Foodie Weekend: Houseboating.

They’re notoriously hard to reserve. I’d unsuccessfully tried to book twice in the last three years. The waiting period was always more than half a year. When a friend called recently to say he’d booked a houseboat on Langebaan lagoon for a weekend and wanted me to join, I was livid. How did he get a booking? At the same time, I was ecstatic. Hell yeah! We were going to have a foodie weekend.

We brought a lot of food. An entire morning spent buzzing all over Cape Town, that’s how much. And tons of drink, of course. The night’s would be cold, best we go to bed warm. Six of us sped through to the West Coast National Park and piled everything into the dingy that putt-putted us slowly to the houseboat. Hemington was the friendly pilot and helpful houseboat caretaker. He told us he was on call the duration of our stay. We could see he was as amused by our sizeable wine collection as we were by his name. Our houseboat had three bedrooms, a tiny kitchen, indoor and outdoor dining areas and a jetty with a braai on it. It was perfect. With the fire lit, we cracked open the first beers to send off the sun. Just when we thought life couldn’t get better, a full moon creeped up behind us. Sometimes things just work out all too well to be chance. Some people call this fate, some synchronicity. I call it a reason to uncork something special.

If the week is for drinking great wine, weekends are for getting drunk on great wine. We had some goodies. Newton Johnson Resonance 2008 is a cracking white blend. The Hoopenberg Integer Merlot 2005, a merlot with the brash richness of a shiraz, but a very polite finish. The Hedonist Swartland Red 2008 and Cordoba Crescendo 2006 disappeared rapidly. As did two magnums of Haute Espoir Gentle Giant 2006, a wine as big on value as in flavour.

Ah, the food. Yes, we ate a lot. Too much. We all swore we’d be on detox when we eventually hit the shore, stomachs swollen and trousers tighter. But what else do you do on a houseboat? Yes, we fished, swam, read and napped. We even woke early to catch the sunrise. But mostly we ate. Bacon, egg and mushroom breakfast rolls with Steph Weiss (aka “weekend orange juice”). Braaied sirloin steaks with slices of cured chorizo. Patagonian calamari sauteed with chili, chourizo and red peppers, served tossed with rocket and lemon juice as a warm salad.

Mussels cooked on the fire for lunch were definitely the highlight. Not everyone gets to sit on a Langebaan houseboat on a sunny afternoon, dip chunks of baguette into a mussel broth and empty a few bottles of wine. Between mouthfuls, there was a moment when I sat back, smiled quietly at the others and acknowledged how lucky we were. True, weekends are less about where you’re going and more about just going. But if the ‘where’ does matter to you, book a houseboat. Even if it’s just for one moment like that.

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This post originally appeared in Crush!, a great online mag that I’m contributing to. It’s also edited by renowned foodie, Michael Olivier (@FoodWineGuru). Check it out and subscribe to get an awesome food & drink read each month! Read the latest issue here.

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