Tasty treats from the sea

Here is a picture of either the luckiest or otherwise the most spoiled cat in Saldanha accepting his favourite food; a mussel. I regularly bring home mussels to eat but I must make sure that there is enough for both of us (Janet doesn't eat them).

I have been complaining of late about how lousy the weather is and how difficult my job becomes and today was another one of those lousy days, it was cold! All day the wind was blowing and the barge was bouncing around, it rained for a bit and the sun refused to shine so I couldn't get warm.

There is a bright side to all of this though; now is the time when all of the little tasty bits start appearing, during the course of the morning I ate about six live fresh white clams, these are absolutely sweet and delicious and once you get used to prising the shell open you get a really tasty morsel. In past years I have been able to collect hundreds of them and I started a small farm operation of my own, growing them in plastic bins for my own use. Hopefully they will start coming through in greater numbers soon, they make a wonderful addition to a pasta dish!

Another favourite that has just started coming through is the giant pink barnacle, I collect them whenever I can and today I collected a few for a snack this evening.
Here you can see that the barnacles are just about as big as the mussel shells, I just steamed the whole lot in a little of Janet's white wine and had a delicious snack with a glass of (my) white wine.

They are sometimes a bit difficult to extract from the shells, the idea is to take hold of the hooks which protrude through the top opening and gently pull them out then you just suck off everything at the back of the hooks, it may sound a little gross but believe me the flavour is out of this world and unlike anything you have ever tasted.

A succulent morsel from the sea but only if you live in Saldanha!

Maybe I should call the blog; Braais, beers and bikes and mussel farming and food! We haven't had any riding time lately and on Saturday we are going to an olive festival in the Riebeek valley but we will be going in the bakkie because we usually buy things, so no motorbike stories this coming weekend.

Don't despair though, we will ride again soon and we will braai again soon - we are still drinking beer!