Why the West Coast Wins

Yesterday we returned from a good weekend in Cape Town.  Would have liked to say fantastic, but due to not-so-good weather and some other occurrences (more about it in a next post) we had to scratch the majority of our items from our planned to-do list.  But I digress.

We parked on the empty stand next to the house, as the neighbour's guests were blocking our driveway.   The neighbour to the back of the empty stand called Hennie over.  We have never met him.  Hennie came back and told me he has been invited for a glass of wine (and lunch/dinner).  He was not keen, but the guy threatened to deflate the car's tyres if Hennie does not come, as the empty stand belongs to him.  Hennie lied and said we already had lunch, as he did not want to stay long.  He was tyred after driving the four hours back from Cape Town, and it was clear the neighbour (Boetie), already had a glass or two of wine (maybe a bottle). 

Hennie reluctantly went over, and by that time another man has joined the party.  In the end they started telling funny stories, specifically about Strandfontein.  Apparently in the olden days the farmers from the region would come and spend their Christmas holidays here.  There were not that many houses, and the farmers brought a cow and some chickens with.  The cow would produce the milk, and the hens the eggs, and Christmas Chicken!  I can just imagine that sight.  By the time Hennie came to fetch me, he has convinced the guy to cook us some crayfish, even though the guy had already taken out steaks. 
He cooked about 8 crayfish.  As it is not crayfish season, these were not fresh but frozen crayfish.  But for someone that has only eaten crayfish about 5 times in my life, it was absolutely delicious.  We did not have plates, or anything.  They just threw some newspapers on the table.  By the time we started eating, it became clear Boetie does not even eat crayfish!  He loves catching it, but not eating it.  So here we are eating with him looking on (even cleaning my crayfish), with his uncooked meat still in the bowl next to him.  He also just kept on opening wine for us.  He is drinking a sweet white, but has opened a few bottles Chenin Blanc specifically for us!  Wow, we stayed until almost 22h00 that evening.