Tag Archives: Hope St

Las Paletas (that’s Colombian for kick-ass, artisan ice lollies folks)

Posted on by
Reply

DSC05623

Diana Chavarro is a passionate Colombian who’s been living here in South Africa for about 3 1/2  years now.

She’s a designer by trade, but has always had a great love for food…  A few months back she decided she’d indulge her foodie side a little by making some  creative ice lollies.  She chose ice lollies specifically because back in South America they’re a traditional, “humble” dessert as she calls them and something she really used to enjoy.  She served up her lollies at a braai with friends one day and they were such a huge hit, they all encouraged her to make this a full time thing.  And this is how Las Paletas, which is the Spanish term for ice lollies, was born.

She started out with small amounts in a cooler box, using moulds she had sourced from the US.  Today, only 3 months later, she has a small factory in Montague Gardens and the folks at Food Lover’s Market want Diana to make lollies to be sold in their stores.  How incredible is that?

Diana invited me to come sample her lollies at her Saturday home base at the City Bowl Market in Hope St.  It’s still one of my favourite markets and it was buzzing with people on the day…

DSC05633

DSC05635

DSC05625

Diana with hubby, Jason, who she met over here in SA.

Diana changes her flavours all the time depending on what ingredients are fresh & seasonal (she uses only real fruit, not pulp or anything like that).  She’s also inspired by desserts she used to enjoy when she was little and she likes to be adventurous.  Therefore you can expect some weird & wonderful ones to pop up every now and again.

She told me how she once decided to make her own peanut butter from scratch and then made peanut butter & jam lollies.  Doesn’t that sound just too good?  I was totally sold on the concept & ready to dig in for sure…

On the day she had the following flavours:

Top left: Guava cheesecake (which is her signature flavour) and Avo & lemon; Top right: Gooseberry cheesecake and Mango Lassi; Bottom left: Cheesecake brownie and Strawberry; Bottom right: Strawberries & cream and Papaya

Top left: Guava cheesecake (which is her signature flavour) and Avo & lemon; Top right: Gooseberry cheesecake and Mango Lassi; Bottom left: Cheesecake brownie and Strawberry; Bottom right: Strawberries & cream and Papaya

I’m still working my way through all of them (Diana & Jason gifted me one of each – thanks again guys!), but I can tell you, I have never tasted ice lollies as creamy and fruity as these.  Even the avo & lemon one which to me sounded a bit blegh, is really quite tasty.  It’s a sweet treat that doesn’t leave you feeling guilty because it’s so fresh & light and therefore you’ll find yourself reaching for one more… and one more… and… ;)

Diana sells them for R20 each.  But if you want to a bulk order for a party or event, she’ll work out a better price.  (you can contact her on 082 269 1153 / diana@laspaletas.co.za)

Wanna try them out for yourselves?  Then hop on over to Hope St  OR you’ll also find them at the Galileo Open Air Cinema every week.  Then they’ll be at Taste of Cape Town in April, the Good Food & Wine Show in May and the SA Wedding Expo in June.  Oh and then of course, as I mentioned above, at Food Lover’s Market hopefully soon, but they’ll be packaged under their name.

Also when you do, be sure to take a piccie and then hop on over to their Facebook page - you can stand the chance of winning a 3 month supply of absolutely irrisistable Las Paletas for yourself!  See details below:

Print

That’s a pretty great prize…

Thanks again to Diana & Jason for taking the time to tell me about these amazing lollies.  I really love them and I’m sure you guys will love them too…

xxx

City Bowl Market now also does Thu evenings

Posted on by
Reply

So it’s Thursday… you don’t really have any plans, but you also know you need to get your butt off the couch, maybe grab something tasty to eat, explore a little and maybe even do a bit of socialising…  So where to go?  And what to do?  Hmmmmm…

Well, I might have an idea for you. :)   The City Bowl Food Market in Hope St is now also open on Thu evenings from 4pm to 8:30pm.  This means you can get your hands on all the delicious treats you would usually only get to drool over from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays.  Hell yeah!

I love the City Bowl Market, not only because it’s walking distance from my apartment, but also because they have a really good variety of ready-made dishes as well as things you can stock up your fridge and kitchen cupboards with, all vars van die plaas and all that good stuff.

I popped in there last Thu eve and was very happy to see that it was really buzzing with people.  The more people you have at a market, the better the market vibe, it’s a fact…
I first got myself an empanada from the Como stand.  Empanadas are these awesome little pastry half-moons filled with either a savoury meat or veg filling.  It is Argentinian in origin and appartently one of their most popular dishes.  These Como ones are the real deal because they are made with regte egte Argentine recipes which have been sourced straight from Buenos Aires.  Como btw means “I eat” in Spanish.  Me eats.  Me loves. ;)

I went for the Caprese – Whole tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella and sweet potato – so yum!

Do yourselves a favour and hop on over to their website (the link above) because you can order frozen empanadas and have them delivered to your door for FREE (Cape Town only – but most areas are covered) AND you can pay cash on delivery.  So it’s very very easy.  They come in boxes of 12 (R150) or 24 (R300), but you can play around with different fillings as they come bagged 6 at a time.  So for a box of 12 you can select two fillings and for a box of 24 you can have up to 4 different fillings.  Mmmmm.

After that great little starter I hopped on over to the Drunken Tuscan stand to scoop up the last serving of their butternut risotto:

And how awesome are market prices… only R20 for a large serving.

I’m going through a major “risotto period” at the moment, kinda like Picasso’s blue period, but way tastier. :)   This risotto was certainly tasty, but I’ve recently been a bit spoilt with regards to risotto because I’ve sampled two which really blew me away.  The first was the mushroom risotto at Millhouse Kitchen and the second was the pea & mint risotto from Societi Bistro‘s Spring Menu.  I still scoffed this baby down with ease though.  That’s cause market food rocks.  Period.

Now obviously I’ve only showed you two things from the wide selection of dishes you can find at the market.  So best you go check it out for yourself and then tell me what your favourite item is.

xxx

The not to be missed Short & Sweet film festival

Posted on by
1

Now listen up, cause I’m going to tell you what you should be doing tomorrow eve AND the next 4 Tuesdays after that until 4 Sep. :)

The Short & Sweet film fest is here and I tell you guys, it’s pure awesome.  This film fest was born back in 2006 in London and has since been to Toronto, Copenhagen & Melbourne.

This is their 2nd season here in Cape Town and after hearing so many great things about last year’s festival, I knew that this was something I wasn’t going to miss out on this year.  I attended the opening night last Tue eve and was absolutely blown away.  This is soooooo much better than going to the “regular” movies.  Why?  Well firstly your ticket only costs R25 compared to those crazy prices of normal movie tickets nowadays.  Then your Coke & popcorn doesn’t require a payment plan. ;)

Looove the old school popcorn machine

For those wanting a little summin’ extra, grab yourself a glass of wine or a beer from the bar, hell any poison of choice really.  Feeling a bit peckish?  Why not dig into a yummy wrap or some hearty winter soup.  Mmmmmmm.

AND instead of a stuffy cinema, you have the incredibly cool Wunderbar theatre!  The old German club in Roodehek Terrace just off Hope St in Gardens got a major revamp and now features this classic theatre alongside a craft beer bar.  Very very cool.

Grab a seat on one of the wooden benches…

Or chill out in front on one of the couches / poofs / oversized pillows.

Then sit back & relax while you take in a carefully selected set of new & old international short films, animations & music videos.  We saw 8 shorts last Tues consisting of 5 films, 2 animations & 1 music video (on average each is about 6 – 10min long).  And don’t worry, you don’t have to be an arty film buff to enjoy them.  I’m certainly no expert and I enjoyed every single one.  I think they have a great general appeal and there’s a good mix of funny / quirky / odd / interesting & moving.

Important things to note:

  • You get your tickets from Webtickets here.
  • Kick off is at 19:30.  But the doors open at 18:00.  I suggest getting their early to ensure you get a good spot.  Just enjoy a drink and something to eat beforehand.  It really is a cool spot, so it won’t feel like you’re just waiting around.

As a teaser, here are two examples of the types of things you’ll get to see.  The first is an award winning animated short by Laurie Hill called “Photograph of Jesus”.  It was from a film challenge collaboration between Short & Sweet and Getty Images back in 2008:

The next is a short film by Australian film director & stuntman, Nash Edgerton, titled “Spider”.  It’s a little dark, quite surprising but totally brilliant.  (We got so see a new short of his titled “Bear” which features the same male character last Tue – it was my favourite one.)

You like what you see?  Then hopefully I’ll see you guys there.  My ticket for tomorrow eve is already booked and I can’t wait for my 2nd dose.  I left there feeling so inspired last week, it was like a kick ass creative energy boost. :)

xxx

City Bowl market update

Posted on by
1

I popped into the City Bowl Market on Hope St market again recently – mainly to check out their Fashion Market, but I ended up leaving with a solid stash of foodie treats.  I’ve realised that you can’t clothing shop when you’re cold (and it was VERY cold that day), all your body really craves is fattening things to help you defrost dammit! ;)

The other problem was also that the fashion market had mostly vintage clothing and I’m sadly not a fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of finding some awesome fashion gem, maybe even a fabulous designer item from way back when.  But the thought of wearing someone else’s clothes just totally freaks me out.  I certainly don’t want some lady haunting me because I took her Burberry coat or something.  Way too much stress…

One thing that did catch my eye though were these Cape Town suburb name tag necklaces from Two Birds with Some Stones:

You guys know I just love anything Cape Town themed…  I was very tempted to get the Bellville one.  That way I could wear it to work and get some street cred (I work in the Northern Burbs).

Other things of theirs I also loved (I’ve taken piccies from their website cause I didn’t get great shots on the day):

Wood & silver necklace

Mesh neck piece

Imported watch glass pendants

Etched silver rings

Beautiful right?  I love how intricate their pieces are…

Then my stomach started grumbling and I decided to hop on over to the food area where I first went crazy with cheese & bread:

I felt like I was having a major “Heidi” moment.  Anybody else watch that show as a kid?  She lived in the mountains with her grandpa and used to chow down on the most delicious looking cheese & bread every single day.  Even in cartoon form it looked soooo damn good. And she never got fat, lucky girl. :)

I figured I would balance out the massive carb attack with some good-for-ya dried fruits from By Nature:

Perfect to mix into your muesli or yoghurt, or even to sprinkle over salads.

And then I rewarded myself for being such a healthy girl with some of these babies by Swoon Treats:

OK OK, so the healthy thing didn’t exactly last long… but macarons = happiness.

I didn’t like the “whoopie pies” – but I did like the pistachio & red velvet macarons.  At R10 they are a bit pricey, but they’re also much bigger than your standard macaron.  My heart still belongs to Cassis Macarons, but these were nice to try for something different.

So even though I didn’t score big at the fashion market, I still scored big in the food department.   The City Bowl Market still remains a favourite of mine thanks to it’s relaxed feel and great variety of yummy things.  Do check it out if you’re in th area.  It’s open every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. 

xxx

City Bowl Fashion Market this weekend

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re into fashion, awesome vintage finds, jewellery & accessories, then head over to 14 Hope St this Sat, 30 June for the City Bowl Fashion Market:

You will get to peruse goodies from 30 local designers, all conveniently placed under one roof so you don’t have to schlep around town, fighting with car guard after car guard and you can also get some coffee & breakfast while you’re at it because the normal City Bowl Market will be running as well.

Check out their Facebook page for more info and 1… 2… 3… shop!

xxx