Thus, it should surprise no one that on Saturday I went on a pilgrimage to the national cheese festival about an hour from Cape Town, on a farm in wine country. Em A., Jen, Niv and I drove out early in the morning and arrived on the farm at about 10:30. We paid our entrance fee (only R75, or $10 for a whole day of cheese!?) and bought ourselves wine tasting glasses. Then, we spent the next 5 hours tasting as much cheese and wine as we could get our hands on. There were three tents packed with cheese, wine, olive and chocolate vendors.
I tasted so much wine and cheese that by the end of the afternoon I could barely tell a cheddar from a gouda or a shiraz from a sauvignon blanc. I also made a few purchases, which will make excellent gifts when I return to the States (if I don’t eat or drink them before I manage to get them onto the plane).
We then drove over to Franschoek, the nearest quaint wine town, which also happens to be known as the gastronomic capital of South Africa. Most of the truly spectacular restaurants were a bit out of our Rotary Scholar price range, but we had an enjoyable dinner at a cozy restaurant on the main road, nonetheless. The town itself was the epitome of quaint, and there was even a wedding going on in the thatched roofed Dutch Reformed Church downtown.
We finished off our day of cheese back in Cape Town at Jon David’s apartment with a movie. When we arrived with DVD in hand and our gracious host JD set out a platter of cheese and crackers, we all politely declined and requested popcorn instead.
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