Monica Guy is joining us again this week to tell us what more there is to do in South Africa. Enjoy.

Live in Paris for a while and you’ll start to absorb French-style snobbiness about their culinary prowess.

So after a couple of years living in the capital of haute cuisine, I was eager to see what the South Africans would do with fine food in the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français, South Africa’s most talked-up award-winning restaurant in Cape Town.

Not just one award, but numerous top prizes – including being voted one of The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants by Restaurant Magazine UK, every single year from 2005 to 2008.

Le Quartier Français is on the main street in Franschhoek, a sweet little town near Cape Town that reeks of easy wealth and gourmet cooking: it’s the place to eat and drink for those who have both a wallet and a belly bigger than the norm.

The name means ‘French corner’ after the French Huguenot settlers, but it’s mostly UK, US and German tourists who frequent the place now.

And merci à Dieu, it turns out The Tasting Room is nothing like a French restaurant at all. ]]> femmefatale 2009-01-29T09:15:57-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/7/8/52656/16331

Just got back from a dirty weekend in the countryside. Not with that prissy English boyfriend of mine, who dumped me after I called him prissy in the last Embedded piece. With my new French Fry.

I'd like to call him my new French hotpants, like my trendy friend Viia from Fashion Magazine but unfortunately I can't. He was wearing Y-Fronts.

If you Google French etiquette or similar terms, you'll think you've reached the rules and regulations page of a Russian Cold War prison.

Most of the search pages are written by people who have Googled French etiquette.

I decided I owed it to you to try out the rules myself, sans Google.

I was trying to find a good quote to start this piece off, but couldn't find one that was tacky enough.

In vino veritas? Well, there's some truth in that.

"Get drunk and stay drunk forever." That's Baudelaire, the 1960s poet, and his fatherly advice to budding poets. Not so poetic, really.

So how about some philosophy? Fernand Desnoyer, the French philosopher, says "This is our night! Drink is the real pleasure! There's nothing after! Nothing except to drink again! While we wait for the dawn to rise!" Hmmmm, very philosophical.]]> femmefatale 2007-07-06T11:25:19-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/7/2/64915/72612

In half of Europe, and many states and cities in the US, smoking in public places is illegal. In most bars and cafes in Paris, on the other hand, it is still obligatory. Refusing a proferred cigarette is like refusing a slice of birthday cake on the grounds that cake makes you fat.

Asking some hottie of the opposite sex for a light is a precursor to wild and extravagant sex in the toilets. Well, it usually works for me. And I've never visited a prostitute, but I'm told it's standard practice for the girls to offer the customer a post-shag fag in the hope of a bigger tip.

MORE ON PARIS'S DIRTY PLEASURE ]]> femmefatale 2007-07-02T14:21:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/6/22/103542/660

Nobody loves the weekly supermarket run, even in Paris.

But we all love a good market. Take a load of food that's normally available at your local superstore, clean and neatly packaged, placed at convenient heights on labelled shelves and surrounded by helpful recipes and appropriate sauces.

Now remove the items that are out of season, let a few of each go mouldy, cover everything over with a light covering of dust or mud, stand them in the sun for half a day, then arrange them randomly in rows under plastic covered stalls in overcrowded streets.

Food shopping suddenly becomes a lot more of an attractive prospect. Even something you'd want to do on your holiday.]]> femmefatale 2007-06-29T14:05:09-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/6/27/91916/4119

We're not talking the dirty pleasures of cheese on toast in the middle of the night, or even cheesy-crust pizzas.

It's a rare thing if there's a carbohydrate in sight. Not even biscuits. What do you think this is, a children's tea party? You might be allowed to attach a breadcrumb if you're lucky, but that's as far as it goes. You might even catch sight of a grape, but you're not supposed to actually eat it. I once went to a restaurant in Paris where the grapes were plastic.

The pleasures of a good piece of cheese might be dirty, but at least they're enjoyed pure. ]]> femmefatale 2007-06-28T11:08:08-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/