South African Food and Wine Fest

Saturday I went to the South African Food and Wine Festival at a local winery that is less than twenty minutes from my house along a back country road with no street lines. I had heard about it on the radio earlier in the week and thought it might be fun. Well I wasn't too excited to go by myself, but paid for the ticket online so that I would have to get off my butt, out of the house, and go. (I mean I am not that lazy I did run four miles when I got up in the morning, and then made fresh banana bread. And then ate half of it.)

I don't know much about South Africa other than it used to be under British rule, a little about the inequalities of apartheid, they have penguins and great whites there, I want to go to Krueger National Park, and South Africa won the Rugby World Cup (as witnessed by me in a bar from 3am to 7am in Airlie Beach, Australia). I know that the meat is supposed to be good there - particularly the boerewors which I tried and kuru lamb (which was not available). And the wine is supposed to be fantastic.

It was an interesting solo affair. Really who likes to drink by themselves? I checked in, got my id bracelet (without flashing my id) and picked up my complimentary wine glass. There was music blasting and a huge tent lined with tables for wine tasting. I decided to start with the sangria bc they were keeping it cool with dry ice and it looked very interesting with smoke and fog billowing out of the container. After trying the lychee sangria,I remembered that I don't really like sangria even if I do like lychees. And I don't even like mangoes, so I didnt try the other sangria. I then moved on to red wine. I sampled 8-10 red wines made locally at the winery and then another 8-10 fermented in South Africa. I wandered a bit trying to pace myself and looked at some South African crafts, people-watched, tried to win a trip to South Africa, marveled at the drunks, wondered at the families, and wondered where all these people came from and what they thought about being down country roads in Louisa County. I also tried some Biltong which is air-dried beef jerky. Very flavorful and very tough.

Let me digress. I know all about wine and wine making and how all the types are made and stuff about climates and grape types and pretty much everything there is to know about wine except really how to appreciate the subtleness of oak fermentation and the hint of grapefruit and all that crap. To me, wine mostly tastes like wine and some of it is more drinkable than others. Generally if I buy wine, I buy one that has a funny name or a funny photo - like someone riding a bicycle and carrying an umbrella. What does that have to do with wine?

Anyway. There was nothing in particular that struck my fancy, other than my fancy was getting tipsy. Time for food. Really, that is what I came for. Unfortunately, you had to pay for all the food, and it was a bit more than I expected. Fortunately this middle-of-nowehere winery had an atm. When I arrived at the festival, they handed me a description sheet of all the food that was available... so I knew exactly what I wanted to try (and now in hindsight, exactly what I ate).

I stuck with the sampler platter on a bed of yellow rice flavored with tumeric, lemon zest, cinnamon, and raisins (see I have the description). In the top left of the photo is the potjiekos (poy-kee-kos), in the top right bobotie, and across the middle is the boerewors. And there are two random sauces in the bottom corner that I have no idea what they are or what they are made of. I liked one and not the other. (potjiekos = pot food = chicken and veggies simmered for hours; bobotie = lamb, curry, dried fruit (it was like meatloaf); boerewors = farmer sausage = meat (but supposedly with no added cereals so it is ALL meat and spices))

I topped all of this off with Malva pudding a delicious bread pudding pictured at the top. Then I topped all of that off with a smattering (8) of white wines. None of which struck my fancy. With all the wine sampled and my belly full, I decided it was best to go home and take a nap bc all of the wine was making me sleepy. Plus it was Saturday afternoon and what is there better to do?

Karrie dropped by and when I awoke I realized there is a reason I don't usually drink copious amounts of wine early in the day and it is no fun to feel slightly hungover in hot humid VA at 4pm. I survived, but next time I am going to bed for good or maybe drink a little less wine.