Christmas feeding frenzy, a four day break

The Christmas weekend is almost over, along with the symbiotic feeding frenzy which has left me feeling that I will never, ever feel hungry again, until later in the evening and "something on toast" seems like a good idea!

I must say that it has been a wonderful four day break from the hectic demands of customers wanting mussels for the insatiable South African and international diners pouring in to the restaurants all over the country, a demand that has had me and my relatively small staff working our butts off.

We started the weekend off with Christmas lunch at the "Hoedjiesbaai Hotel" with Linda as our guest, the food was great and it was far easier than slaving away over the hot stove to create a three course meal at home with the resultant cleaning up which I always try to avoid anyway. I stayed with the seafood part of the meal which was abundant, not even bothering with the roast meats of which there were the usual three or four types. Great value for money there, perhaps we'll do it again next year.

The rest of the weekend went by in what seems to have been a blur and a veritable orgy of eating;

That evening, when we shouldn't have been hungry at all, we virtually demolished Linda's home made Pork terrine, it was sensational! Made from Chicken livers, pork mince and pork sausage meat, wrapped in bacon and drenched with Cranberry sauce, on thin slices of toast it went down singing hymns. Late to bed, full of wine and good food, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream. And that was only the first day!

Boxing day was a home cooked meal, but a big meal nevertheless; free-range chicken roasted in a Portuguese peri-peri sauce, roasted vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and gravy and it was delicious.

 In our part of the world it is hot over Christmas so the shady back veranda is a good place to relax while the gas cooker does all of the work.

And there it was, I forgot to mention the stuffing, a lovely meal washed down with a cold glass or several of Sauvignon Blanc. It was a memorable lunch and I have to buy some more of those huge free range chickens when I get the chance.

Although I thought that I would not be hungry again by lunchtime on Saturday we were ready to eat! The local restaurants were crowded and I don't even bother to try any places in Langebaan at this time of the year, it's difficult enough getting into the town let alone any of the restaurants. We headed out to "Juffoeshoogte",  a farm resort far enough out of the three nearest towns to be relatively quiet but with good food. The place was actually quite busy with "spill-over" customers but the service and the food was good, the only negative was the flies, it is a farming area so they tend to be a nuisance and as you gaze around you see everyone waving their hands around in a friendly manner while they eat.

My meal; pork spare ribs over-flowing the plate, chips and vegetables and it was a superb meal, I cleaned the plate!

Janet opted for an old favourite of ours; crumbed pork chops but she was only able to eat one of them, great - I will have a good sandwich for work on Monday! We relaxed over a bottle of wine and headed home replete. That meal, with a bottle of Robertson's Sauvignon Blanc and a generous gratuity came to a measly R295, really where can you get value like that except on the west coast?

I managed one ride out on the big red machine over the weekend, that was more to blow the cobwebs out of the zorstpipe but I enjoyed a circular 50kms or so.

This lovely machine is going to be nine years old next month and has 99,838 kms on the clock, that is an average of just over 11.000kms per year, or just under 1000kms per month. She is still running sweet, has never had an engine problem and those of you who read my stuff will know that the only problem I had was with the differential - what to do; upgrade or keep her forever? The new RT - which I would stay with - is around R200,000 and I would not get much with a trade-in.

Leave me to ponder this a while, in the meantime I hope that Christmas was great, that you had a wonderful weekend and that 2015, which is just around the corner, will bring you everything that you wish for yourselves, get out there and grab it with both hands!