Friends and too much food

We had an early start, which involved missing most of breakfast. SS was feeling sluggish, so he went for a run before 8:00am, and we were at breakfast for 8:30am. We just stuck to the fruit and muesli (which they were relieved about - they had got used to the current guests fitting into the 9:30am plus time slot of the 8-10am breakfast, and didn't really want to see anyone so early (charming as they were...).
We met a work friend of SS (KP) and drove to Allee Blueue for breakfast with some of his work contacts. It was all a bit dry, and the breakfast not a patch on Akademie Street. We did stay on afterwards for a quick wine tasting there, but the wines were truly terrible. Even the young girl serving the wines agreed afterwards that they were pretty bad.

Back to Franschhoek, and we were dropped off at Akademie Street with a date to meet KP and his wife and children for lunch at Grande Provence.
Lunch was lovely, the little girls were very well behaved considering they are both under 3, and the food spectacular. I had to use my large camera as I had left the little one at the room, so for once in the first week I can show photos of the food! We sat outside under the umbrellas in a lovely shaded courtyard.

SS and I both started with the corn veloute with tempura prawn.

Then I had the Cape Salmon with lobster mousse and curry sauce,

and SS had blesbok with cabbage and bacon. Then we both had the cheeseboard.

We finished up and decided to do a quick wine tasting there too whilst the little girls looked around the museum with their mother. The wine was quite nice actually, very pleasant. We ended up buying a bottle of the 2007 Cab Sav as it had the most unique minty flavour to it. This is apparently because the field in which the vines grow is surrounded by eucalyptus trees.

There were a lot of artworks around the place which was a nice touch, although some of the statues were a little... strange....

We were due to meet KP and his wife at 7:45pm at their house, before driving up to Haute Cabriere for dinner. So SS and I just collapsed on the bed, and watched television for the afternoon, cradling our full stomachs. We were very unused to breakfast, lunch and dinner in one day by this point.
Haute Cabriere is like a hobbit hole set into the hillside above their wine cellars. Very noisy inside with bad acoustics, and the food was OK but not fantastic - nowhere near the level of Grande Provence.

I ordered the tuna tataki to start with which was rolled in sesame seeds and seared, and served with crisy vegetables in a honey soy and ginger sauce. Then I had salmon with apple and fennel and new potatoes (whichI couldn't finish). This was normal salmon not the cape salmon I had had at lunch, and I don't know how many more times I need to have salmon before I acknowledge that I really don't like it!
SS had the tuna started as well, and then duck confit. As KP was on the tasting menu, and LP wanted a dessert, SS and I shared cheeseboard to keep them company. During the dinner we shared a Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir 2006 and then an Armin (a Cab Sav/Sav Blanc blend which was as awful an idea as it sounds). Lastly we had a bottle of their Cap Classique - Pierre Jourdan Brut Sauvage.
SS and KP get on like a house on fire (whatever that phrase means), and got into a discussion on politics which was dragging on so much that everyone else in the restaurant had left, and the staff were actually hoovering over in the corner. When LP finally said we really should leave, as we left, one of the waitresses was literally standing by the bar with her handbag already over her shoulder ready to leave!
Way way too much alcohol, lucky I wasn't driving for a change, KP seemed unconcerned. He dropped us off, and we headed in, SS rather tipsy and me waddling with more food than it is polite or advisable to consume in one day!