s for some lunch.  It’s a popular spot for locals & tourists alike and apparently a big party spot in the evenings.

A proper beach bar with lots of African flavour.

Then the Tofo market was just around the corner.  Here we bought delicious coconut breads (so yum!) and these super sweet small bananas:

A must try. I don’t really like bananas normally, but these were really cool

Not wanting to do the crazy walk home again, we asked some locals how to get back to Barra.  For the first leg of the trip we took a combi taxi which cost next to nothing.  It was quite amazing watching them fit up to 25 people into that thing at one point – small babies and all!  Then we had to wait for a connecting taxi – which is basically a dude driving back to Barra from Inhambane after work in a bakkie.  He then slows down and people just jump on.  It’s totally informal, but it works like a charm.

He even gave us the best seats, right up front.

The next day, back at Flamingo Bay, we did a catamaran trip to Pansy Island.  Check out our slick mode of transportation:

Here’s me trying my best “I’m on a boat” pose.  If you haven’t yet checked out that clip which was featured on Saturday Night Live, go check it out on Youtube.  It’s pretty awesome.

Oooh and check out how crystal clear the water was:

Our first activity was to pick up pansy shells on so the so called Pansy Island – which isn’t really an island, it’s more like a sand heap that happens to be visible at low tide. Hehe.  But it was cool to walk around and collect these pretty shells nonetheless.  For those who don’t know, this is what they look like:

Pretty incredible huh… I love the detail, it’s so perfect.

As our “island” disappeared with the incoming tide, we headed out again, passing some fishing boats along the way…

Then we stopped in what I’m calling “starfish alley” to do some snorkeling.  The incredible thing is that there are like hundreds and hundreds of these guys all chilling in one little area.  We were really bummed that we didn’t have one of those disposable underwater cameras, cause it was truly incredible to see.  This pic I tried to take from the catamaran as we started passing over them really doesn’t do it justice at all:

But at least you can kinda see how big they are.  They are big meaty guys, about the size of your face and they come in all different colours.  So cool.

On our way back Bjorn wanted to maximise his water time, so he got them to drag him behind the catamaran with a rope (like one does of course).

Boys will be boys I guess…

The next day we headed out for an ocean safari.  The goal was to see & swim with whale sharks – which I was reeeaaaally hoping to do… like I was crossing all toes & fingers.  But sadly it didn’t pan out.  You basically head out on a rubber duck and spend a few hours searching the ocean.  But as you can guess, it’s very hit or miss.  We did at least get to snorkel a beautiful reef and this time round we were clever enough to get a little disposable underwater camera at the shop before hand.  We just haven’t gotten around to developing the film yet.  But once we do, I’ll do a little post on our underwater adventure.

On our 2nd last day in Mozambique we did some quad biking.  I have to note that this was my first time ever on a quad bike (or any kind of bike for that matter – other than a bicycle).  So I was a bit nervous going into it.

Ready to rock & roll. But hoping I come out of it in one piece.

After some basic instructions on how to change gears and all that, we were off:

We crossed Barra beach, checked out the lighthouse, then headed through the little villages of the area, all the way to Tofo and back.  Along the way we passed lots of kids who would stand on the side of the path with their hands out so you can high 5 them as you come past.  It was so cute.  We stopped in one of the villages and this little guy totally stole my heart:
He walked up to us like he was the mayor of that town… hand sticking out for a firm handshake, checking us out and then giving us the nod of approval to pass through.  Soooo sweet.

Along the way we also got a close up look at a cashew tree and its fruit:

See that little bit at the top – that’s the part you get the nut from.  Cool hey?  I had no clue cashew nuts actually came from a fruit.

As we took in our beautiful surroundings, I got more comfortable on the quad bike and we picked up some good speed.

To peaceful…

Everything was going really well… until… I crashed into a tree!  Haha.  I was trying to turn, battled, put a bit of extra muscle into it, then over steered, panicked, over corrected, totally forgot about the breaks and wham…  Then just 10min after that I almost went off a cliff! (but luckily my fall was blocked by another tree)  For obvious reasons we took it very slow on our way back.  Bjorn now calls me “stuntie”.  He says I crashed like a pro.

My body certainly didn’t feel like a pro afterward.  I was covered in scrapes and bruises with this one stretching my entire calf muscle being the most impressive out of the lot:

Boom!  I’ve been thinking about starting a twitter account for it… it’s THAT BIG.

Anyhoo, injuries aside, I had a total blast.  Our week in Mozambique was the perfect blend of relaxation and adventure.  I can highly recommend this absolutely beautiful country to anyone & everyone.  And the fact that it’s so easy to get to from SA is a total bonus, I mean Joburg people simply drive up.  Easy peasy.

I’m hoping a return trip or two will be in my future.

xxx

Mozambique to me had a bit of a Thailand feel, but with lots of African flavour of course.  It’s an absolutely stunning place with palm trees in abundance, a flawless coastline, warm water, great food and lovely people.  I would go back in a heartbeat…

Getting there was relatively simple.  Most packages only include flights from JHB, so we did a Kulula flight from Cape Town to OR Tambo, then from there we flew with LAM (the official Mozambique airline) to Inhambane which is about a 1 hr 40 min flight.  I did have a little giggle at something I found on our e-tickets though:

Say what?!

Now I’m sure that doesn’t actually mean “keep passenger alive”, but it sure as hell looks like it!   I was like, yes please – that’s way more important than any special meal needs etc. haha.

The LAM plane is a bit old school with propellers and all… not gonna lie, that made me a little nervous.  I’ve travelled with African airlines before and they can be a little bit hairy at times.  But I’m glad to report that this was a relatively smooth ride.

Bjorn very excited to have landed safe & sound…

Now you know you’ve landed in a laid-back tropical destination when your airport looks like this:

Doesn’t that immediately make you feel like sitting back and having a cocktail?

Procedures at the airport are pretty manual still, so don’t expect super speedy service.  Just chill like everybody else and you’ll be fine…  A 45min bus ride from the airport then got us to the heavenly Flamingo Bay resort, our happy home for the week.

The main lodge area is fully kitted out with a bar, dining area, free WiFi, a TV room/lounge (no TV in the water cottages) and a pool with sun loungers and all that.

A nice thing to note is that they accept all major currencies at the resort:  SA rands, US Dollars, Euros & then their local currency, Metical.  When we were there it was about 3.4 metical to the rand.

So from the main lodge you then follow the wooden walkways to get to the 20 water chalets which are built in a little half moon shape some distance away from the main lodge, deeper into the water.  Just walking down the walkway we realised we were in for something quite special…  Check it out:

Side note:  If you get lazy, there are guys with golf carts who will take you from your chalet to the main lodge and back.  Very sweet, especially when the sun starts getting too hot.

Our water chalet was everything the website had promised.  Spacious, luxurious, kitted out with aircon and mosquito nets with a little deck area with deck chairs and of course direct access to the water.  Absolutely amazing.

Now the water village is built on an estuary which means you’re not on the open sea so there are no waves to worry about.  The water level however does change during the day as you hit high & low tide.  When we were there the water level could change from around knee deep only to about 2 and a half meters deep.  At high tide it’s totaly save to even do this:

Diving from your balcony… Bjorn was in heaven, him being a total “water baby”. I preferred to take the stairs.

The water is filled with all kinds of fish, even some tropical fish, but you don’t have to worry about sharks.  The closest we came to a shark was this guy:

A little fisherman’s boat with lots of attitude. hehe.

We were there over full moon, which obviously means the highest water levels which are pretty damn impressive.  So I would say that would be a good thing to aim for if you were booking for yourselves.

Evenings involved watching the beautiful sunset:

And then heading to the main lodge for dinner, which is 4 courses baby!  You’d normally start with a soup, then an entrée, mains (they normally have a red meat option, a chicken or fish option and a vegetarian option), followed by dessert.  Oh and if you’re a big seafood fan, do inquire about their seafood platter, it’s pretty insane.

In the mornings, breakfast was served buffet style – with a good selection of fruits, cereals, baked treats and hot options.  You ate so much at breakfast and dinner that lunch just usually ended up being a small snack somewhere.

Here is a little collage I put together of some of the food we had (by now you should know that I always photograph my food.  I’m weird like that. ):

The food standard is excellent btw.

Oh and a cute (and also slight cheesy – not gonna lie) thing is that there are always a few tables at dinner time with special decorations, like so:

Just in case you’re celebrating an anniversary or something or you’re just in a very romantic mood.

Some evenings they also have a musician there, playing some ambiance music.  Then on Fri evenings the dinner setup changes to a buffet (so get there early) and they bring in a marimba band with some “mini” dancers:

They were so cute.

It was cool cause it creates a very festive vibe.  But food wise I preferred the 4 course set menu over the buffet.

Oh and then just when you thought this place couldn’t get any better… they also have a spa!  We went for amazing massages, the perfect thing to de-stress just before a long afternoon nap. (ah the tough life)

The treatment room I thought was very pretty. They only use Africology products at the spa, something I’ve never tried personally before, but the massage oil they used had a heavenly scent…

Total cost per person was just over R13 000.  That included the flights from JHB, airport taxes, transfers to and from the lodge and 7 nights stay including breakfast & dinner.  Only lunch & drinks were excluded.  And then of course any excursions you book through the hotel (which I’ll still tell you about).

I booked our trip through a lovely girl named Keri from Barefoot Breaks.  They specialise in “chic and intimate beach hideaways” and they certainly made sorting out this trip an absolute breeze.  I would highly recommend them if you don’t have the time to shop around for flights, etc yourself.

Best time to go?  Well apparently you should only avoid Jan – Mar, that’s their monsoon season.  The rest of the year the temperatures are pretty constant.  When we were there it was about 28/29 degrees every day which was really pleasant, not too hot.

OK, that’s it for now.  I’ll show you guys what over cool stuff we got up to in my next post.

xxx

Saints is located at 84 Kloof St, just above Camp St on your right in a Victorian beauty that’s been given a funky new look.  We got there around 1:45pm and it was quite empty, but I’m guessing it’s more of an evening spot.

I loved the edgy rocker slash biker decor.  It’s something different to your usual Kloof St vibe.  Dark walls, red accents, pics of famous rockers on the walls…

Rockabilly style table tops…

And even a skull with snakes on the ceiling…

All reinforcing the message that this burger joint certainly aint for “sissies”. 

Now their menu actually has lots of options – hearty breakfasts, a good selection of salads, flatbreads, snacks and then also some sweet treats.  But we were there for one thing and one thing only: the burgers.

A really cool feature on the menu is that you can choose to either build your own burger from scratch (choosing the meat, bun, type of cheese, sauce & other extras) or you can select one of their very well thought out burger options.  I went for the custom burger option, selecting a beef patty, white sesame Kaiser bun, white cheddar, caramelized red onions & a soy ginger garlic and mayo sauce with sweet potato chips as my side.

Boom! Mine worked out to R82 in total.

Joe opted for the “Heartbreaker” (R85) – Chargrilled ground beef burger, served open on ciabatta roll, topped with white cheddar, grilled brown mushrooms and a creamy pepper sauce.  And get this, he got to choose TWO sides.

So he went for fat chips & a simple tomato salad.

These pictures really don’t do the size of the burgers that much justice.  Apologies.  But trust me they are big, like big enough for a man sized appetite.  Oh yeah.

Joe and I considered various factors before settling on our official Miss K Kiss-o-Meter rating for the Saints burger… quality of ingredients, flavour, size, creativity, side options and such… and in the end we decided to give it:

That’s a pretty solid burger score, not quite the top marks I awarded the Dog’s Bollocks burger, but definitely a burger to add to your “must try” list.  The only thing I would have preferred was if the patty wasn’t so dense.  I enjoy a kind of rustic beef patty with a more homemade feel, but that’s really just personal preference.

Also important to note: their milkshakes are pretty good as well and they have “spiked” varieties… I didn’t go for a spiked one cause I still had to function after lunch, but they did sound temptingly evil, just the way I like it.

xxx

I told him it was actually a really cool coincidence that he contacted me cause I had driven past there just about two weeks before and saw people sitting outside sipping on some wine… I thought to myself “Hmmm… wine at a laundry?  Something’s fishy here… is this some kind of underground bar trying to masquerade as an innocent laundromat? Or some kind of top secret money laundering front?  OR…”  And just like that I totally let my imagination run wild with over the top ideas, mostly based on some great movie plots.  But I needed the low down, the skinny, the inside scoop… you know what I mean…. And this was my way in.

So as the name suggests, they do in fact do laundry (including dry cleaning, dyeing,  alterations & ironing) and for this purpose they are open from 7am to 7pm every day of the week.  BUT, that’s only a small part of what’s going down at this quirky venue.  I would describe it as a little “creative hub”.  A place for sharing ideas and trying new things.

During the day I ♥ My Laundry also functions as a cafe & dim sum bar.  Something special if you’re into sweet things (like me) is their chocolate & Coca cola cupcake, seen on the right  below:

I love Cola flavoured things… so this got my attention right off the bat.

It is also a beautiful space which you can rent for private functions for only R1000.  It seats 14 people and if you need food they will even assist with setting it up by chatting to your preferred restaurant of chef and organising a pop up kitchen for the evening.

THEN every Wed eve they do “laundry parties” where they do unusual food & drink pairings.  Like for example when I was there it was caramel vodka & fudge. Yum!  The vodka was Black Moon Caramel Vodka and I thought it was deliciously smooth and not too sweet.

The fudge was from Cape Fudge (trading as The Fudge Factory).  They sell mostly at markets, but will now be selling at I ♥ My Laundry as well.  I got to sample 3 flavours:  Amarula, Cappuccino & Champagne.

The Amarula (on the left above) was my favourite.  I love fudge!

Now while you are filling your belly, you can also “feed your eyes” with some beautiful art on display.  I ♥ My Laundry also runs an art exhibition initiative where they provide a showcase area for artists & creatives.  In store at the moment they have these incredible wood carvings by a guy who calls himself Von Dee:

He’s a “green artist” which means he doesn’t cut down trees for his pieces. He uses recycled wood or pieces of wood found on beaches, etc.

There’s also some photography by Naill Molloy.  A series of images from the school he attended as a boy which is now abandoned.  I really loved how each frame tells a story.  You can totally imagine what the school was like when it was still bustling with kids…

Priced at R2000 each

I also got to chat to very talented lady, Mandi Garbman.  Mandi is a professional artist, designer & illustrator and she had various things on display.  From her paintings, this one was my favourite:

And I really loved the little owl illustration in the middle below (cause I’m like owl crazy):

I was telling her how my mom used to believe that if an owl was found on your property it meant that someone in your family would pass away. Shame hey, that’s a bad rep for such a captivating little animal…

Most recently she also started designing her own fabrics and using them to make decor items like throw pillows and such:

Love the bright colours…  And a really cool thing to note is that she can custom design fabric for you.

** For more of her stuff you can check out her website, Unwrapped.

Then… as if the laundry, cafe, dim sum, food pairing parties & art wasn’t already enough… they also have a wine club called “I ♥ My Wine”.   They basically negotiate with about 15 wineries each week, sourcing a white & red option from each, and then the wine club members get to purchase these wines at cellar door prices without having to schlep out to the winelands.  Easy peasy.

So, want to join in on the action?  Check out their website or Facebook page for more info.  And to get your name on the guest list for one of their Wed eve parties, follow them on Twitter or Linked In – they announce the parties early every Thu morning, but there are only limited seats available to each event, so only the first few people from Twitter/Linked In to respond will secure a spot.  So get in there early and keep trying.

A huge thanks to Clayton for letting me crash last week’s party.  I really love this concept.  It’s fresh & fun and a must see.

xxx

Anyhoo, today they launched an initiative called “knit-a-row-and-go” and their goal is to knit 1000 blankets for orphaned babies.  Seeing as we’re already heading into some seriously chilly weather, this is a cause which will make a huge impact I’m sure.

Elle yarns has already kindly donated 8000 balls of wool and 400 needles for this mammoth task and the lovely people at Knead have offered to host a series of Mad Hatter’s tea parties to launch the project.  Over and above that, Knead will also be donating tea, cupcakes and R10 coffees to the knitters for an hour at each party.

So how can you get involved?  Easy!  Either pop in at one of these Knead stores at these times:

• 2:30pm at Knead in Palmyra Rd, Claremont, Tuesday 15 May
• 10:30am at Knead on Kloof St, CBD, Wednesday 16 May
• 10:30am at Knead on Surfer’s Corner, Muizenburg, Thursday 17 May

OR

A piccie from the first Mad Hatter’s party which took place earlier today at the Knead in Dean St, Claremont.

You can also knit any time throughout May and June at the “Me and You” shop @ 103 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock AND in all Knead bakeries in Cape Town.

The idea is that you knit what you can and then you simply pop your knitting into the provided Tubtrug for the next person to pick up and continue.  Just look out for the tubs of wool and needles.

Not only will you be doing a great thing for little people who really need it, but I’ve also heard that knitting is like totally hot right now.  So get to it folks!

xxx

PS.  If you want to keep track of their progress, “like” Me-a-Mama on Facebook or check out their website.