Smartphones & sustainable seafood: Cape Town menus get tech-savvy

The menu at Bistro Sixteen82 at the Steenberg wine estate in Constantia arrives with a wooden fish with dangling paper QR codes.

After scanning the codes using the Abalobi 'Hook to Cook' app on your Smartphone, you can read the whole story of the fish on the menu: the fisherman who caught it, bait and fishing methods, the boat used and the fish itself.

It’s a beautifully put together app devoted to the sustainability of the fish and of the small-scale fishing industry. The programme behind it empowers those who have relied on fishing for their livelihood for generations, using sustainable linefishing methods from small boats.

For chef Kerry Kilpin the beauty of the Abalobi programme has been the freshness of the catch. “We’re getting the most amazing product; the quality is incredible,” she says. “It comes direct from the fishermen to us, no middleman, either on the same day or the next. It’s been exciting; it’s something di­fferent for the guys in the kitchen, using different fish, learning to fillet, as it comes to us whole.”

One week she received 60kg of Cape bream, which flew off­ the menu. Another week it was carpenter.

When we visited, the restaurant had just had its first delivery of yellowtail and Kerry was inspired to o­ffer two versions for lunch, one with a rich shellfish and lemongrass velouté and a spicy shimeji salsa, the other with a warm quinoa salad, aubergine mousse, red pepper coulis and artichoke salsa.

We loved reading the stories as we placed our order, words straight from the fishermen about their relationship with the sea, how their boats, knowledge and skills are handed down the generations and the responsibility they feel towards protecting the oceans for their descendants.

For our starter, we tasted Cape Hope squid from Struisbaai in a sparkling fresh salad. With a completely di­fferent texture to imported Patagonian calamari, it was much firmer to the bite and had a lot more flavour, complemented by the crispness of fennel, radish and herbs.

In both our mains, the yellowtail shone with freshness and succulence, the flavour enhanced perhaps by knowing the story, but the fish is also that much fresher, straight from hook to cook.

The Abalobi programme is gradually being rolled out to selected Cape Town restaurants, so look out for those QR codes and enjoy sustainable fish with a story.

This article was originally published in the Sunday Times Neighbourhood: Property and Lifestyle guides. Visit Yourneighbourhood.co.za