Island Food

We have struggled a little with food on the island. It has been difficult to secure produce in generous quantities and our restaurant choices have been between pricey, swanky but not excellent resort food or really, really, really local food in shacks. We would love to have a meal that we did not have to dress up for and that was really fresh and local. We have ventured in to towns to experiment with the local food - but haven't found anyplace we were willing to try. Kentucky Fried Chicken is a staple here ...but most people know I won't set foot inside a KFC. We had experienced unexceptional dining until last night. We made reservations at a neighboring resort on a chocolate plantation. The hotel is called Chocolat and the restaurant Boucan. We were so pleased to have a "let's eat here again" experience. While we were there we read the story of the restaurant from its menu. They have one in London, New York and here on St. Lucia. They used all local products, paid their staff a decent wage (so tips were truly optional),They talked about the project in process to collect rainwater and use that for their drinking water. All of the chocolate in their foods come from the plantation and all of their menu items contain chocolate. While our table was being prepared we started in the bar. I had a shot of iced chocolate. A shot glass of creamy chocolate drink with some spices in it. It was a good beginning. Ron's passionfruit juice turned into pineapple juice but he still enjoyed it. We had wondered how would we feel at the end of a meal during which chocolate was served with every course. He started with gazpacho soup- with finely ground cacao nibs sprinkled in it - with a knowing smile on his face - he declared it excellent. I had a salad of organic micro-greens slightly dressed with white chocolate balsamic vinaigrette. "Slightly dressed" was a good call for this starter as too much would have been too rich. It was actually refreshing as a citrus vinaigrette might be. We each tasted the others dishes, but neither of us were willing to share half and trade as we had agreed prior. As we both reneged on our deal, this worked out fine. My entree consisted of a fresh caught red snapper with cacao butter over a bed of pureed potatoes and bacon spiced lentils with spinach. Ron had a curried coconut and cacao chicken stew with pineapple/sultana rice and greens. There was ground cacao nibs in his stew.

For dessert? Oh my the choice was so hard ....until the waitress told us that our three top choices (chocolate tart, molted chocolate cake, chocolate mousse) were all sold out for the evening. We selected the "Magnificent Piton" a soft meringue peak in a chocolate soup with caramel, almonds and banana slices. Really, really smooth chocolate soup and fluffy light meringue with just the right amount of sweetness. We both thought it the perfect ending and a way to celebrate our successful climb of the Piton earlier in the days. We started to conspire about our next meal at Boucan.

We looked up Boucan on Trip Advisor and found that it had been given a #2 ranking. We were both eager to know what would top this restaurant and found the #1 restaurant was called Martha's Table. It is in the rainforest and is literally on Martha's front porch. She makes all the food fresh herself showcasing local cuisine. She only serves lunch from Mon-Friday and you have to get there early or you will be out of luck. We are going to take a tour of the Chocolate plantation tomorrow followed by lunch at one of Martha's tables.

Today we adventured a little further away from home base. 30 kilometers to be exact. 30 kilometers on windy, steep, narrow rough roads. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to Castries on roads like this. It reminded Ron of the Hana Highway on Maui. He drove with great confidence and I was so glad it was he and not I. Castries is the capital of Saint Lucia and the cruise ship port for the island. This spells bigger city, food choices and shopping. Ron hasn't worn a wedding band in more than a decade as he lost his and we had just never replaced it. After he bought me that beautiful new ring a couple of months ago we started looking also for wedding bands for him. So ...our goal was to look for wedding bands and spices. I was interested in bringing home some nutmeg, curry and jerk seasonings. We actually succeeded at our shopping ....but failed miserably in the food department. I don't even want to talk about it ...tried the local fare ....nasty stuff. Ron selected a ring of white gold with gold white and black diamonds in it. He looks married again.

 

We went to Sugar Beach (formerly known as the Jalousie Plantation) to watch the sun set and dine on the beach. This resort seemed to cater to the British, French and Germans. It was lovely and quite remote. We may return to the beach for the day on Saturday. I will be sure to use my best British accent. One of their restaurants was right on the beach and we enjoyed a simple fare of soup and salad for dinner. It was nice to skip a multi-course dining and eat simply.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy