MACKEREL WITH ORANGE Small portions, big flavour

Small whole fish – mackerel, mullet and sardines – are so much more than just bait.

Ingredients

(serves 2)

2 fresh mackerel

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 orange, sliced into half moons 1 naartjie or orange, cut in half

Here’s how

1 Slice open the fish’s abdominal cavities and clean out the insides. Rinse the fish well. If you slice carefully, you can also remove the spines and butterlfy the fish open with the heads still attached. Use a sharp knife and carefully score each fish with five diagonal cuts through the skin, all along the body – on both sides.

2Rub the olive oil over the fish and season it with salt and pepper. Place the orange slices inside the stomach cavities and fold the fish closed. You can add chopped red onion, garlic and even fennel if

Price

Ibought a brand-new Jimny in September 2010, which makes it exactly 10 years old today. Because it is mainly used for holidays, it has passed the milestone with less than 100 000 km on the clock. My Jimny has been to Mozambique, lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia (the latter three times).

It only has a few modifications: a Front Runner roof rack and Thule roof box, a T-Max winch, Old Man Emu suspension and breather hoses for the diffs so I can drive through deeper water – just not too deep because a Jimny is light enough to drift. To date, my Jimny hasn’t let me down, but it does have a few drawbacks.

Inside and out

On our first test drive back then, we liked the seating position and the upholstery was comfortable. These days, though, I can feel hard bits inside, and the seats will need to be re-upholstered soon.

All the electronics – of which there really isn’t much – still work. It’s just the CD player that swallowed my Tears for Fears CD and stubbornly refuses to give it up. For the past three years, I have been listening to the radio because I’m fed up with the song “Shout”.

The interior has aged well and all the letters

and symbols on the buttons are still legible. There are no squeeks, the doors don’t rattle (the back door, however, does need to be adjusted every now and then), and the seats don’t shake in their tracks.

The trailing arms that hold the front and rear axles in place do creak when I turn sharply. This is a common complaint with Jimnys with no permanent solution.

Of course, the vehicle doesn’t have much luggage space and you need to have a roof rack or tow bar fitted if you want to use a Jimny for touring. And you can tour with a Jimny, just not very fast. Also, you and your front passenger need to get on really well because your elbows touch all the time.

During that first test drive, the car felt nimble and spirited – even if it wasn’t particularly fast – but after I bought my own and swapped the standard 205/70 R15 Goodyears for 215/75 BFGoodrich all-terrain tyres, it was noticeable how much power was lost due to the slightly larger diameter wheels.

On top of that, any engine loses power over time. Okay, a brand-new engine loosens up significantly in the first year, but after a number of years it’s definitely weaker than when it was new – it’s just one of those things that motorists have to live with. My Jimny has lost power and torque of 3 kW and 2 Nm respectively over the past decade. It may not sound like much, but the engine generates relatively modest power and torque in the first place.

In terms of fuel economy, my Jimny could never match the 7,2 ℓ/100 km promised by the brochure and the sales people. I average 370 km with a 40 ℓ tank, which equates to 10,8 ℓ/100 km (or 9,2 km/ℓ). This consumption figure is slightly better than what I got at the very beginning – and, by the way, this is with three people and all our camping gear, up and down through Lesotho.