CTE.com proudly welcomes Michael Olivier to our site, as our first guest blogger.
When you go back to Hemelhuijs, you chastise yourself for staying away. This is a place to return to again and again. In case you miss something.
In the four years since Jacques Erasmus opened Hemelhuijs in October 2010, this talented, creative artist on so many levels has changed the restaurant interior design so many times, yet maintains the very soul of the place. ‘We are a cafe with attention to detail,’ he so humbly says, a tiny smile dancing on his lips.
This is a place to return to again and again.
The food offering is comfort, nostalgia, honest, authentic – all served up on some pretty spectacular crockery, designed by and made for Jacques. My favourite will always be Boerendelft, a quirky collection that looks as though it came from the staff kitchen of Mrs Koopman de Wet’s house, with its specially created chips and cracks.
This is a place to return to again and again.
Now it’s the Gold Collection – matte white plates with sparkling gold interiors that require five firings.
You are as likely to be offered for breakfast soft ‘mieliepap’ with orange blossom honey and salted butter, breakfast beer waffles with home-made Genoa figs in syrup and crème fraîche and old familiars such as poached farm eggs with artichoke hearts and Hollandaise.
This is a place to return to for breakfast again and again.
The pre-lunch drinks are innovative and clever: pink gin with ruby grapefruit and tonic on offer, delicate quince with prosecco or the quirky orange vodka with orange ice cream soda float. Freshly squeezed blood orange was my favourite. The wine list is small and offers some truly special wines. The hot drinks with the fabulous array of cakes can be anything from a tonka bean white hot chocolate with whisky, the 70% dark couverture hot chocolate or the bergamot and dulce de leche with steamed milk. Bergamot is an orange that is the major flavour component of Earl Grey tea.
Our main courses were the sublimely comforting farm-style beef and cabbage ‘frikadelle’ with truffled white vegetable mash and tomato butter and a ginger and sichuan pepper baby calamari with apple, turnip and miso mayonnaise. The special of the day was a slow-cooked coriander neck of lamb with baked pumpkin.
There are any number of cakes and bakes for you to choose as a dessert. Ours was a large square macaron like Dacquoise with the most unctuous of unctuous chocolate Ganache icings. There are also fresh baked mosbolletjies available each day.
This is a place to return to again and again.
OF NOTE
Where 71 Waterkant Street, CBD
Trading hours Monday to Friday 9 am – 4 pm, Saturdays 9 am – 3 pm
Contact +27 21 418 2042, www.hemelhuijs.co.za
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Photography Michael Olivier