As a semi-vegetarian (I eat fish and seafood but no meat) I’m fully behind the Meat Free Mondays global initiative. In case you haven’t heard of it, Meat Free Mondays was started to get people to eat less meat and think about contributing to the sustainability of the planet by cutting back one day a week.
So I was pretty excited to try out Catharina’s Meat Free Monday menu. The restaurant, which is located on Steenberg Wine Estate, has been offering its Meat Free Mondays menu since 2009 and I wish I had known about it before. Another great thing about the menu is that all the dishes can be paired with organic local wines.
Executive Chef Garth Almazan, who is probably the first South African restaurant chef to have championed the world-wide Meat Free Mondays campaign locally, has created a fantastic vegetarian Monday menu.
I had the wild Mushroom and goat’s cheese phyllo tart which was matched with “˜Jonty’s Duck’ Red Blend from Avondale. For my main course I chose the asparagus, broad bean and pea risotto served with the cutest tiny buna-shimeji mushrooms, goat’s feta, and micro herbs, and paired with the Reyneke Sauvignon Blanc. Pudding was a warm satsuma and ginger malva pudding with cardamom and chocolate ice cream, satsuma lavender salad and vanilla bean anglaise, which came with a glass of silky smooth Avondale Muscat Blanc.
All the dishes were faultless. It was great to eat such interesting vegetarian food – I’m used to restaurants that offer one or two vegetarian options, one of which is invariably butternut ravioli or napoletana pasta. Though I’m no wine expert, I thought the wine pairing were really well thought-out and the organic wines added a lot of to each course.
If you’re vegetarian and want to spoil yourself, this is where you come. If you’re a committed carnivore, try out the Meat Free Mondays menu and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Either way, this is delicious food for a good cause – who could argue with that?
The “˜Meat Free Mondays’ menu at Catharina’s offers a selection of between two and four starters, main courses and desserts. (two-course lunch R145 and R220, including a glass of wine per course. three-course lunch/dinner R185, and R280, including a glass of wine per course). Catharina’s also offers its standard á la Carte menu on Mondays too.
If like me, you eat the three-course dinner and drink a lot of wine you may want to stay over at the Steenberg Hotel instead of driving home. It’s fabulously plush and luxurious, and staying out in the Constantia winelands feels like a holiday in your own city.
Pre-booking at Catharina’s is essential.
Steenberg Hotel
Tel 021 713-2222
www.steenberghotel.com
Follow on twitter @SteenbergHotel
