“Eating an oyster is like french kissing a mermaid” – Tom Robbins
Or. “Oysters on the menu at ZanziBeach Restaurant in Tofo”.
Mermaids in Praia do Tofo are really ocean breeze beautiful. And then I found out that there were oysters right on the menu at ZanziBeach!
Taking the latter approach, with my lovely mermaid close at hand, a grand serving of oyster was requested. Fresh from the sea. Just the way I love my mermaid too. At this great new little seafood spot right on Tofo Beach.
The dish of regal looking oysters soon glided onto our table. Along with twin pinacoladas. A couple of lemons. Hot chilli and pepper sauce.
The floodgates of flavour opened right up. Like an involuntary spasm, the oysters rained their magic on over and into us. Each one its own fantastical adventure. None two remotely the same. Lime and chilli lubricating and spicing the dreamy and intoxicating sensation.
When they were all lovingly spent, the empty table provided that pure moment of bliss that comes flooding in.
Praia do Tofo in Inhambane, Southern Mozambique, is full of distractions. So as the holiday season wound down, and the full tide moved to the early morning, it was time to give it a go early again.
The swell was crashing over the ledge at Tofinho, but out back the water was crystal clear and warm looking. The south wind helped get my Mydo SS Spoon right over the backline, and soon I was settled into a nice pre-sun rhythm. A few days before, a really big fish had hit my spoon but didn’t hold on. Luckily, at this same point. I was really hoping for a smaller fish today. When the waves are this big, like 2 metres, it is nigh impossible to get down to the water’s edge, and retrieve your catch.
So when on my 20th cast, as the spoon splashed its way towards the rock ledge, in between waves, the kingfish smashed me real hard, I thought it was another big guy! Luckily it wasn’t. It was rather, a feisty and stubborn Brassy Trevally, which gave the run around for a few minutes.
When I got his head out of the water, a good 4 metres below, I launched him up into the air. The braid held. The rod held. And as he flew through the air right up next to me on the cliff, I dropped my rod and caught him! Pinning him to the rocks. Adrenalin pumping, I tried to release him. Unfortunately, the pressure to get him up those 4 metres was too much and his mouth was damaged badly on one side. So he came home to become fish soup.
Brassy Kingfish for fish soup
And this is how we do it…very simple recipe, that can be adjusted to suit your ingredients;
Once the fillets are nicely off the fish, skinned and ready for that meal – get rid of the guts and gills and break the carcass to fit in a nice big old pot. Boil. For long time. Like an hour at least.
In a nice big old pan, fire up the veggie side of things. Starting with onions, and tiny blocks of potato. 1cm3 each about. The onions need to brown proper, so lots of stirring is needed to stop the potatoes from sticking. Using as little oil as possible is the way to go. Then when the whole lot is proving too much to handle, chuck in the cubed tomatoes. Stir more like crazy. A few more minutes, and in goes the crushed garlic. As much as you can handle. At this stage you could also be spicing up with your favourite or available spicey ingredients.
Now the fry-up is all melting into itself, you can start taking it easier. By chucking in the water. Quite a lot, like two cups to start with. Chuck in an orange rind (really makes a difference). And a squeeze of lemon.
Coconut milk or water is great to add at this point. Milk also does the trick. Anything else you may have available, can go in now.
Back to the boiling fish. Get rid of the fish head and bones and fins and things, keeping back as much of the white meat as possible. Using a colander can help expedite this process.
Now mix the two together – just chuck the veggie fry straight into the pot of fish. Cook a while longer, on a low heat.
Pour the half glass of white wine in at the very end, just before you serve.
This post is sponsored by ZanziBeach Restaurant. Click here for more information.
Fish soup as served at ZanziBeach right in the beach at Praia do Tofo
And if you want to taste a real Portuguese made fish soup, try ZanziBeach, right on the beach at Tofo. Going for 150 Mets right now, this wholesome and nutritious meal will keep you paddling, casting or swimming all day. It’s got a real tomato tint to it. Specially prepared for the ocean-going fraternity of Tofo, there are also now Prego Rolls (180Mets), and Octopus Salad (250Mets).
A delicious and healthy smoothy/cocktail, rounds off a great after action eating experience.
Jay Steenkamp in the barrel at St. Mikes (August 2014)
“Repost from August 2014: As we move into the south coast winter conditions we have all been waiting for here is some motivation to get onto the press ups and sit ups routines. Jay Steenkamp proving that it does actually barrell at Saints, sometimes…looking forward to Jay’s GoPro antics again this year…”
Now this is how you take a selfie pal! (c) Jay Steenkamp
GoPro cameras have certainly changed the way we view surfing. Jay Steenkamp has mastered the tricky take-off to holding the camera behind out behind him as he negotiates some solid pits at Saints this winter.
A sand dredging tuberide view from the inside…(c) Jay Steenkamp
And then while sitting around in the line up, if you have a GoPro, you can film the gamefish hammering baitfish around your legs…like this profile shot of what seems to be a Greater Barracuda…yeah, the ones with TEETH! Toes up Jay!
What could it be? (c) Jay Steenkamp
Thanks for the photos Jay, keep ’em coming!
Jay is also our sardine spotter in the air as he works for the Natal Sharks Board…who fly a plane up and down the coast in the sardine season, reporting on the action. Unfortunately, there is still nothing to report, it looks to be another bleak run for our sorely missed sardines.
You can keep up to date with the marine life and activity by visiting our Sightings section…an interactive map with markers reflecting the positions of marine animals, like whales, sardines and dolphins.
Janet of Orca’s Bar and Restaurant, in Sunwich Port, keeps a sharp vigil for marine life passing by. Here she captured one of the many shoals of sardines – that are causing quite a stir down on the KZN Lower South Coast, at the moment.
Sardines at Sunwich Port, on the lower south coast of KZN Natal. Natal sards, or redeyes? Natal sardines were netted at Pumula on Monday (c) Orcas Bar and Restaurant
Janet has a machine of a camera, with a telescopic lens, and is able to get right up close and personal with all kinds of marine life. Orca’s Bar and Restaurant features a huge whale watching deck, upstairs…perfect for checking marine life out.
Janet reports that the many humpback whales that were regularly seen cruising north lately, have all but disappeared. The whale migration did occur in deeper water this year, but they are due to return on their way back to the icy south, over the next few months. Dolphins have been up and down, but also looking as confused as the many wandering fishermen – all missing the sardines.
With some of the shoals of sardines spotted, were big dark things with big fins – according to Janet, a few shoals were definitely accompanied by big dark shadows!
Orca’s Bar and Restaurant features a truly south coast style menu with steak, egg ‘n chips narrowly beating the surfers special, as my favourite slection from their cool menu…check Orca’s out at Sunwich Port Beach, KZN south coast, for good food and vibes.
In a wierd twist within the Osearch Shark Tracking story we started to follow last week, one of the tagged Great White Sharks was caught and killed by the Natal Sharks Board at none other than our favourite surfing beach – Sunwich Port, down here on the south coast of Kwazulu Natal! The beautiful fish weighed 300 odd kilograms and was taken to the NSB headquarters in Umhlanga for analysis and whatever else they do to the carcasses there. The shark took a drum line bait and must have died a horrible and gruesome death…much like a snared wild animal poached in a game reserve. The Natal Sharks Board have systematically decimated the local shark population of Zambezi, Tiger and other sharks here on the KZN south coast and unfortunately, pelagic sharks like Great Whites also fall prey to their killing methods. Drum lines are a move towards lessening their indiscriminate impact on the environment…but gill nets are still deployed up and down the beautiful Kwazulu Natal South Coast. These gill nets have been killing dolphins, turtles, rays, sharks (lethal and non-lethal) and other forms of marine life like whales for the better part of half a century now. A bureaucratic organization – funded by municipalities and the tax payer…the Natal Sharks Board and it’s staff and management can be credited with the most cruel ocean animal killings imaginable. All to protect the tourist dollar as inland punters flock to the Kwazulu Natal coastline each school holiday. The shark nets do not cordon off a beach from sharks at all – many, if not most sharks are caught on their way back out to sea…on the inside side of the nets. What the nets and drum lines do is reduce the local population of lethal sharks in an area…seriously unbalancing the ecology in that immediate area. Twisting the story even further…another shark attack was recorded at Port St Johns, down the coast in the Transkei. Port St. Johns has the highest incidence of shark attacks in the world. Solutions? Many solutions to the shark attack problem are available. Shark spotters are deployed in the clear waters of the Cape…sonar has been proposed to the NSB as a monitoring system in dirtier waters of KZN, but was ignored completely… Observation and avoidance using technology would far outweigh simple killing and eradication.
