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This month we give you a guide to all the foodie and non-foodie events you’ll need to watch out for: Knysna Oyster festival, Bastille Festival, Food & wine festival (JHB) and the Durban July.

Honest Chocolate Bonbon Workshop 

Event Details 

Date: 24 June 
Location: Cape Town, Western Cape 
Event Info: Calling all chocoholics! Honest Chocolate is holding a family-friendly workshop, giving us a peak into the magic of chocolate-making. You’ll get a first-hand introduction to how cocoa beans are transformed from a bean to a bar and make your own set of delightful bonbons to take home.  

Knysna Oyster Festival

Event Details
Date: 30 June to 9 July 
Location: Knysna, Western Cape 
Event Info: This 10-day whirlwind of sport, food (all the oysters!), wine and music is sure to delight visitors to the Garden Route. The week is packed with activities – from hand-picking fresh oysters, catching a sunset sail, thrifting at a pop-up store, dancing to live music, bending to the pilates beat to running yourself silly on the mountain trails. Prepare for an outdoor extravaganza! 

Hollywoodbets Durban July

Event Details 

Date: 1 July
Location: Durban, Kwazulu-Natal 
Event Info: It’s time for the largest horse racing event in South Africa, held at Greyville Racecourse. Place your bets and watch the finest horses and their jockeys race for the grand prize of R3 million. If watching horses doesn’t appeal to you, then go for the people, the outfits, the food and the grand party. The theme for this year is Out of this World – from extraterrestrials, shooting stars and planets to AI, astronauts, star gates and galaxies – gear up and get glittery!  

Bridal Expo

Event Details
Date: 1 to 2 July
Location: Kurgersdorp. Gauteng 
Event Info: Grab your fiancé, parents or bestie (and a file to collect all the pamphlets and info you can) and head to Oakfield Farm. You’ll get the chance to interact with seasoned industry experts and plan your perfect wedding day. Walk and talk through booths exhibiting everything from decor to dresses – and don’t forget to sample the food trucks, which are available to cater for your big day, too. 

House + Garden Show 

Event Details 

Date: 1to 9 July 
Location: Durban, Kwazulu-Natal
Event Info: Visit a decor show like no other at the Durban Exhibition Centre. Think home, leisure, garden and grandeur. Expect the latest luxury tools and cutting-edge equipment, decor and appliances – and keep an eye out for the Foodie Fair and the latest in kitchenware design. 

Bastille Festival

Event Details 

Date: 15 to 16 July 
Location: Franschhoek, Western Cape
Event Info: This two-day affair celebrates French heritage with foodie fair in the heart of leafy Franschhoek. Of course, it isn’t a French affair without all the signature dishes, fine wine and colourful traditions. Don your red beret and take a trip through the streets of France. Indulge in the pastries, fine dining fare, coffee, music and markets dotted in and around Franschhoek. 

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Add a little South American flair to your next dinner party! Some inventive decor and exotic home-made dishes are just what you need for a fabulous fiesta.

THE DECOR

Paper play

Easy-to-find and affordable paper decorations add a festive feel to any party. Hang paper lanterns or bunting at the entrance and over the dinner table and bar.

Tomato, tomato

Collect funky tomato tins and fill them with fresh flowers to create a quirky centrepiece.

Thank you for coming

Treat guests with a bright blanket or throw that they can wear if it gets chilly later on and a bag of ground coffee they can take home to enjoy.

THE FOOD

Start the evening with a creative cocktail by serving up our fragrant Mexican sangria.

We also have you sorted when it comes to bar snacks or a quick and easy appetiser. Our corn salsa only takes 10 minutes to whip into shape!

Finally, the main course! Serve everything from our Mexican dinner party or pick and choose what you think your guests will love most.  On the menu we have black-bean burgers, chicken and kidney bean enchiladas, crispy pork with butter bean mash and a butter bean chocolate cake. Yum!

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We’ve all heard of wine tasting evenings, but how about hosting a beer tasting party?

Denis da Silva, SAB Trade Brewer at Newlands Brewery in Cape Town, believes that beer is as versatile as its seemingly more sophisticated alcoholic friend, wine. Beer has many different characteristics thanks to its diverse ingredients, like malted barley varieties, yeast strains and hops. ‘Beer is good, food is good, but nothing beats good food with good beer,’ says da Silva.

Here’s how to get started!

1. Clever Catering
The number of guests determines the quantities you need for catering – in this case, the number of beers you need to purchase, as well as the tasty bites to accompany them. Da Silva suggests that each person in attendence should have at least three cans available to them.

2. Best Brews
Here are Da Silva’s flavour and beer style suggestions!:

CRISP: All round lightness, less body with a sharp crispness and gentle lingering bitterness, like Castle LITE.
HOP: Hop bitterness like a Hansa Pilsner with its unique Saaz hop or the Jacob’s Pale Ale from Newlands Spring Brewing Company with earthy and peppery notes.
MALT: Clean, somewhat dry, somewhat bitter, never sweet lager like Castle Lager or some roasted, caramel, toffee notes from Jacobs Pale Ale.
ROAST: Rich and smooth with roasted full mouthfeel, like Castle Milk Stout or some chocolate and coca notes from Choc Stout.
FRUITY: Low bitterness with a distinctive fruity aroma and taste, like The Newlands Spring Co – Passionate Blond with its distinctive passion fruit aroma or Carver’s Weiss & Mountain Weiss with a zesty banana aroma with hints of clove and vanilla.
FLAVOURED: There is a variety to select from – the Flying Fish range of low bitterness fruit flavoured beers (orange, lemon and apple), Castle LITE Lime or the most recently-launched Liberado, a tequila flavoured beer with fresh lemon notes.

3. Keep it Chilled
Make sure you serve your beers icy cold to optimise the tasting experience. Keep them in the fridge or an ice bucket until they are ready to be sipped on.

4. Pace your Palate
In between beers, it is recommended to cleanse your palate with a glass of water. This will make the most of each beer and keep your friends with lower tolerances in good nick.

5. Classy Glass
The best part of a beer tasting (besides the beer, of course) is you are not limited to serving your beers in standard beer glassware. Mix things up with a variety of glassware styles with each beer variety. Glasses with a wide bowl and narrow mouth help ‘trap’ the beer’s aromas in the glass, making for a better tasting experience. Don’t worry if you don’t have a vast selection of glasses – all that really matters is that they are clean with no soapy residues as this will kill your foam. It is best to use smaller glassware in a beer tasting as you will only be pouring the beer into a third of the glass. Remember, it’s only a taster!

6. Good Eats
If you are only providing snacks, then make sure you have an assortment of low flavoured foods, so as to not compromise your palate, such as unsalted pretzels or crackers and crudité. If you really want to fancy things up a bit, host your beer tasting with a food pairing! Take your time serving each dish because a beer and food pairing is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

7. Festive Fun
Have fun setting up the decor for your beer tasting party! Pick a theme or encourage people to dress up. You can label ice buckets with the various beers you will be tasting and have beer tasting key notes printed, explaining the beers you will be serving. You can even go as far as printing beer score sheets – allowing guests to score the beers for themselves!

8. Beer Play
If you are into some good old fashioned party games, you could include a blind tasting in the evening’s proceedings. Away from eyeshot, pour a beer of your choice into a jug and then serve to it to your guests and have them guess which beer it is. Have a prize for the correct guess – a six pack of their favourite beer or dinner on you!

9. Be Safe!
Drink responsibly! Ensure everyone has booked a driving service to get them safely home.

10. Edutainment
Encourage discussions among your guests so they are having fun while learning about the tastes of beer.

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It’s the end of the year and inevitably our calendars are filling up with end-year celebrations and social gatherings. While this season’s fun-filled nights with their tasty snacks and complementary booze sound promising, it also makes keeping up healthy eating habits a whole lot harder. Here are our top tips to enjoy the party without giving up on your health the next day.

By Jana du Plessis

1. Hydration is key

Our bodies are mostly made up of water – a clear indicator that it’s vital for us to stay hydrated on any given day. But add in the dehydrating effects of alcohol and our need to fill up on H2O becomes of even more important. Aim for drinking at least eight glasses of water throughout the day and alternate every alcoholic beverage with a glass of water.

2. Fuel with fruit and veg

The chance that you will be offered a balanced plate with nutrient-dense food at a party isn’t likely, so be sure to replenish the deficit the day after. Skip the greasy pizza or oily fries – these won’t do much for your mind or your body after a boozy night out. Rather add extra veggies and fruits to your meals to up your nutrient-intake and fuel up.

3. Keep portions in check

A hefty meal might be the soothing comfort you are looking for after one drink too many last night, but you don’t want to burden your body with more hard work. Your body will already be dealing with the extra calories and toxins from the alcohol and party snacks, so take it easy on your digestion by keeping meals slightly smaller. You’ll feel better snacking on a piece of fruit in between meals than feeling overly stuffed and fragile.

4. Kick the caffeine

Or try to, at least. Coffee is a diuretic and can worsen the symptoms of dehydration. If you cannot skip your morning pick-me-up, limit your coffee cups to one or two for the day and sip on tea instead.

5. Get moving

Even if just getting out of bed feels like a struggle, staying active will help with a faster recovery and help burn off that second helping of dessert you couldn’t resist. If you don’t feel like an intense sweat-sesh at the gym, a brisk 30-minute walk will still do wonders for your mind and body.

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