A Weekend of Wining and Dining

Ok so I was so busy this weekend that I didn't even get a chance to bake! Bummer!! But I did get a chance to do was spend some quality time with my amazing hubby and our awesome friends!!

Cheers!!

On Friday afternoon Riaan had to work late (sis! I mean, who does that??), so once he was done we decided that we were in no mood for cooking and that we should go out for dinner on a mini date night - we haven't done that in ages!!!

So we missioned off to Emperors Palace for some delicious Col'cacchios Pizza, they seriously make the best pizzas if you are into loads of toppings!! Which I am!

For me a pizza should be less base and more toppings...the more the merrier! So a half-half pizza is right up my alley! If you know Riaan, you would know that (and I am saying this in the most lovingly way possible) he is the most indecisive person EVER when it comes to ordering food at a restaurant! Which is great actually because we usually end up ordering 2 meals and sharing!

We started off with some frozen margaritas, YUM!

Closely followed by delicious pizza! I obviously opted for the half half option, both which had lots of chicken and avo (best combination ever)!

As you can see, they are not shy with the toppings!

On Saturday we woke up to an overcast sky and miserable raindrops tapping on the window, not the best weather for a river-side wine tasting adventure!

We met up at about 12 and we set-off on our 100km road trip to the Vaal!
The first tasting venue was a kind of heritage museum, with a few interesting displays of what the old school Vall Triangle was like!

After tasting 6 wines we decided to move on to the next venue, it was so lovely there last year, we sat alongside the river sipping on wine in the sunshine. This year however we were not allowed to sit outside due to the impending rain! Ah Damn! But that didn't stop us from venturing down to the river for a few photos!!

The venue had quite a cosy feel to it, I can just imagine sitting there around a roaring fire roasting marshmallows in the middle of winter. Since we aren't partial to white wine we decided to only taste the red wines at this venue.

As it would happen, we enjoyed ourselves so much at our first two venues that we didn't make it to any more thereafter!

Until next time...Peace Out!

Kota Joe's

On Friday after work Riaan and I headed off for a bit of a different kind of dinner, something we had never done before...Roadhouse burgers...Destination - Kota Joe's in Edenvale!

Riaan has been talking about this place for a while now, he went there with a few colleagues for lunch a couple of weeks ago and has been dying to go back since.

We arrived, parked right in the front of our lane and ordered our meals from the huge menu displayed above the kitchen. The vibe was awesome, a retro feel with 80's music playing from huge speakers. As we sat in the car waiting for our food to arrive we chatted about our childhoods and how, when we were little we used to go to the roadhouse with our parents. It was a regular thing. Now days there are hardly any decent roadhouses around. So few, that this was actually the first time (in 8 and a half years) that Riaan and I had been to a roadhouse for a meal together.

While we waited for I food we reminisced about drive-in movies and playing on the jungle gyms in our pyjamas.
I don't think this is a purely South African thing, if you have watched the movie Grease (I have about 100 times at least), then you'll be familiar with this drive-in scene!

Anyways...after about 20 minutes of reminiscing and coming to the joint agreement that drive-in's and roadhouses's are something that EVERY child should experience in their lives, our food arrived. And boy did it look good!!

We had chocolate milkshakes (I cannot recommend the Kota Joe Chocolate Shake enough, it was the BEST shake I have had in ages! Hands down!)

I had a Cheese Burger and chips, it was big in size and big on taste!

Riaan had a Dagwood Kota, it was HUGE! So big that it filled both hands when he picked it up to eat it!
It's basically a dagwood and chips in a huge kota roll, it looked so tasty!

And so we sat in the car in near silence, the only sounds to be heard being the occasional "mmmm" and the slurping of milkshake.

We left with very full, but happy tummies and the promise that we would return to try out some of the other  more interesting items on the menu, and of course have another delicious chocolate milkshake!

If you know of any other awesome road-houses in and around JHB please let me know, would love to try them out!!!