We Capetonians sure do love our food and eating out, and this weekend we'll have the chance to sample the fare from no less than 18 restaurants - all at one venue.
This is Taste of Cape Town, and after a rip-roaringly successful launch last year it's back, bigger and better. Taking place this time on the Jan van Riebeek sports field off Kloof Nek Road in Tamboerskloof, this is how it works: there are two sessions daily, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.
You go to Computicket and you buy either an R80 standard en-trance ticket which includes a welcome drink, or a R170 premium one which comes with R100s worth of "crowns", which is the festival currency.
A crown is the equivalent to R5 and you use them to buy starter-size portions from the stalls of participating restaurants. Each restaurant will be preparing three dishes, either completely new specially for Taste, or signature items from their menus. Prices range between four and eight crowns, which works out to R20-R40 and portions are designed so you can try as wide a variety of possible.
"The idea is to sample as many things as possible," says festival director Justine Drake. "Taste is geared to people who normally eat at these kinds of restaurants and we have such a wide representation of types of food this year, from prawn pasta from Il Leone Mastrantonio to truffled bangers from Bread & Wine. You don't have to eat foie gras if you don't want to. There's a good balance."
The list of participating restaurants features eight newcomers and five from the current Eat Out top 10, including the restaurant (and chef) of the year for 2009, La Colombe. Luke Dale-Roberts will be making warm mushroom sushi rolls with sugar snap, truffle oil and miso salad, Asian-style beef tartare and warm prawn salad with coconut milk and lemon grass butter.
The other 17 restaurants are Aubergine, Bouillabaisse, Crêpe Suzette, Catharina's the Restaurant at Steenberg, Five Flies Restaurant & Bars, Il Leone Mastrantonio, Jardine, Le Quartier Francais, Bread & Wine, Nova, Overture Restaurant, Reuben's, Societi Bistro, Terroir, Wakame, Wang Thai and theshowroom café, whose owner and chef Bruce Robertson will also be hosting a bubbly tasting room in an Air-stream caravan similar to those on the rooftop of the Grand Daddy Hotel in Long Street.
Obviously space doesn't permit a full listing of all these menus but here are some tantalising temptations: lamb and aubergine strudel purse with ricotta ratatouille and braised garlic (from Aubergine) and bouillabaisse, the signature dish from the restaurant of the same name. This version is a light crayfish based soup with prawns, garnished with curry cream and served with sourdough toast garnished with rouille.
Catharina's will be serving duck leg confit with cucumber ribbons and a star anise, honey and chilli jus and newcomer Five Flies has crumbed chicken breast stuffed with Gorgonzola with caramelised apple and orange butter sauce on its menu. Award-winning George Jardine (of Jardine) is making wild mushroom and foie gras tian with truffle jus, and equally acclaimed chef Margot Janse of Le Quartier Francais is presenting a seared scallop with pea and asparagus relish.
From his menu at Nova, Richard Carstens has selected the fantastic pork belly, which is roasted for 24 hours, and if you need to satisfy the sweet tooth, stop off at Overture for flourless chocolate torte, mousse and sorbet.
Reuben Riffel's braised lamb shoulder spring roll with feta, pine nut and mint salsa and thyme jus can lead to mushroom risotto from Societi Bistro, Coca Cola ribs at theshowroom café or tempura squid with tomato jam, aioli, rocket purée and garlic crouton from Terroir.
Wasabi-crusted tuna seared on ponzu-flavoured Asian greens garnished with deep-fried sweet potato is a long-time Wakame classic and there are more Asian flavours at Wang Thai with grilled chicken with Thai herbs and sweet chilli sauce or prawns with lemongrass.
Each session at Taste lasts four hours, from 1pm till 5pm, and again from 6.30pm till 10.30pm (Sunday visitors get an extra hour - it opens at 12pm) so it's a good idea to pace yourself. It is, in anyone's book, a feast of impressive proportions.
"And don't be put off if the weather isn't great," urges Drake. Even if it should rain, there's plenty of coverage in bedouin tents housing various boozy exhibitors plus demonstrations in the Pick n Pay Fresh Living Chef's Theatre.
Many of the chefs from Taste restaurants will be showing off their skills in demos, culinary challenges, entertaining tutorials and informative Q&A sessions.
You can also meet the people behind the award-winning Fresh Living magazine, one of whom just happens to be Drake herself.
Another feature which went down a treat last year and is back for this festival is the Checkers Wine Route where Clive Torr, with some of South Africa's leading wine makers, will be presenting a selection of wines from more than 80 leading wine estates in South Africa. Pop in for wine tastings, tutorials and advice on wine and food pairing.
Two new additions are the Grolsch Beer Academy and the Kidz Zone. The former will be hosting beer master classes with food pairing by a renowned brew master, while the latter will have things like a jumping castle, face painting, magic shows and all sorts of other things that keep little ones entertained while parents are off feeding. Do not get them mixed up.
All this happens on the Jan van Riebeek High School sports fields, which are off Kloof Nek Road. Not the German school and not at the school in Kloof Street. Turn into St Michael's Road and parking will be available in Varsity Street with a shuttle running to and from the venue.
"It's a lovely new venue for Taste with extraordinary views of Table Mountain," says Drake.
Crowns can be bought with festival tickets beforehand or on the day. Guests can use them to pay for sample dishes from restaurants or drinks from exhibitors and bars.
Change is offered in crowns only and there are no refunds, so eat, drink and be merry till they run out.
- To book, call Computicket at 083 915 8000. Entrance is free for children under 12. See Taste of Cape Town