Our family has been visiting Fredy at his restaurant since 2006 (we missed him our first year on the island). If there was one restaurant that we frequent more than any other on the island it would be Fredy’s. We even had our family Christmas dinner at his restaurant one year!

This year we celebrated a wedding on the island and so there was a time when almost our entire family were on Isla at one time. Fredy offered to open the restaurant on a Tuesday evening just for us. We were thrilled!

The youngest family member that was at the table that evening.

Fredy fixed us up with some appetizers not typically on his menu.

I had his double-boned pork chop (I always have his double-boned pork chop)! Later in our stay we visited with Fredy 0ne evening and he shared with us that he has to perform his own meat cutting to secure this special cut. We are a family that LOVES meat and the chops and his ribs got rave reviews!

His seafood dishes also got high accolades as well. This dish is called: Frey’s Shrimp.

We even got to enjoy the dusk sky from our sidewalk table.

I have a couple of Fredy’s recipes from a Isla cookbook that I own but I can never duplicate Fredy’s flare. I think that he cooks with a secret ingredient which if you asked him, he would brush off with a joke. I think that ingredient is love. He tries to come off as a business only, tough guy and even though he runs a great business it is not his culinary savvy that brings us back again and again. It is the tender underside of Fredy. It is the love that he cooks into his food.

Kath’s quote: “Good morning to all feel better today so lets start working and try to make nice smilles“- Fredy

Love never fails.

For decades Ami Hassan has been a permanent fixture at the River Heights restaurant that he owns and operates. He is typically visible in the open kitchen putting his special flair onto Middle Eastern dishes. I have know him to leave his station and come into the dining room to admonish patrons for lingering too long over coffee, declaring that he needed the space for hungry customers. On this day my dining companion and I met for an early lunch and I was surprised to find the Falafel Place (1101 Corydon Ave.) already busy. Perhaps they were still there from breakfast as the restaurant does have an all day menu.

My lunch date was drawn to the breakfast section and ordered a Falafel Breakfast complete with two eggs, 8 falafel balls (essentially a spiced chickpea fritter) , tahini (sesame seed sauce), hummus and pita wedges. For good measure and to share her fare, she ordered a side of potato pancakes (latkes) topped with garlic, onions and peppers. She oohed and awed while savouring every taste but made specific remarks about the perfectly cooked over easy eggs and that the potato pancakes were delightfully crispy on the outside and silky in the middle. I tasted the falafel balls and those pancakes and would whole heartedly agree with her assessment. I have travelled to Israel and my favourite cook book is one entitled “Jerusalem” so I consider myself acquainted with the tabbouleh salad making technique.

Essentially the salad is a parsley/bulgur one, with different ratios of the two ingredients depending on which regional variant of the salad you’re making, or your personal preference. There is a warning in my cookbook that “other elements need to be handled carefully”. I made a judgement error with my order, because I was craving a traditional tabbouleh salad with fresh tastes of parsley and mint. Ami’s emphasizes slices of vegetables.

Originally I had been torn when I saw spanakopita on the menu, so we ordered it to share. As you likely know, the spinach dish wrapped in a crunchy phyllo is a Greek specialty and it is not intended as a criticism when I say that Winnipeg Greek restaurant’s spanakopita recipes are much better. Enjoy Ami’s specialties and you will be more than impressed. The Falafel Place is open seven days a week from 6:30 am-9 pm. There is an all day menu available. They are wheelchair accessible. Watch for Food Musings every second Wednesday in your copy of The Headliner, The Herald, The Lance, The Metro, The Sou’wester and The Times.

Kath’s quote: “Parsley – the jewel of herbs, both in the pot and on the plate.”-Albert Stockli

Love never fails.

One difference of the first half of this year’s sojourn to Isla Mujeres is that half of the family that being our son, his wife and their two little ones, had a different dining schedule than us. When we are typically planning a Happy Hour somewhere, they need to get their girls fed and hopefully maintain a similar bed time schedule to that of home. This meant that on some evenings, some or all of us, would join them for a beverage as they had their dinner and then when they headed “home” (the reason a hotel in Centro was key for this stay), we would depart for our own supper plans.

On this evening we joined them at Angelo’s.

They graciously poured me a glass of wine, having selected my favourite varietal which I enjoyed

as I watched them tuck into a Bolognaise with Meatballs

and a delectable pizza. Between the poufy bread that is always delivered hot to the table

and the extra effort that the bartender went to in satisfying a chocolate milk request, the little girls were equally pleased with their parents’ choice. We made our way to Fredy’s for our later dinner, but that is another blog post.

Later in our stay: week two, when most of the 83 people that had gathered onto the island for a family wedding, made their way home, D and I returned for our own dinner at Angelo’s. From virtually our first taste in 2005, Angelo’s has been a must visit. We are crazy about both their fruita de mare pizza and pasta. I have said it before and I will say it again here, I am not just saying that these items are great compared to other island offerings, I am saying that Angelo’s rivals dinners that we have eaten in Sicily, on the Amalfi Coast, in Cinque Terra and in Tuscany!

On this second visit, we may have indulged a little bit too much with the vino tinto before dining. While the kittens are away, the cats will play! I took one blurry picture of our pasta

and another inadequate one of our pizza.

Suffice it to say, the meals were as stellar as previous visits, but our merry-making made for an inadequate reporting of such. We will try to behave and do better next time.

Kath’s quote: “All is fair in love and beer.”~ Kurt Paradis

Love never fails.

The selection of a restaurant to host the rehearsal part for my niece’s nuptials was a fairly complicated one, but in the end, the perfect venue of Lola Valentina’s was chosen for a variety of reasons.

The spacious layout of the restaurant allowed us to mingle easily. As we had assembled from points all around the world and some of the bride’s family was meeting members of the groom’s family for the very first time, this was particularly appreciated.

The bride and many members of her family and circle of friends are either vegan or vegetarian and Lola Valentina’s was very accommodating with the special dietary requirements.

The restaurant is ideally located right on Hidalgo in Centro so it was easy to locate by foot or by taxi for newbies to the island.

The bride and groom have travelled the world and are food aficionados. A pedestrian menu would simply not suit this sophisticated couple.

We started with appetizers of guacamole, fish ceviche and poblano chilies wrapped in bacon.

The guacamole was lightened up with the clever additions of tart green apple and slivers of peppers. There were also delectable little balls of deep fried cream cheese adorning the plate.

The fish ceviche was a nice twist from the shrimp and mixed ceviche that we typically order at the shoreline restaurants. The vegetable crudité also lightened it up and provided an alternative to scooping up the ceviche with a taco chip.

The stuffed chilies were over the top decadent and although I could only manage a taste, the complex savoury flavours were much appreciated.

To whet our whistles while we transitioned from appetizers to entrees, two signature drinks were served. I chose the Coconut Frozen Margarita which seemed like a heck of a good idea until we sat through 5 island-wide power shortages and the blenders in the bar were of no use.

The bride and groom allowed us to select between the following entrée choices: Coconut Shrimp,

Chicken Stuffed Chilies including rice and pico de gallo ingredients,

Tamarind fish, Steak Tacos (which I didn’t get a photo of)

and my selection of fish stuffed with shrimp in a pablano cream sauce on creamy mashed potatoes. “Heaven, I’m in heaven…”

The evening was a sticky one and the fans would konk out with the power. But everyone were troupers and stayed on through the sweaty and tearful speeches. We are a mushy bunch all right-exactly how I like my peeps to be.

Kath’s quote: “Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.”  ― José N. Harris

Love never fails.

Our first breakfast on the island was….no big surprize-Rubens!

Not only was our hotel just up the street, the outside tables were accessible for K AND let’s face it: D and I had been dreaming about Ruben’s shrimp omelet since our last trip to the island.

We actually did spend some time reading Ruben’s menu, not because we couldn’t decide what to order but because we missed seeing Ruben on this visit and purusing his menu was like spending some time with him.

We ordered rounds of papaya and orange juices along with Ruben’s delicious coffee. We were happy to just BE back on the island and to get our bearing again.

Ruben’s efficient kitchen had our meals out in no time. Not only were the eggs tender and flavourful in the omelet but the shrimp (which I guess are seasoned and browned in butter), literally burst out of their wrappings. I like mine with a bit of the breakfast rice and do not even add a grain or salt or pepper because they are so perfectly seasoned.

K is an eggs benedict aficionado and she loved Ruben’s!

Kath’s quote: Charlie Harper: Hey, Alan. Can you taste my hollandaise sauce?