Head On Over

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No Thank you, darling

Dave... friend, customer, comedian, entrepreneur, fisherman, jokester dines out even more frequently than we do, so comparing notes is a vital part of our conversation when he graces us with his presence in the restaurant at least twice a week. Since he eats most lunches and dinners out, his portfolio of restaurants within the Tampa Bay area and his honest commentary has grown to immense proportions and we continually pick his brain for suggestions.
When he suggested one of Frank Chivas' and Tom Pritchard's restaurants Marlin Darlin Grill in Belleair Bluffs, we jumped on the chance to try one of this Midas touch teams other restaurants, having enjoyed both Salt Rock and Island Way in the past a number of times. The trek from Bahama Shores, where we live, seemed to never end, and we almost flew by the restaurant, expecting it to be a freestanding building and not noticing its sign on the breezeway, nor knowing that it housed a former pharmacy. The hostess acknowledged our 645PM reservation and although we had requested outside, the prospect of sitting at one of only 2 table overlooking the parking lot, was not a piority. It seems that we are eating earlier and earlier these days.... is that the backlash of becoming an AARP member? She sat us, and handed us the specials list, explaining that the uniqueness of Sunday is that the "First Catch" Weekly Specials Menu was available all nite, making this $9.90 an unheard of value. Our server's Eastern European accent made her introduction difficult to understand, and trust me, between Jose Luis' Argentine/Polish heritage and my family's Dutch, German, Slovenian ties, we can understand just about anybody. After ordering a Martini for myself, Cranberry juice for Jose and the tataki tuna, pan-asian shrimp and grilled churrasco skewer to nibble on as starters, we sat back and perused the menu. Preferring to eat smaller portions anyhow or combining numerous appetizer, the Sunday First Catch Special sounded like the perfect antidote to a busy week's work, and just the right amount of food for me, while Jose Luis, on the other hand, wanted to try everything on the menu, leaning towards the enormous "captain's catch".
Approx. 15 minutes later our waitress returned (no drinks or appetizers yet in hand), but ready to take our order, and this is where it got a little confusing (think the Abbott and Costello routine of "who's on First, what's on second"), as I told her I would like to order the Bimini Mahi- Mahi "First Catch" special , and the caesar (which as mentioned before is an unbelievable $9.90 for both). She corrected me to say that the first catch specials are only available certain days of the week before 545PM, but they had a Bimini Mahi Mahi available for $16.90 on their regular menu and the caesar would be $2.90 extra, so did I want to order that? Now I must say, that we are not cheap, and if the special was not valid I would have been the first to acquisce, but I remembered disctinctly what the hostess had said, so I pressed the issue. Woe to me, as I got a bit of a tongue lashing, and usually not being one to just take it, I was so taken aback by her unwarranted comeback that I assumed I must have gotten the info wrong (Alzheimers creeping up on me, maybe?), and so I ordered the $19.80 dinner (fish and caesar), while Jose Luis decided to go for the gusto with the platter of crab, grouper, scallops, shrimp and roasted veggies. The minute she left, he made his way to the hostess stand to confer with the young lady who had sat us and lo and behold, it was the manager who postured her way to the waitress to give her a good talking to, confirming what , in our heart of hearts, we already knew to be true: $9.90 for the Mahi special on Sundays, all night. I would have let out a whoop and a holler but my disappointment in the night's service was only getting worse, as I am now seeing our server finally carrying my Martini and Jose's juice, spilling half the contents before arriving at our table, subsequently not saying a word about her error, till prodded by Jose Luis, while I sit quietly nursing my sticky glass of half spilled martini (pomegranate juice et al)
She finally arrives with our tapas and ready to turn on her heels, having finished my 3 Ounces of Martini, I ask her for a glass of Rodney Strong Chardonnay. The appetizers are every bit as delicious as anticipated and both the tataki tuna and the shrimp are stand-outs, although the basket of bread, touted as "artisian"?, is just okay. Jose's lobster bisque, a small $2.90 and my free caesar arrive seconds after our last bite of appetizer, and although the bisque has a beautifully velvety flavor and consistency and the caesar a hint of anchovy, both portions are exceptionally tiny (think bread plate for the base of the caesar), but since mine is complimentary with the dinner, I can not and will not look a gift horse in the mouth.
Barely finished with our intermezzo the server arrives at the table with our dinners, but has nowhere to place them, making us heave ho our dishes into the air, while she dumps our entrees in front of us, and I realize, too late, that we have created a monster, who is never willing to forgive us for the reprimand she received, and so she is ready to leave again when I ask her for the glass of wine I had ordered, hoping not to sound desperate. We enjoyed the appetizers enough to know that our dinners will be on par with them and taking the first bites, this is confirmed, although the service is leaving a distinct sour taste in my mouth. It gets better or worse, depending how you look at it. I am halfway through the main course when she returns to inform me that they are out of the wine I ordered and what else would I like? It becomes a staring contest as I believe she will hand me the wine list back so that I can choose another white wine, but obviously she assumes that I memorized the entire wine list when we sat down over an hour ago. When she says "well..." I feel a kick under the table, as my husband knows that my patience is wearing thin but that I will do all to maintain a semblance of politeness. I ask her for the wine list and choose another white wine. A few minutes later the bartender actually brings me my wine, which is in a lovely oversized glass, but I can see only 3 ounces of wine pooled at the bottom, even putting on my magnifying reading glasses does not increase the amount, and considering that we are paying $9 for the wine, makes me think they are trying to squeeze 8 glasses out of a bottle, so when in passing I ask a waiter, he cedes that I must have ordered 1/2 glass from our server, instead of a full one. Seeing my surprised face he takes the glass and says that he will take care of it immediately, and as promised, within minutes he is back at the table with the normal expected 6 Ounces. Efficiency at its best. There were a few more incidents, believe it or not, with our by now frustrated waitress, but it was the addition of the $2.90 for my caesar salad to the final bill (which should ahve been included with the special, remember) , that make us think, that she slipped through the cracks of basic server training, and there is no way that the professional team of restaurant owners involved in this alluring enterprise are aware of her existence, and who knows whether by now she has gone the way of the dodo bird.
We have been hard pressed to make the 55 minute trip to Marlin Darlin but maybe our memory of that night will become a fog and we will once again dare to cross the treshold. Ican assure you that if we see "XxXx" anywhere in the building, we are running for the hills or Island Way or Salt Rock

On The Hook

Adventure - "an unusual, exciting and daring experience", most often associated with items like sky diving, swimming with sharks, rock climbing, oh yes and eating sushi. At least that was my opinion for years, and eventhough my parents had filled my dreams with travel and my mouth with escargots, eel, herring, duck, Rijsttafel and dare I say, a sip of champagne, all before 2nd grade, sushi was not eaten very often. A trip to the Japanese Nippon Club at age 9 forever stays in my mind, with miniscule quail eggs, paperthin tuna and dozens of blushing sushi displayed in the most intricate designs with some sense of Mondrian meets Picasso and Braque. In the ensuing years I would choose Pate' and Foie Gras over maguro, Carpaccio and Pasta over unagi, and somehow my protein of choice no longer was seafood or fish, but chicken and fowl.
Jose Luis, on the other hand was a die-hard sushi fan, so during the eighties I would accompany him to his favorite sushi restaurant on 79th Street Causeway in Miami, but shame on me, I would order California roll, Shrimp sushi and chicken teryaki. After my gastric bypass surgery in 2000, my palate and taste changed dramatically and a 180 degree turn later I was craving fish, raw, cooked, baked, sauteed, grilled, you name it and sushi headed to top of the list. In those 7 years we have been lucky enough to have eaten in dozens of different restaurants, most often at the sushi bar, where the chefs dexterity and often flamboyance, has awed us and inspired us to implement the visuality of food.
Having tried 5 sushi restaurants in St. Pete, and disappointment weaving through our meals at 3, we come back, time after time to Hook's, where he subscribes to the motto of "All Fish and no Bull". Although we also enjoy the mastery of the sushi chef at King and I, and some of his specialty roles are masterpieces within masterpieces, we prefer the King for Thai and Hook's for sushi. With the Mexican, TNT, California and Dragon, all familiar names and similar presentations, it is the quality of his seafood, the friendliness of his staff and the reasonable prices that justify the fullfillment of our sushi cravings here.
When he plates a barely seared Maguro sashimi over paperthin tuna with tobiko and a secret sauce, we almost swoon, his slightly warmed Unagi with fish sauce, then dipped in ponzu is the cat's meow, while a seaweed salad (now also served spicy) with its briny sweetness hits a home run.
When you are the only patron in a sushi restaurant during lunch hour it does not bode well, but we had received some recommendations for Ai Mei Thai and Sushi, and being conveniently located around the corner from our house, it was only a 4 minute drive. Halfway through the so-so sushi and having to listen to 3 waitresses, loudly talking about their lives, we were bored, but that is when it got interesting as we heard 2 of the sushi "chefs" arguing about the seafood, that they could still use the old mussels and bad tuna. We simultaneously put down our chopsticks, forfeited the rest of the meal, paid and hightailed it out, and blame it on the 2 chefs, eventhough the sushi did not taste horrid, we did not want to take a chance. Our experiences at Sushi Rock, Ratchada (great Thai food e.g. Basil Duck) and Bangkok #9 never were on an even par with Hook's so why switch.

Tried and True

During the past 2 week's lunches (since our arrival home from sunny Roatan), we have realized for the umpteenth time why we repeatedly frequent our favorite restaurants but are willing to try new ones, especially when recommended by friends or customers.
Whether it is Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Seafood, Greek, Global or other they happen to all have that "fils rouge" , common thread and if you have read our previous blog, it becomes crystal clear, why we walk through their doors and tout them profusely to our friends.
Invariably we return to our favorite haunts, analyzing the dozen or so criteria that make us steer our car towards Mekong Vietnamese, on 34th Street N. at least once every couple of weeks, craving that authentic Vietnamese experience and good service (the waitress sees us coming and already anticipates our basic needs like a knife and chopsticks, hot tea and extra napkins, guaranteeing her a sizable tip). We often find ourselves amongst only a handful of Caucasian guests, while most diners are Vietnamese, and is that not the premise of a great ethnic restaurant.
That reminds me of when we lived in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and would make the treacherous 2 1/2 hour trip, even in the midst of winter, just for lunch, to Boston's Chinatown, with one goal in mind, China Pearl's hundreds of choice Dim Sum. This restaurant, formerly a movie theatre, spans 2 floors, seats 500, would poffer up dozens of carts filled to the brim with the tastiest morsels of shrimp mousse stuffed eggplant, Shumai as airy as a cloud, Buns filled with the sweetest bbq'd pork and some of the best broccoli rabe this side of the world.
We felt right at home, especially on Sundays, when we would find ourselves, often the only non Asians, seated amongst 4 generations of families, all ready to be sated by a tradition as old as time, and other than the sauteed chicken feet, we were game for anything.
At Mekong, Jose Luis and I usually share the appetizer roll, which resembles a hybrid of the spring and egg roll, and as we wrap it in lettuce with daikon, carrot, fresh mint and dip it in both the ubiquitous sweet sauce provided, some hoisin and spicy Chile sauce, it hits us: simplicity meets quality. There are a dozen sauces at each table helping you decide whether, today, you wish to bring it up a notch with 4 varieties of heat, add a little acidity, sweetness or Nuoc Mam (fish sauce), go ahead, go crazy and give it your own signature finish. Their Pho's (soups) are big enough for two as well, and with so many to choose from you could enjoy a different one each day of the month. Choose pork or beef based, seafood, meat or chicken filled, with or without veggies and more, but it is the huge platter of acroutements that accompanies each bowl that makes this the perfectly flavorful and healthful dish : crispy sprouts, 2 handfuls of fragrant purple basil, chilies and lime.
Mekong includes tea with the lunch meal, making us hard pressed to spend more than $10, a bargain at best and good service to boot . Going with a group of people, will give you the opportunity to try a table full of diverse tastes, where curries, lemongrass, coriander, lime, mint and basil are prevalent, bringing refreshing and clean flavors to the courses. But broaden the eating horizon and don't limit yourself to the same old, same old, but try a cutting edge dish like the caramelized pork.
For the first 6 months of our life here in St. Pete, when our palates asked for Thai we often scurried to Bangkok #9 on Central, but although the food is fine, the utterly hectic pace at lunch, the sometimes excruciatingly slow, other times the too fast delivery of the food (good when you have a 30 minute lunch I imagine), made us eager to escape the restaurant after lunch.
It was the harried waitstaff , that had us looking for a new lunch favorite, when we were once told to "Take it Easy", having requested the spice condiment tray, when ordering and halfway through the meal still had not received it. Unforgivable.
Self flagellation aside, we finally listened to the suggestion of a friend and good customer Dave, and discovered the King and I (also on Central), which has become a Zen-like Oasis in the middle of our fast paced lives. Spreading the word about this restaurant has now bitten us in the back, forcing us to arrive by 12 Noon before the crowds gather, but no matter how busy, the staff (Yogi and Vee), and the owners, remain calm and professional, know us by name and produce the most intensely flavored Spicy Rice noodles with crispy Bell Peppers, onions, Chicken, a mouth watering Yellow Curry with Pork or Crispy Basil Duck, and for $5.95 each, which includes the ever present spring roll and soup, you won't break the bank.

DINING OUT/FOOD TALK

We have been home for almost 2 weeks, back into the swing of things, and once again frequenting some of our favorite lunch and dinner haunts.
We have said it before but want to re-iterate, how a restaurant makes the top of our list (you may have your own criteria, let us know, what you think that is consistently important from your top restaurants, and remember these can be top notch fine dining or corner diner):
**friendly, knowledgeable service is a must (we are not talking about the sugary waitperson, or the one that becomes too familiar with you by telling you their daily live's woes and tribulations). Most customers are also not interested in hearing the staff talk loudly amongst themselves about what they did last night, who broke up with whom etc., but at the same time watching a half dozen waitstaff hanging out in a cluster in the corner, with arms folded, just staring into the dining room, makes me feel like I am under the gun and ready for an interrogation. There is a happy medium.
**Be professional, remember our name, and even what we like to eat and or drink - Jose Luis likes gingerale and I like unsweetened ice tea at lunch, while at dinner he will usually have cranberry juice with a lime or mineral water and I may start with a Martini and then a glass of wine. And when taking our order, please don't lean on the chair, sit at the empty chair next to us or squat down next to the table, unless we are at "Ed Debevic's" in Chicago, where that is part of the atmosphere and the owner's "shtick".
**Be knowledgable, know your food product. Often this is the shortcomings of management in not teaching the staff the delicate nuances of a dish, the preparaton of the sauce, whether the soup of the day is vegetarian or beef based, but sometimes it is the negligence of the floor staff to either not care or not want to be educated, so the more the staff knows in advance, without having to run to the kitchen everytime a customer asks a question, the better.
**Winelist...it is almost an impossibility with most of today's wine lists to have the waitstaff/bartender be a wine connoisseur, and they are not expected to be the six figure sommelier that some of the high end Vegas restaurants employ. But some basic knowledge about the wines, a recommendation of 3-4 reds and whites in every price range and the ability to open a bottle of wine correctly, pour the right amount (please don't fill our white wine glasses to the top unless I ordered just a glass, because by the time I get to my last sip it will have become quite warm.) A number of years ago we went to a very high end restaurant, aand impressing my parents Jose Luis ordered a lovely bottle of champagne. When the waiter presented the bottle to Jose Luis, in the same breath he asked a passing server for a wine opener, and attempted to open the bottle, till another waiter stopped him, apologized and opened the champagne correctly- huge faux pas for this extremely expensive restaurant. Due to the suggestion of a customer we also invested in a small vinotheque to house 4 bottles of each of our red wines, so that they can be presented at true room temperature, not Florida's 82 degrees room temp. And with so many options, why not offer more than just 1 white and 1 red house wine, you can use an inexpensive vinovac system that pumps out the air, and maintains the bottles consistency for 4-5 days.
**cleanliness, "puhleeze", we work in this environment and know how easy it is to keep clean, and we see how easy it is for some restaurants to get overwhelmed and forget that they are dealing with food. Keep not only your dining room clean (check out the corners for dirt, the shelves for week old dust, sticky menus, dust on fans, fingerprints on windows), but assign somebody to check on the bathroom throughout the night. Clean silverware, glasses and dishes are a must, with today's 24 hour lasting wax enveloped lipsticks it becomes quite a task to rid the glass rim of any residue, but just keep an eye on it. And clean uniforms is a must, we encourage our staff to leave an extra top at the restaurant in case a wine or food spill mars their clothing. Being served by a waiter, whose shirt has become half untucked, pants slowly making their way south, body odor, which as they lean across you becomes prevalent, dirty fingernails, food stains on their wrinkled shirt and hair hanging every which way , are all things that make us lose our appetite. We have 2 waitstaff that have tatoos, interesting colored, but clean hair and most of our staff , both male and female, have earrings, but the bottom line is that they all look sharp.
**value - we have had horrible $5 hamburgers and fantastic $30 rack of lamb, and at the opposite end we have had incredible real turkey, just cut off the bird $7 Club sandwiches and horrible $35 Veal chop. We just want to feel that the money we pay, whether it is $10 a head or $110 per person, was well spent.
**quality, kind of goes hand in hand with the above. I would rather get a smaller portion of grouper give me a 6 OZ filet instead of 8 OZ, but make it real. The same goes for a filet of beef, have it be buttery and so tender that I could (if I so wished) cut it with a fork (of course I never would). And don't serve frozen pre-cut veggies, the flavor has been ice blasted out of them a long time ago and no amount of herbs de provence or salt and pepper can come to the rescue.
**Salt and Pepper shakers, please have them wiped down daily and refilled, it looks so unkempt if they are half full, and I wonder whether the chef has not seasoned his dishes sufficiently, making his guests pile on pounds of salt.
**presentation. During the past months we have ordered dessert at a number of restaurants low, mid ranged and high end and invariably we have been served dessert on a small bread plate, no decoration, no appeal. The chef may think that naked is better and that the taste and look of the dessert speaks for itself, but it takes little to serve the course on an appropriate plate and takes little to place the food in such a way and decorate it, even if it has to be with that ubiquitous parsley.
For dessert a little drizzle of sauce, a figurine, a swirl here makes the dish look like it is worth $7 or $9.
Oh there are a dozen more things we look out for, and some are just personal pet peeves or wishful thinking, and we will discuss the rest, augmenting them with some of yours in the coming weeks. Overall I think that we can speak for the majority of the dining public, we just want a nice experience, and if you "wow" us that much the better. The restaurant's diners are the best P.R./Marketers you could ever wish for with those having a great experience telling dozens of their friends, and so forth and so forth, or they could be your worst nightmare (some not justified).
Here are just 2 of some of our favorite ultra-casual lunch spots and why
*Chattaways on 4th Street S. - we give credit where credit is due, their longevity is amazing, sitting outside amongst Jill and Warren's hundred's of trees, bushes, flowers and plants transports us to a different place, and if it is raining cats and dogs, make yourself comfortable inside in the quaint, smallish english type tea room. While perched amongst the Blue China, dozens of tea sets and pictures of the British Royal family, in this laid back, relaxed atmosphere, Lucky, an affable, friendly and efficient young man has been serving us our turkey sandwich (me) and a house salad and nice 5 OZ cheeseburger (Jose Luis), for quite some time . Prices are reasonable and the food is served without too much brouhaha or embellishments, fries for the burgers and sandwiches and saltines with the salad. Simplicity is sometimes best
*Munch's on 4th Street S. -although we had driven by this breakfast/lunch place a hundred times since we arrived in St. Pete, 7 months ago, we only ventured in, for the first time, this past month and have been back for both breakfast and lunch numerous times. Larry, the owner, whose family started Munch's 50 years ago has been there everytime to greet us and Ruth, who recently celebrated her 25 year anniversary as a waitress (kudos to you) has been taking care of us, and case in point, after just 2 visits already knows I like mayonaise with my fries (it is a Dutch thing). The Texas Hash or homefries with eggs for breakfast transport you to a bygone era of lunch counters and diners, and lunch provides all the basic elements from sandwiches to burgers and a couple of surprise specials like fried catfish or roasted chicken. Prices are reasonable, service is efficient and swift, and they have a book exchange area, where you can pick up the latest releases, and some older, well worn paperbacks for $1, what else would we want.

Home Sweet St. Pete Home

We are back into the swing of things, and thinking whether we could have extended that Roatan vacation by a few days, weeks or months, but realize that for now St. Petersburg is our home.
We can dream and imagine, that sometime in the future, as our AARP cards get more and more use, that owning and running a restaurant somewhere in the Caribbean or Central America could be a possibility, while still maintaining ties to the U.S. It is actually not only something we envision, but what a fair amount of people, that we have come across during our travels these past years, have done. David and Dana, who created Hamanasi Dive Resort in Dangriga (where we spent a long weekend last April), are a prime example, having built their resort in a yet undiscovered area on the mainland of Belize. The couple from Michigan who run a restaurant, bar and small B&B on Ambergris Caye or Bob and Rhonda's "Hole in the Wall" on Roatan, all seem to have gotten their priorities right. Imagine waking up to pristine turquoise waters, coral reefs, palm trees swaying, sun shining...ahh..this actually sounds a lot like St. Petersburg, except for the traffic, so we are halfway there.
As we settle back in, making our desserts, sauces and bread during the day and taking care of our dinner guests at night, we continue to check out the Tampa Bay Area's hundreds of restaurants, returning to our favorites and eschewing those where our experiences either in quality, value or service have left a lot to be desired. Looking at a restaurant's entire product from the point of few of a restauranteur and chef might seem like a conflict of interest, but our insight is not meant to be a negative, nor do we expect to supplant the area's professional food reviewers critiques. We want to share our personal opinions and tastes, intertwined with both back and front of the house knowledge, that some weekly paper's critics sorely lack, and more importantly, before expressing an interest or dislike in a restaurant's cuisine we will have been a frequent visitor to that establishment and able to measure whether a one time mishap in service, atmosphere or food flavor and execution, was just that. We know nobody is perfect, not even the country's top chefs and restaurants, even those with their own TV shows, cookbooks and restaurants, will often admit their failures, mistakes and downfalls.
Time to get on track and during the coming months display our hopefully verbose talents, starting with some of our favorite restaurants, all vearing away from the bland, cookie cutter, ubiquitous foods delivered on plastic plates with paper smiles, leaning towards ethnic, eclectic and well executed foods with lots of flavor and value to match. We all live in a hectic and oft too serious world, so if we can have even one person slow down for a millisecond, read our blog, smile a little, enjoy a new restaurant, and recommend one to us to try, then we will have accomplished our job, so tomorrow the sharing of culinary experiences both recent and distant, local and international will commence.

The Week in Review

Having just returned home from our weeklong sojourn on Roatan, and memories and thoughts still fresh in our minds, we wanted to share this week's experiences and observations, including culinary and animal encounters. Located on its own 23 acre island, The Fantasy Island Dive Resort and Marina was our home base, and ideal for the die-hard diver, but as we found upon check-in there are some glitches in its armor. Most of the rooms need some serious Extreme Make-overs, including the initial room we were assigned to. At first glance the ocean front balcony room seemed okay, but when we spied the 2 twin beds (instead of the King we had requested), we looked a bit closer. An outdated rust stained bathroom, bathtub and shower, warped wooden floors, non closing sliding glass doors and the clincher was an overhead fan which only worked with the lights on....so in the middle of the night, you had a choice of no fan or the cooling breeze of the fan and the bright glow of its 4 lights, making us feel as if we were being interrogated by Jack Bauer. After speaking with the manager, she advised us that the resort was fully booked that night but that she would switch out our accommodations the next day, and true to her word, we received a newly remodeled King bedded room with marble bathroom, European shower and more, a 360 degree difference. Although the resort's package included all meals, we went off-premise a number of times to research some of the local fare and libations, propelled by the fact that the food at the resort, all served buffet style was far from epicurean, more sustenance than substance, albeit palatable. Wednesday night's lobster fest was the highlight, while most other nights the mundane grilled, bbq'd or baked chicken, fish and pork vied for our tepid attention, but after a day of diving, we were so famished that we made do with the simple fare. A couple of interesting sauces served on the side could have brought most dishes a notch up. As a pastry chef I was looking forward to tasting and possibly duplicating some island desserts, but the ever present flan, bread pudding and custard did nothing to tingle my tastebuds.
We rented a car and attempted to reconnoiter most of the island's 34 miles' length, and 3 mile width, which we accomplished in 1 day. Leaving the resort we drove west to its nearest neighbour French Harbour, where we encountered only a handful of restaurants including Romeo's and Gio's, both focused on seafood with a sprinkling of Italian, and the Lusty Lizard, serving both hamburgers and island cuisine (nice conch chowder and mango bread). Coxen Hole, a 20 minute drive from Fantasy Island, is not yet known for any culinary standouts and features a handful of fastfood restaurants, including Pizza Hut and Bojangles. It is also where you find the island's International Airport, and the Cruise Ship Pier which is getting a total redo. Roatan's new cruise ship pier facility should be finished by February 2008, with the expectation of at least one cruise ship a day, which should be a shot in the arm for the island, with the average cruise ship passenger spending as much as $100 for souvenirs, shore excursions, food and drink, and with this in mind the area should start sprouting some more diverse eating destinations.
Driving north towards Sandy Bay a 3 mile, S curved, hilly ride we passed the Blue Parrot and Rick's American Bar and Grill, the perfect abode for a Sunset drink, but since it was only 10AM we had other fish to fry.
Entering the West End, a laid back 70's kind of place, with dirt roads, backpackers and wannabe rastafarians, we could see the appeal of the place where "manana" definitely was the motto and the clean, white, although small beach, attracted both local families and vacationers. We stopped at Patricia's Place, a distinct hole in the wall, with an almost non- existent kitchen, but delectable smells coming from its smoking barbecue, strategically placed out front to attract the starving pedestrians. The smoker produced pound after pound of succulent, moist chicken, served with rice, beans and home made tortillas. Small menu and small kitchen, but a bargain at $6, and enough to share. I sampled a concoction called Zac's Attack at the Sundowner, Monkey Lala at the over the water Eagle Ray Bar and the ubiquitous Cuba Libre at Fosters made with local Flor de Cana rum, while most most people around us spent the day enjoying the local Salva Vida Beer. This area is home to a dozen other laid back restaurants and bars, all within a 5 block waterfront space, including the meat heavy Argentinean Grill (Arco Iris), Pura Vida featuring a blend of Italian and local seafood, Oolonthoo, specializing in Indian, the Bistro in Vietnamese and Dragonfly focusing on Thai, emphasizing this melting pot of cultures that makes West End attractive to all who visit.

Going to the furthest Western part of the island, was like driving the slalom course at Le Mans, and with no speed limit it was a wonder we arrived in one piece at West Bay, having encountered along the way dozens of new projects including condos, real estate developments (like Infinity Bay), time shares and shopping centers. It is at West Bay Beach that we see where the future of Roatan is headed, with its wide beach, newly built condos, hotels, restaurants and bars, many right on the beach, including an upscale gourmet market, predominately catering to the upscale condos. We could sense that West Bay is on the cusp of becoming a mini version of Cozumel or Ambergris Caye, with beach chairs renting for $5 (the daily salary of many Hondurenos), somewhat overpriced drinks and food, locals and hippies hawking "hand-made" blankets and jewelry, but putting it all into perspective we could see the allure of the clean, white sandy beach and baby blue water.
We acknowledge what a small world we live in when on our flight back from Roatan we meet one of the developers of the above mentioned Infinity Bay, a grand project that will allow villa ownership, resort vacations and on premise management of the properties.

Pics: Our Dive Group, Jose Luis feeding Banana to Capucin Monkey, Monkey Lala (Iguana family)

Sharks and Dark

Although we had done a shark dive in Belize last year, it was like comparing apples and mangos, to the shark dive we finished today. Then 8 sharks, today at least 35 or more caribbean reef sharks measuring 8 to 10 feet, swarming around our group of seasoned and novice divers. My problem... not encountered too often, was trying to equalize, and finding myself the only one at 30 feet while the rest of the group was already safely ensconsed at the bottom at 70 feet. Between myself and the group of divers, was this pod of hungry sharks, and although I may not initially have been considered as a tasty tidbit on their menu that day, watching them roaming, in slo-mo, some 40 feet below, made me realize that Fear was a Factor for me at that moment, and I felt like a lone seal, waiting for disaster to strike. I finally made it down and all I can say is WOW.... staring a 10 foot shark in the eye is an incredible feat, and although I probably used up 1,000 psi in the blink of an eye, it was worth every deep breath from my regulator. Thank goodness that I had gotten 4 LBS of extra weights or I would have been all over the place, waving my arms and fins and offering myself up as shark bait. Instead we were all pretty much in awe of the sight in front of us, and we wanted time to stand still, as our 20 minutes flickering by way too fast, with sharks swimming inches from our masks. Dive Master Gustavo , a pro in every sense of the word had his basket of chum ready, and the feading frenzy started around him , a circle of activity with one shark nudging the others out of the way for the tastiest bits, and with a couple of pregnant females in the midst, it was a sight not encountered too often by these baby blues. My heart pounded out of my body when one of the sharks became a bit agressive, shoving and pushing the rest of his friends out of the way for the tastiest morsels, but my angst turned to laughter, when he ended up with the bucket on his head, swimming away into the wild blue yonder. A video and T shirt are not too distant memories of an escapade we would not mind repeating.
Could the day finish any better than with the initially dreaded Night Dive, I think not. Giant stride stepping off the boat just minutes before nightfall, lights ablaze (I only had 2 but all day had been trying to figure a way to carry 6 or more illuminations), we slowly descended into a new world of wonder. Shining our lights on the coral that we had seen so many times during the day, made them appear richer in color, the reds were more like garnets and the purples like amethysts. The luminescence of the tiniest fish and sealife, sparkling like millions of diamonds kept my eyes wide and seeing an octopus, approximately 4 feet across from tentacle to tentacle was the culmination of my first venture into this world of darkness. When we finally made it back into the boat, our initial silence said it all, while we were all processing what we had seen, then the floodwaters opened when we all compared our experience.

Pics: Jose Luis and Catherine in the warm, turquoise waters at West Bay Beach.

A Watusa- an animal typical of Honduras, from the guinea pig family, but hops like a rabbit

We Have Arrived

After a 5 hour flight delay in Houston, due to a mechanical problem, we finally arrived at Fantasy Island yesterday. Although we started in a twin bedded room, uugghhh (not good for a couple like us. We now are luckier than most and have moved to a King bedded remodeled room.
Two dives today - 40 Foot Wall- loads of sponges, Coral, saw a Tiger Grouper and Sharp Fish. It was rough waters today so getting back in the boat "Little Tavita", took some doing. Meeting up with our dive group for some libations before dinner, so off we go. Today is a day of few words, but I promise we will catch up.

One Day till Lift Off

We barely squeezed it all in, and the problem is that 1 suitcase, somehow without our knowledge, germinated into 3 overnight. As a veteran traveller and suitcase packer, who learned from the best (globetrotting parents), I know in my heart of hearts that we could have packed better and were we to unpack everything, delete the "un"necessities (there are none of course), we could fit it all into just 1 suitcase and the Bauer bag, but there are more pressing issues to fill our time during the next day, than to prove to ourselves we can do better. Prior to any trip we commiserate that we work twice as hard gearing up for our journey and upon our return, playing catch up with paperwork and bills. This often negates all the euphoric effects of our time away, which is why we had agreed years ago to make the one week vacation obsolete, realizing that it takes us 2 weeks to really get into holiday mode. Except this time around, that's all the time we have, so our next words of wisdom, should be coming from Roatan... till then....

One Week Till Roatan

As you can see from the picture, it will be an impossible task to fit all we want into the suitcase"s" we intend to take to Roatan. Sure we started off with just pull on shorts, T-shirts, flip flops, bathing suits (do I really need 4), cover ups and all our scuba gear with bags, but then we realized what else we needed to incorporate in the mix. Multiple bottles of OFF and high octane deet (to ward off those pesky sand flies everybody always complains about), 3 bottles of suntan lotion (in varying degrees of strength), 7 books (trust me I will devour one a day), Beach towels and bag. We need our I-Pod, bottle of Pampero Rum, Camera, body moisturizer, aloe, facial cream, aspirin, benadryl, cortizone, deodorant etc. The only concession I am making in the cosmetics department is the necessary lipbalm. The immediate task at hand is to defy physics and prove that we can fit 10 cubic feet of travel stuff in 5 cubic feet of suitcases and Jose Luis' newly acquired Jack Bauer "24" bag.

10 Days and counting till Roatan

Okay, so the wetsuits, flippers, masks and BCD still fit, but will they all fit in our luggage. With all the new homeland security and travel regulations www.tsa.gov including not allowing
more than 3 OZ of any specific liquid in your carry-on, we have to rethink what we check in and what we can carry with us on board the aircraft. Having worked in the airline industry for a dozen years we lived by the premise that if you could not carry it on with you, it just was not worth taking (this due to the oft stand-by position we were put in). So even a 2 week trip to Europe, including semi formal dining out wear fit in our overhead bin. We became masters at layering, rolling and wrapping our clothes in intricate patterns around one another in order to limit creases and wasted space.
We used to carry our regulators (fragile as they are), bottles of water (to hydrate), creams (to ward off the dry air in planes), medicines and for me a couple of 187ml bottles of champagne to imbibe and enjoy once we arrived at our destination. None of these are now allowable and so the entire issue of packing no longer becomes an afterthought but an intricate engineering problem, that will take us the next 10 days to resolve, not unlike the time it took us to solve the Rubik's Cube.
The open suitcases will be perched on the bed while we calculate, position and re-position everything we are taking with us in such a way that not a nook nor cranny, neither a millimeter is left empty. We are thankful that we are staying at Fantasy Island Resort on Roatan, where scuba diving is the norm and focus of the day and dressing up means putting on pull on shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops, while Polo shirts, belted shorts and shoes would be considered formal wear.
So off we go to try our hand at our first day of packing.

Getting Ready for Roatan

Postponing the inevitable, we finally spent the day getting some of our clothes ready and our Scuba Gear out of the closet : checking the regulators, octopus, BCD, wetsuits, snorkel, mask, fins and more. Although we have flown with most of our own items during the past years, we often did not bring our wetsuits, for lack of space, so after holding in my tummy and breath, Jose Luis zipped me up....and yes it still fit, while Jose Luis, the athlete that he is, as always, had no problem with his wetsuit.
Excitement is mounting , and the countdown has begun, as I will be trying out my newly acquired open backed fins with booties, and as we plan our first night dive on this trip, lights to guide us through the dark underwater maze, were a must as well.
The only thing that we have yet to purchase is a good underwater camera, to relay to our non diver friends and customers the exquisite world we observe once we slide into the blue waters of the Caribbean. Maybe, instead of the prerequisite jewelry or clothing, we can make it a mutual gift for our 26th anniversary in August.
Although it has only been 3 1/2 years since we officially became Open Water Divers, we spent the 3 years before that on dozens of Snuba and Discover Scuba trips, working our way, slowly but surely, towards that certification, and wishing, like so many times in life, that we had "done it sooner".
As we continue to amass info from Fantasy Island Resort, regarding the different dives we plan to make, we realize that 7 days, as usual, will not be enough, but having started a new restaurant only 6 months ago, we can not take the time away from our new growing endeavour.
Although the Resort includes all the diving and eating you can fit in, we plan to scour the island for other eateries and bring back ideas for our restaurant Elements Global Cuisine "Without Boundaries" in Gulfport, Fl.
We will keep you aprised as to our progress as we count down the days to our July 1 flight.
Catherine and Jose Luis Pawelek
Chefs/Owners
Elements Global Cuisine
twotravellingchefs@hotmail.com