Food, glorious (sea)food

The weather has been really bad this past couple of weeks, gale force winds just about every day but it seems to be over now - hopefully! Last Saturday we rode down to friends Neville and Janet in Simonstown, going over "Ou Kaapse Weg" in that wind was something of a trial but luckily on Sunday morning when we rode back it had moderated somewhat. Maybe we'll have some calm for a while?

I received some really bad news in my inbox this week; the Cape Town Bike Festival has been cancelled! Scheduled for the weekend of the 16th to the 18th December, I had really been looking forward to it but must confess that in the back of my mind I harboured a nagging doubt that Capetown could pull it off.

The reasons given were that sponsors hadn't come forward and ticket sales hadn't lived up to expectations but in talking to people afterwards I heard another side; Graig from the Yamaha agent in Vredenburg said they wanted a ridiculous amount of money from exhibitors for the three day event, something like R80,000! Craid said there was no way they could afford that not knowing whether their would be any business generated and "Muis", a biker friend said that he wouldn't have gone because entry was way too expensive, maybe the organisers were trying to make a quick buck and hadn't gauged their market. Pity, now we'll have to keep going to Jo'burg for the big shows.

Last Sunday I ended up at Des' Ek en Djy Visserye just after lunch and Leon and Christine were serving up Crayfish and salad for R75!

If I had known about that beforehand I would have gone there for lunch.

It was a festive scene with a good few people enjoying the meal, you just gotta go there.

Maybe that was what inspired me to do some seafood during the week;

I bought a fresh Angel fish from Charlie's Fish Shop which is conveniently just around the corner, cut the skeleton out and cut out all of the pin-bones away, placed them skin-side down in a buttered baking tray, grated some lemon zest over them, a sprinkle of mixed herbs and a squeeze of fresh lemon a little salt and pepper and into a hot oven for about ten minutes.

In the meantime I steamed some fresh mussels in a bit of white wine and lemon juice while Janet prepared the accompaniments;

and there it is, lemon baked Angel fish with garlic potatoes, butternut squash and fresh mussels. We also threw on some cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and olives, what a lovely meal!

We are shortly off to join a group of local bikers on a local toy run organised by the Meeulander Club, it is a beautiful calm day, the sun is shining so it should be great - I'll tell you all about it later.