Less than a month to go until the Karoo Kêrels Brandy Bar pops up at Sanlam’s Food|Wine|Design Festival on the roof of the Hyde Park Shopping Centre. Great minds think alike or is it synchronicity? But Jo’burg celebrity chef Arnold Tanzer – like the Cape Town species but with fewer tattoos – will present a beef taste-off of choice cuts of Drakensberger, Afrikaner, Charolais, Sussex, Nguni and Wagu to name a few, on Sunday 10th November. The meat will be judged by “an esteemed panel of local and international foodie judges who will sample over 15 different breeds of bovine prepared by experienced chefs”. I wonder if there will be a vegetarian option? Certainly few Cape Town food writers could participate as they nearly all foreswear red meat, such is the bizzare State of the Cape Town Foodie Nation.

The criteria for the judging will be “quality, taste, tenderness and juicyness.” So a bit like a Pinotage tasting then. But rather than Pinotage – which has received huge exposure of late – we’ll be proposing six brandies from the Karoo. Class acts from producers like Kingna, Mons Ruber, Klipdrift, Joseph Barry, Ladismith and Boplaas.

Last night the steak and chips at ABSA’s Champagne Festival (above) was a rare treat. Does Jo’burg have the best steak in SA?