Our arrival back in the Mother City last Tuesday was met with much excitement from the animals that we had not abandoned them forever and a bit of excitement from the girls over their new onesies and other little presents.
They both look very adorable in their onesies. But I am probably a bit prejudiced.

I had just the one afternoon to get back into Cape Town mode and then was back at work on the Wednesday. Even though there is only an hour difference in time it is still an exhausting trip and I was counting down until the following weekend which luckily happened to be a 3 day weekend! The only drawback was that Norm was working as the International Triathlon Union World Series event was on at the V&A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront.

Saturday I went off on an excursion with my friends Retha and Pierre. We headed over Chapman’s Peak drive into the Noordhoek Farm Village and went to the Toad in the Village for a late lunch.

I was in carnivore mode and decided to try a burger. I chose the Popper Burger which is topped with 2 cheesy ham filled chilli poppers with sweet chilli sauce R90. Their burgers come with both fries and onion rings so I was a happy kitten – like most southerners if you take most things, dip them in batter and fry them and I will eat them.

The meat was delicious, I am a burger snob and cannot bear nasty grisly meat or those compressed burgers from the shops where you can use them as a spare hockey puck if required.

I will definitely go back for another meal there.

We then toddled off to the garden centre, I am looking for a fairy or angel fountain for my garden, or else a cute statue. Something like her…

We had a look round, and both bought a few bits and pieces then we decided to have a coffee, which of course led to dessert.

We asked about their cakes, and the waiter gave a long list of all sorts of varieties, one of which was ‘lemon meringue cake’. I confirmed whether he meant cake or pie, he said definitively ‘Cake’. As I love lemon meringue pie I thought a cake of that nature was worth a try so we ordered the ‘lemon meringue cake’.

As you can see it is just lemon meringue pie. But Oh what a pie! It was so sweet and creamy and the meringue so light. It really was divine. It was so big I could not even finish it.

Sunday I decided that I deserved a pyjama day as Norm was working and I was rather tired still so I just chilled and played games on the ipad and generally pottered about. That evening when Norm was home we ordered take away sushi. The new place in Red Sail Centre in Hout Bay does a buy 2 get 1 free offer on Sundays so we got a huge assortment of sushi for a good price and I always enjoy their sushi.

Monday was a national holiday and Norm was finally off work. We had intentions to go looking for a new car for me, but we both had major motivational issues so by the time we got out of the house it was already late afternoon. We decided just to go for a long leisurely lunch. We stopped first at my fave which is Ragafellows, but they were closed, so dejected we toddled off to find an alternative.
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We decided to try for a table at Pescarne as we had heard they have a new lunch menu and wanted to try it. I didn’t realise that you can ONLY order off the lunch menu, I had assumed it was specials in addition to their existing menu. They just had a handful of items on the menu – ranging from fish and chips at R55 to a seafood platter for 1 at R159. I was keen on the crayfish curry at R139 but the waiter said it was shells and all – and I cannot see the point of eating a messy curry dish with bits of shell or bone in which either requires digging about with your fingers, or else ending up with curry all over you and the spitting out of inedible bits. Charming. Not.

So I opted for the Fish and chips. It was a rather unappetising looking piece of fish, the batter was not a solid tempura type of batter like we get in the UK, it was more of a pancake batter texture, very thin.

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The first few bites were full of bones and I nearly gagged. But once I got through those first few bites there were no more bones. But there is nothing worse than taking a big bite of food and having to ferret round in your mouth for bits to expel. I think the only positive thing I can say about it is that it was well priced.

I did have a very delicious strawberry daiquiri to keep me amused.
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Norm ordered the trinchado, I had thought I was jealous until it arrived and I realised it was basically just a bowl of meat stew. No veg, no potatoes, no rice, nothing except a stale Portuguese roll. If the only side accompaniment is a bread roll then make bloody sure the bread roll is baked that day!

I tasted the dish and was even happier I did not order it – the meat was very tough, and the sauce was very intensely flavoured. It tasted as if it was heavy with rosemary, or tea tree oil. It had a very antiseptic taste to me, really unenjoyable and overpowering. Norm was hungry and is nowhere near as fussy as me (I prefer to say I have a delicate palate rather than that I am fussy) and he ate every bite.

This visit to Pescarne was a bit of a test. I’ve blogged about several of my previous visits there. The 1st visit we had amazing food, amazing service and an amazing experience. The 2nd visit was mediocre, the 3rd was good and the 4th was good. This visit was so poor that I cannot see us going back again – there are too many excellent venues with better prices right on our doorsteps. I do not mind paying high prices for excellent food – but for average food I find it objectionable.

Quite a few people predicted that this venue would not last the winter but I was really pulling for them after my 1st visit, but a restaurant is only as good as its last meal and my last meal there was very average.

Yesterday was another public holiday and I spent it shopping with Lily. I managed to get my pressies for Caitlin’s birthday, Trevor’s birthday and Josh’s birthday so I am a very happy kitten! I hope they like them.