Happy New Year - here’s hoping that it's filled with love, laughter and good food.

In early January we spent a week in Cape Agulhas where we feasted on the bounty of land and sea and felt all the better for eating 'local and lekker'. The mealies, still in their sheaths - or with their socks on as we say in our family - were bright yellow, sweet and juicy. We ate them plain, with salt and butter, with fresh chilli-infused olive oil, raw in salads, blackened over the coals - the methods were endless and the results always delicious.

Our resident happy fisherman caught small fish called Black Tail, bony but utterly delicious and a few Kabeljou which we braaied with the scales on leaving the moist, delicious flesh perfectly cooked under the burnt crust. We served it with homemade salsa verde (a chunky, full flavoured mixture of chopped capers, gherkins, herbs, lemon juice and olive oil) and everything was washed back with the fabulous wines - Quoin Rock, Black Oystercatcher and The Berrio - from the region.

Meals were rounded off with wedges of chilled, ripe 'n juicy watermelon and spanspek from local farms and bought off the back of the farmers truck every few days. Bliss...

So let's just say that a good time was had by everyone and all being well, the year will continue as it started - eating superb food that's as local as it is lekker.

Happy eating!

Justine

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