Streaky Bay Samphire

We're in Streaky Bay, on the land of the Wirungu people. And just for something completely different, the weather's been diabolical. So it's been a bit hard to get out and explore this wild and beautiful part of the South Australia coast.

But the Labs are demanding creatures and insisted on stetching their legs in between gale force gusts of wind and drenching rain.

This morning we took a brisk walk along the foreshore and stumbled across a sign describing some of the flora and fauna found in the area. We were excited to read that Bearded Samphire (Sarcocornia quinqueflora, for the botanically minded) grows in abundance on the shores around Streaky Bay, and probably lots of other places on the coast. If we'd been less distracted by the samphire we'd know the name of the sea bird spotted later on our walk (there's a photo of it) but you can't eat sea birds.

Samphire is something I've had in the UK - it's served with fish and I love it. But I've never seen it on Australian menus and assumed it was just a northern hemisphere thing. But there it was, big bushes of it right where we were standing! So I helped myself to a handful of it, shoved it in my pocket and made a mental note to consult Google to make sure this variety of it wasn't some horribly poisonous version. Turns out it's perfectly edible so the next stop was the fish co-op to find something fresh and local to go with it. That turned out to be some beautifuly fresh King George Whiting.

We don't often post photos of our meals - the Labs have the same thing every day and that would be boring - but the foodie in me is easily excited and my freshly harvested samphire just had to be shared. The presentation lacks cheffy flair but I'm operating in a very tiny, sparsely equipped kitchen.

We took some other photos of Steaky Bay along the way. See if you can pick the cuttlefish that's trying really hard to fit in.