Last week the Eat Out team rounded up some of the best places to order eggs Benedict, with your help and suggestions. It's a breakfast dish that I’m often unable to refuse when I eye it on a menu, but somehow scrambled eggs have been the order of the day, or rather, the week.

Every year I get to visit the Garden Route and cleverly try not to coincide with Ile de Pain's annual holiday, but unfortunately this time I had no choice. Luckily the bakery in Knysna still stays open to supply much-loved breads, but I was quite happy to pop into little sister Mon Petit Pain down the road for a bite.

I ordered a plate – or rather, a pile – of the creamiest scrambled eggs on top of toasted pain de campagne (country-style bread, some of which I had to bring home and put in my freezer) topped with rashers of bacon and a little side dish of tomato relish with a hint of cumin. It was sublime, as was the chocolate pastry and coffee. (Yes, I brought a packet of the beans home, too.)

This weekend was kind of like déjà vu, which reminded me to visit the Oude Bank Bakkerij in Stellenbosch more often. The friend who accompanied me asked, “Are you having a moment?” when the wooden board, lined with paper, arrived with the best baguette (baked by Dutch owner, Fritz) with perfectly pale and creamy butter, and some nastergal berry jam. The berries, also known as msobo or nightshade, are cultivated in Mpumalanga.

It was a moment, indeed.

Fritz told me, as I was buying a block, that the butter is made on a cheese farm just outside Johannesburg. When he mentioned Hijke, I understood why it tasted so good.
Cheese-maker Hester Hoogendijk makes the most gorgeous cheeses (as well as yoghurt with vanilla seeds, and now butter), especially the real Dutch Gouda. Khow dah, as it is pronounced, should be pale and creamy when young, and taste mild and fruity; I often use it in macaroni cheese at this stage. As it gets a little older, it matures and the taste becomes a bit more complex, and the colour almost caramel.

I had a macaroni cheese moment the other evening at Terroir, when a side pot of cheesy truffled sabayon macaroni cheese gave me another moment of sheer bliss.

My tummy is rumbling as I’m writing this, as it’s still very early and I’m nowhere near breakfast. Well, nowhere near those much-needed creamy scrambled eggs, that is!

Have a great week.
Abigail