As restaurants push to transform their offerings under the new Covid 19 rules in South Africa, food delivery services that offer more than “fast food” are coming to the fore. While McDonalds and KFC may have kept millions satisfied before lockdown, there’s been a real shift to focus on value for money and healthy food, with “what can’t I make at home?” is being prioritized over the common junk food.
Food Snob X Boring Cape Town Chick
The Food Snob invited me to collaborate with them and I was interested for 3 main reasons:
- This isn’t a new business, but rather a sister company meaning experience (quality) is there.
- Is proudly female lead food brand, with a strong female team.
- It has a real focus on healthy cuisine with good portions.
- It’s not fast junk food, which I think is becoming more important.
- Value for money or money well spent if you are parting with a few hundred rands.
Lockdown has established that cooking at home is the most affordable form of consumption. But the truth is that I can only eat my own cooking for so long! I want to eat out. I want to try other food. I want recipe ideas. And I don’t want to clean up afterwards…I believe quality over quantity is coming back and I’m here for it.
The Food Snob to the Value of R450
The Food Snob invited me to make a selection of items to the value of R450. I opted for the following:
- Rosemary Beef fillet for Mr John: R150
- Slow roasted pomegranate molasses Lamb p/p: R75
- Brinjal Salad (Harissa roasted brinjals, roasted baby tomatoes, rocket, mixed seeds & tahini dressing): R135
- Coconut Jasmine Rice: R60
- Black Bean Koftas: R5.50 x 5 = R27.50
Total: R447.50
The Food Snob also kindly gifted me 1 liter of Chicken and vegetable soup (R80).
The Food Snob Food Review
Rosemary Beef Fillet (R150)
Mr John has ARFID, an eating disorder which makes him exceptionally fussy. The Food Snob had no issue when I asked them to break down the ingredient list to ensure that he would eat the beef. They also offered to remove certain things, but this wasn’t necessary, and are happy to tweak orders accordingly.
The beef portion was easily for two. Mr John ate his dinner and then put a few extra slices on a sandwich later in the day.
Slow Roasted Lamb (R75 pp)
The texture of the slow roasted lamb was perfect but the star for me was the balance of flavours. The subtle, yet present mint coupled with the sweet/bitter pomegranates was unlike anything I’d had before and it was excellent. The pomegranate seeds had also softened, which I like as I don’t enjoying crunching on hard seeds.
Brinjal Salad (R135)
Let me just say that this salad serves about 6! It says 2 – 3, but I halved mine and gave the rest to my mom. I dressed the punchy, peppery rocket with the tahini dressing (dairy free), coupled with the spicy harissa and roasted cherry tomatoes; this is not a salad you can plow through. The flavours are strong, bold and spicy. Seed were on the menu, but I didn’t receive any end.
This salad is a LOT for one person, so I recommend only ordering it if you have a group of people to enjoy it; it was way much for me alone.
Coconut Rice (R60)
I realise ordering the coconut rice, with the other items on my list, was a bit of a misstep. The lamb and salad were more middle eastern, which the delicate, coconutty rice just didn’t complement the meats in the way that it should.
So, to focus on the rice – the portion was large and absolutely DELICIOUS! It was almost like a risotto with the sticky coconut cream or milk used, delivering a silky, smooth flavour. I ate quite a bit of it just out the bowl! I’d love to have this with a Thai green curry, somewhere it belongs!
Bottom line – I wanted to try something I couldn’t make myself and this checked the box. It just wasn’t the best choice for the meats – which was my fault.
Black Bean Koftas (R5.50 each)
This is a vegan product, which I was keen to try. I enjoyed them, but if you’re not used to vegan foods (that tend to be dry and crumbly due to the lack of fat) then these may not be for you.
I air-fried mine the next day (to heat them up) and they came out absolutely perfectly (as I said on my stories, it was a LOT of food!). Would happily order these again with some hummus to dip.
Chicken and Vegetable Soup (R80)
This is the kind of dish you’re going to miss in a few week’s time. You don’t think much of it at the time, chicken soup same old, but all of a sudden you’ll be sitting in traffic on a rainy day and go, “Hm, I could really do with a pot of that chicken and veg soup.”
Things I loved about it:
- Liquid was more of a consommé so you could see all the beautifully prepared vegetables.
- HUGE array of veg used, including sweet potato.
- A sprinkling of dill just gave it a special touch (not overpowering).
- Incredibly healthy.
I actually woke up on Saturday morning, the cat and I both seemed to have a little sniffle due to the nearby snow fall and I thought, “OH no! WORST time to get a cold!”
Then I realised I had chicken soup left over in the fridge (which I’d divided up just for value for money/portions argument sake) and I KNOW this saved me. I was completely fine again by Sunday morning and I know it had something to do with this light, wholesome soup.
I must also note that when I took it soup out the fridge, there was the tiniest amount of fat settled on top proving this is proper, good clean, healthy eating. I suspect low salt as well.
10% Off First Orders
The Food Snob is a fantastic order in service if you’re looking to skip the cooking and the cleaning, skip the high fat and high salt and enjoy healthy food at home.
If you caught my stories, you would have seen that I physically portioned out the food to really test how far it would go and there was no question that the portions are value for money and last much longer than one meal.
If you’d like to give the Food Snob a go, enjoy 10% off on your first order over R450 with my code: BCTC005. You will need to order 2 days ahead of time so get your orders in on Wednesday morning to enjoy food on Friday evening. Here is the Food Snob Menu and How It Works.
Thank you for the opportunity to collaborate Food Snob!
