Soundbites Society – A pop-up dining experience

Pop up dining, whilst around for quite some internationally, is finally starting to trend in the South African food scene. From dinners held in secret locations to those that have you preparing parts of the meal yourself in a semi-professional kitchen environment. It seems as if those who simply used to frequent their favourite restaurants of choice are looking for more than just a meal when it comes to dining out, they want a full experience, and hence the birth of Soundbites Society, a pop-up dining experience held monthly in Cape Town. Soundbites Society was conceptualised by myself and well known radio personality Seano (GoodHope FM’s award winning DJ).

I’d describe it by saying that it is a full sensory experience… Seano challenges me to pair a 4 course meal to a selection of songs from house music, to rock, to pop, no two are ever the same, those in turn then get paired to specific drinks, and we then set lighting to suit and add various other elements to enhance the meal.

Our home base is a well known modern and sophisticated lighting showroom, which makes for interesting dining all on it’s own. Guests are welcomed with a special drink (different for each event) and are asked to partake in a taste test challenge, whoever can correctly guess the most number of ingredients used in the drink gets a prize from one of our great sponsors later in the evening. Everyone is then free to mingle and have a look around the showroom  before taking their seats at the long and exquisitely laid table.

After welcomes and formalities it is time for the show to begin. It’s at this point that lights dim (or get brighter for that matter), the music starts to play and the amuse is served… So think Madonna’s song Frozen, shot glasses of buttermilk labne with a basil granita is served to the table from a giant silver ice-bucket out of which dry ice is smoking and flowing creating a rather dramatic effect. That’s just one example of what you may experience at such a dinner. Another past pairing was to Awolnation’s track Sail – The song has deep synthetic sounds which you want more of, you want to turn up the volume and hear it over and over again, but the lyrics are actually pretty dark, I chose to make mushroom risotto balls which were then crumbed in a black crust (I felt very Heston Blumenthal mixing the colours to get the right shade), served on a black mayonaise and it was paired with a vial of pinot noir. Guests were also blindfolded increasing the suspense before the unveiling of the plate of black food. To date it has been one of us most successful pairings.

Seano hosts the evening and there is a fair amount of interactivity between guests, from feeding each other (think strawberries and chocolate to the very sexy track Moulin Rouge), to having to pour each other bubbly into tin cups – Lorde and their track Royals being the pairing in this case. I at some stage then also venture out of the kitchen to share the thought process behind the creation of each dish.

The evening wraps after dessert and distribution of prizes but guests are asked to stay to do tastings with our speciality drinks supplier. Most of them don’t leave the table and enjoy the making of new friends whilst sipping on some wine…and then there is the goodie bag which we make sure you don’t leave without.

If you’d like to see pictures of our previous events or attend our next Soundbites Society dinner sign up to our mailing list at www.soundbitessociety.com and we’ll let you know when the next one is. I’m hoping to see you there, the song selection is hot, the menu has been completed and I assure you it’s going to be a goodie!