Ostrich neck stew and gin tasting

So, no whales yet. Alas. But on the day of the gin tasting, Marita and I went over to Lip Lekker and had ostrich neck stew. So yummy! Astounding how much meat there is in an ostrich neck! If you ever see it in the store, buy it and I’ll give you pointers on how to cook it — it’s so lekker! (that means good) But you don’t want to hear about food, I hear, so shall we talk about gin? There were 12 of us, I think, though not everyone was in on the tasting. We started with Hendricks, because one of our guests was Scottish and because Hendricks is sort of the father of the artisanal gin movement. Then we moved on to the Main Event, which was tasting the local, astounding gin from Stillbai, Inverroche. We started with Inverroche classic, which is a more traditional style of gin, though all Inverroche is made with local fynbos as the botanicals and with Italian juniper. It’s a clear white, made with limestone water; after first tasting, a bit of grapefruit peel was added, which changed the taste dramatically. Next was the Inverroche Verdant, which has a green cast to it, made from valley water, fynbos in a different recipe; served with lime peel. The last, my absolute favorite, Inverroche Amber, made from mountain water, a different mixture of fynbos and also made a little differently than the others, but after having 13 shots of gin during my real Inverroche gin tasting in Stillbaai I can’t remember how. Maybe Laird remembers. It is served with orange peel. According to Inverroche folks, NEVER squeeze juice into gin. All these years, having gin-and-tonic-double-lime and squeezing. Oh, how wrong I was! Amber needs only a very little of tonic (that would be good tonic, not schwepes) and orange peel to make an excellent, though short, drink. Surprising to me, all our guests asked for the classic when it came time to have a G&T. We had one guest, Jeff, the Scots South African, who tried a sample of the Inverroche rum, made with black strap mollassas. He was the only adventurer in the group and tried more pairings. Marita and I had quite an impressive table of party food, but folks hardly ate anything. We had rearranged the furniture to get the adults close enough to the tasting, but then we thought they’d get up and move around. A sedentary crowd for sure! Next day we gave half the leftovers to Johan’s workers downstairs in the hardware store, followed up with more each day afterwards. They were very happy that no one ate anything but biltong at the party! However, everyone at the party had a great time, so what’s a few leftovers?
The two days of preparation/party pretty much did me in. Luckily I had an appointment with miracle worker Carina for the next morning, but still, I was pretty much in the throes of pain for the next two days, hardly able to walk. Yesterday, we went to the beach in Dana Bay, today, the beach in Mossel Bay. Daniel, we got you some shells — though they are all quite small. Pretty, though. I also went to see our friend Hein at Township Angels to look for presents. Theodore and Sia, I am at a loss for what you might like from South Africa — please, please, give me hints! Really, I’m serious, I need directions! Chris, I got you a very cool present, even though it will mean another object in your life.
Clearly, I didn’t do enough shopping in Cape Town! Now there’s nowhere to go. Bummer.
Tomorrow the plan is to go see the Big Tree in Knysna forest, depending on the beauty of the day. I’ll tell you all about it if we go. Hope it cools down in Santa Fe and everyone has a lovely time until we meet again — jm