Tag Archives: Fugard Theatre

Getting Willy Wonka’d

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Last Thu eve I headed over to the beautiful Fugard Theatre in District 6 for the Slow Food Mother City event: Flick, Pick & Mix - Movie night & Sweet Market.

Who/what is Slow Food Mother City?  Well basically they’re a group of people who:

Celebrates, protects and promotes foods that are good, clean and fair.

Good food is delicious, natural and part of our cultural heritage.
Clean food is grown sustainably, in an environmentally responsible manner.
Fair food is produced by farmers and artisans who have food sovereignty: they are free to choose how, when, where and what food they produce, and are properly remunerated and respected for their work.

So that’s like totally guilt free eating.  I like it. :)

The idea for this event was that there’d be a sweet market from 6pm to 7pm where local producers would be offering up delicious treats like handmade chocolates, nougat, ice cream, biscuits and cupcakes.  You’d use this time to stock up on goodies and then move on to watch the classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory from 1971.   As I’m a huge sugar freak, this was right up my alley.

Tickets were R65 but then you also got vouchers to the value of R25 to spend at the sweet market. (although – I needed way more than that. hehe)

I bought some sweet treats from the following 2 stalls below:

On the left: I bought a piece of rasberry marshmallow in dark chocolate, a piece of lemon turkish delight in milk chocolate and a piece of caramel candy. From the stall on the right I got a gorgeous red velvet cupcake…

Here’s a close-up of the red velvet cupcakes:

Almost too pretty to eat… nah, it didn’t even touch sides!

I almost finished off these guys as well  – cause they looked way too happy for my liking… ;)

What you guys smiling about huh? I will eat you!!!

The market was packed – guess lots of folks are suckers for sweet things like me.  I also got to sample one of the best scones I’ve had in years and I did some chocolate & biscuit tastings as well.  Luckily I had decided to walk there and back, at least that helped to work off some of that evil stuff…

At 7pm, I decanted my wine into a plastic cup (std rules – you can take drinks in, as long as they’re in plastic cups) and headed over to the cinema area.

Ta da!!!

Of course in keeping with the theme of the evening, there was a golden ticket hidden under someone’s seat.  The lucky lady who found it won a hamper of goodies from each of the stalls at the sweet market.  Can you say “sugar coma”?  My movie partner Dax arrived with some slap chips he had sneaked in from Dias Tavern next door.  Great idea as I definitely needed something to level out all that sugar.

Now on to the main event… How freakin’ messed up was that movie!?!  haha. I can’t help but feel that everyone who worked on it was on acid (it was the 70s after all).  I know Johnny Depp got quite a bit of flack for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in the 2005 remake.  People said he was way too creepy…  but seriously, you guys should check out what he had to base that character on!

Gene Wilder played the original Willy Wonka, this is him here:

Oooooh, the creepiness oozes out of this dude…

Charlie was played by Peter Ostrum, now a veterinarian who lives with his family in the Lowville, New York:

Seems Peter gave up on the movie game after this… he dabbled in acting a bit in high school again, but nothing came of it.  So he gave it all up in favour of a “normal” life.

And then how the hell did they get away with dressing up “the vertically challenged” like this!?!

So so wrong on so many levels …  I’m sure they were scarred for life.

That song they kept singing haunted me for days…”Oompa loompa doompadee doo, I’ve got a a perfect puzzle for you. Oopma loompa doompadah dee, if you are wise you’ll listen to me…”  CR-EE-EE-PY

But, as weird as it was – I have to say… I really enjoyed it!  I’m also slightly strange, so I guess that’s why. ;)

After the movie, the sweet market was still open for a bit – which meant I could sneak in a last minute taste of the delicious looking handmade ice cream from The Creamery:

I tried the Fizzy Lifting Lemonade and it was out of this world!

Well done to Slow Food Mother City for putting together such an awesome event.  I had a great time and I’m really looking forward to the next one.

PS. Wanna become a member of the slow food movement?  You can join Slow Food Mother City for only R70 per year (check out their website for info on how to do so).  Once a member, you’ll be included in their newsletter, you’ll get to take part in their organised initiatives and you’ll get advance notification & member discounts on all events.

xxx

Some inner city exploring

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On Wed eve my friend Joe and I decided to do a bit of walking around in our “hood”.  Armed with pepper spray – OK, that was not me, that was all Joe! haha.  I actually feel quite safe walking around town at night.  But seems not a lot of people do not share my sense of security.  Maybe it’s because I know I have lots of “inner rage” just waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting stranger… ;)

Anyhoo, our first stop was Dias Tavern (15 Caledon St):

This place feels like it’s been around since the beginning of time and hasn’t changed their decor or menu since then.

Now before I continue, I need to note that I’m not going to do my usual Miss K Kiss-o-Meter ratings for this cheery spot – it just doesn’t seem right.  Why?  Well… it’s just one of those spots you need to take for what it is.  Don’t judge it, don’t try to understand it and definitely don’t try to deny it… just order yourself a beer and a hearty Portuguese dish and relax.  It’s cheap & it’s easy and you’ll likely love it just because of that.

Side note: It’s a good spot for watching any major sporting event as they have a big screen ready to go at all times.

My friend Leigh goes absolutely crazy for Trinchado, which is 200 grams of diced Rump Steak, fried in wine with garlic and peri-peri.   You don’t want to get between her and her plate. :)   I on the other hand usually go for the prego roll, it’s a classic, but for some reason I wanted to try something different this time round.

So for starters, I went for the deep fried calamari strips (R38) and Joe went for the grilled baby calamari tubes (R44).

Torn? Why not just order both!

My body was seriously craving something deep fried, hence my choice, but I did try a piece of Joe’s grilled calamari and I have to say that was tastier than mine.

For mains, I decided to try Leigh’s favourite, the Trinchado.  Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… with that garlic & peri-peri sauce, somebody wasn’t getting lucky that night! Haha. It was a risk I was willing to take.

I just had the starter portion (R60) which doesn’t come with any starch.  Joe had the main portion (R70) which basically just comes with your choice of starch.

Tender cubes of meat swimming in a hot & spicy sauce... brilliant.

The sauce packed quite a punch, but I liked that.  Had to order a Coke Zero for the burn though…

As we were enjoying our meal, we had a good chuckle at the cheesy but fun decor and the “one man band” belting out classics like Pretty woman.   There truly is nothing cool about this place… in fact, it is very very un-cool.  But there’s just something about it that makes people come back again and again.   The place is always packed, so they must be doing something right.

And how is this for ultimate convenience… Need cash?  Not a problem!  They have an ATM downstairs in their reception area:

Ta Ta! Joe just had to give it a test drive...

Now on the way to Dias Tavern, we had noticed this sign around the corner at the bottom of Harrington St:

Joe thought it was something innocent… like maybe a cupcake place (him making some kind of loose red velvet cake connection or something. haha. Loser. ;) ).  I had a strong feeling that it was something totally on the other end of the spectrum… likely a strip joint!  (see, my brain isn’t innocent AT ALL)

So after dinner, we decided to confirm this and took a walk over there.  We stood in front of the glass doors like little inquisitive monkeys… trying to get confirmation without actually having to go in.   There was a little sign stating the dress code.  It included the following  “NO TRACKPANT, NO CAPS”.   Also there was a cover charge of R30.  Eventually the door man started laughing at us, opened the glass door, leaned out and said “this is a strip club” (with a huge grin on his face).  I was like “A HA!  I knew it!”.

Then I thought to myself, what kind of “establishment” only has a R30 cover charge!?  Hmmmm. Dodgy.   And shame, why don’t they allow their patrons to wear their comfy tracksuit pants?  At R30 a head, I’m sure they don’t exactly attract the type of guy who’d be wearing a bloody suit! :)   Anyways, I wasn’t keen on going in to check it out.  So if someone out there happens to know what it’s like inside, drop me a note.

Right across the road was the beautiful side entrance of the Fugard Theatre (talk about a contrast):

I love that place.  It’s got such an awesome old world charm about it. En route home, we also paused for a bit in Buitenkant St to admire some of the cool street art.  I especially love this lion & peacock on the side of one of the buildings:

Come on, how cool is that?  I love that Cape Town is filled with little surprises like this.  You just have to keep your eyes open and take regular strolls to find them…  And fine, if it makes you feel better, you can carry some pepper spray. ;)

xxx

District 6 bioscope experience

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So last night a friend of mine had a birthday shindig at the Fugard Theatre ( cnr of  Caledon & Buitenkant St – perfect for me cause I could just walk from my place).  They are hosting a month-long Winter Classic Film Festival from 20 June to 16 July 2011.

The Fugard Theatre is actually housed in what used to be a church which dates back to 1830.  So that makes for a seriously interesting space now.  A ticket will only set you back R40 and the movie screening starts at 8pm.  However, the best part is that you can get there at 7pm and enjoy some hot soup, fresh garlic bread and a variety of Thelema wines in the bar area before the show!  Yum… :)

The bar area...had such a cool atmosphere

The movie showing last night was called “The day of the Jackal” – and it was like this really old school assassin type movie.  Sure it was super cheesy at times and some of the effects were a bit dodgy, but I thought that kinda added to the fun of it…  I’m not really into classict films, but I could still appreciate it for what it was.  If you happen to be a huge movie buff, then you will absolutely love this!

After the movie we headed to the upstairs open air deck.  Because it was freakin’ freezing last night, I didn’t last long up there – but I could picture how awesome it would be to have a couple of drinks up there in the summer months.

The view from the deck... you can actually see how bloody cold it was! haha

I was seriously pooped after only arriving back from my Italy trip yesterday afternoon, but I still had a good laugh. If you feel like doing something a little different – go check this out. Tickets can be purchased on Computicket.

Chat soon. xxx