My experience at Remex……….16-02-2012

Friends of ours invited us to this little Mexican spot one Thursday night. We have never been to this place but they have a few times and have ranted and raved about it every time, so we figured why not. They literally stumbled upon it while they were still living in Richwood. If you never visit Richwood you would probably also not be aware that this place existed. It is located at the La Piazza Centre next to a grocery store. There is also a bottle store in the same centre. Now whenever you are unsure where to locate your new restaurant, close to a bottle store would definitely not be a bad choice!! Hence this is exactly how my friends found this place!

On Thursday nights they have half price tequila’s and frozen margaritas from 8 until 10. I was really looking forward to having some of their margaritas but unfortunately they were having problems with their margarita machine. :-( They are really not shy on dishing out those tequila’s either! One of our friends that joined us is pregnant so they even went as far as giving her a shot of water for every time we had a shot of tequila just so she wouldn’t feel left out! How cute! J

Seeing as our friends were the experts at this place we let them steer the boat and order for us. Instead of each of us having our own meal we ordered a few different meals and shared. For starters we had the Combo platter for 2: 2 little Chimi Changas, 2 Chilli Poppers, 4 Cheese Nachos, 2 Quesadillas, 2 Nacho Cups with an extra portion of Chili Poppers (4 Tortilla wrapped jalapeno chilies stuffed with 3 cheeses, deep fried and accompanied with a layered dip).

I had never heard of Chimi Changas or Nacho Cups and perhaps you haven’t either. Chimi Changas are explained further on. Nacho Cups are exactly that, a nacho chip that has been moulded into a little cup before being deep fried and then afterwards filled with creamy chicken. It is like having a nacho chip that already has a “dip” on it. Easy to enjoy in a few small bites. Needless to say everything in the platter was really good. Their nachos are homemade and look and taste nothing like the store bought ones. They are rather large and very nice and crispy.

For mains we ordered the Nachos Grande: large nachos topped with various fillings (chili con carne, spicy chicken, seared vegetables, creamy chicken, and covered with melted cheese. Topped with guacamole salsa and sour cream). You get two versions of this dish and of course we had the larger one out of the two, Mucho Hungry nachos (12 nachos).

 

We also ordered Chimi changas: 2 Deep fried burritos stuffed with cheese and chili con carne and a Burrito: large flour tortilla folded into a pocket and stuffed with spicy chicken.

Everything was extremely tasty and not overly spiced. So it didn’t leave me burping chili in the early hours of the morning. It is a very casual place and I will gladly spread the word and be back there. Next time I will just make sure their frozen margarita machine is working!! J

Yours in fun & tequila’s,

Elly D
La Piazza Centre
Nederburg Road
Richwood
0836994257
0844306405
remexcantina@gmail.com
Remex Mexican Cantina Facebook page

My experience at Bar Bar Black Sheep……….02-02-2012

Since I heard about this funky little restaurant that opened its doors in the arty town of Riebeeck Kasteel (where I spend a lot of time as a kid) I have been wanting to visit them. Eventually the opportunity arose when I got send to Riebeeck Kasteel on a work outing. When we arrived there we walked to the back and sat at one of the brightly cloured tables outside. Making sure we got a spot under the fine misty spray coming from the overhead sprinklers. When you arrive, it looks like you are actually at a friend's house having lunch in their back yard. Very cute!

Our waiter was a typical plaas japie. He even had what looked like some proper home-made prison tattoos, but he was very sweet! :-) He just kept on telling us that everything was really good and that their portions were on the larger side. He immediately told us which meal was no longer available, which a lot of waiters neglect to do. There is nothing fancy, apparence wise, about the menu you get given. It is just an A4 print out. Their menu changes seasonally so I guess they don’t bother spending time and money on a plastic menu as it would just be wasted.

I think I was too hungry by the time I looked at the menu because I couldn’t decide on what to have. I thought about having the chicken dish (Smoked paprika chicken – Chicken breast pan fried in olive oil and cooked with herbs, chick peas, cream, smoked paprika, hot smoked sausage, garlic and served with whole roasted sweet red pepper) but the cream in the sauce put me off. The Pork and black bean stew – Pork Knuckle browned and cooked with tomato, turmeric, thyme, paprika, garlic, rosemary, cumin, chilli and black beans served with crusty white bread caught my eye but I thought the pork would still be on the bone and too fatty. I asked the waiter to choose between the chicken and the lamb burger (Bar Bar lamb burger – 100% Leg of lamb mince burger pan friend and baked in the oven. Served with greens, cream cheese, guacamole, capers, bacon and tomato chutney), and he chose the lamb burger. I thought seeing as I was on the quest to find the best burger I might as well try it.

I must say when it arrived, it looked great! The presentation of their meals is really good. The greens it is served with was really nice. Quite different to the usual side greens one would expect. It had cucumber pieces that had been soaked in tzatziki sauce, capers, aubergines, olives, tomatoes, rocket and artichokes. The potato skewer was nicely roasted and well-seasoned. Underneath the burger patty they spread some cream cheese which was quite a pleasant surprise. The burger was good but definitely not as good as the gourmet one’s that I am used to. I want my burger patty to crumble as I try stick it in my mouth. This one was too dense and solid which also resulted in it not being as moist and juicy. The sweet tomato chutney was a great touch to the dish. After having only some of the greens and only the patty and toppings I was extremely full. I suppose he did warn us about the size of the meals! :-) The patty was very heavy on my stomach. My friend ended up having the pork and black bean stew and the pork knuckle wasn’t on the bone as I had feared. Her meal actually looked really nice! Unfortunately I was too full to give it a taste but she enjoyed it.

Overall, it was a good experience and if I’m ever in that area again I will be sure to pop by. The name just cracks me up every time I see it. They have a wide variety of meals on the menu but not a killer long list which is good. This is the perfect little place to go spend a lazy hot afternoon at.

Yours in fun & food,

Elly D

Short Street

Riebeeck Kasteel

022-448 1031

bbbs@telkomsa.net

www.bbbs.co.za

My experience at Jan Cats……….29-01-2012

We were in Stellenbosch for the day looking at wedding venues. While booking the appointments with the various farms the day before we realized we had quite a gap between the last two farms as the last farm could only see us at 3pm. We figured what better way to kill time then to go grab a bite to eat. I quickly had a look on Grand Dining’s website to see if they had any restaurants in Stellenbosch on their list. Turns out, there was actually quite a few, so we settled on this one.

Jan Cats is the restaurant and pub at the Stellenbosch Hotel. The interior of the pub gives you that comforting old English pub feel. We chose a nice little table outside under the shade as it was a Stellies Scorcher that day. Just before arriving there we were at Kleine Zalze, looking at the venue but also having a little wine taste seeing as we had so much time to kill! :-) Therefore we decided to have a bottle of Kleine Zalze Bush Vine Chenin Blanc – Guava, pineapple & peach aromas, clean and crisp aftertaste from their menu. As we arrived we realized the Aussie Open men’s tennis final was about half way so while munching down we could conveniently follow the remainder of the game. The fiancé, for the umpteen time, tried to explain how the scoring in tennis worked. Now I am not stoopid, I get most sport rules and I even know the off side rule! I promise! But tennis, I just can’t seem to get!!

Anyway, to eat I ordered the Rare roast beef wrap – roast sirloin, whole grain mustard and dill cucumber but received the Smoked Salmon Wrap – Smoked Salmon, cream cheese, capers, tomato, red onion with side salad. Thinking about it now, I even pointed to the meal I wanted as I still asked her something about it and looking at the menu those two items aren’t even above each other! Anyway, luckily for her (and for me I suppose) I was in such a chilled mood, must have been the bush vine talking :-), that I said I would have it. Completely different to what I ordered but luckily it was not a bad or unhealthy swop! It turned out to be quite good. They were definitely NOT shy with the salmon!! The side salad also came with a nice mustard seed dressing so I was happy. It was going down perfectly with my chilled white wine.

The fiancé had the Chicken Schnitzel – with mushroom sauce, chips and side salad. It looked really good and he was also rather happy with the choice he had made. After finishing our vino we rushed out of there to make our last appointment and continued trying to listen to the tennis updates on the radio, me slightly less confused and trying to stay with it.

Overall a nice experience! Even with the food order mix up. There are so many other quaint little eateries in Stellenbosch so I can’t say I’ll rush back but definitely worth popping by.

Yours in fun & food,

Elly D

Cnr of Dorp and
Andringa Street
Stellenbosch
021-887 3644

www.stellenboschhotel.co.za