“And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?”  John Lennon’s words resonate with me at this time of year.  I try my darndest to complete the circle of tasks that I have started in the year before the holiday season comes around, so I can look back with contentment and look forward with excitement at the new journeys ahead.  So with just a couple of days left from our Isla tale, I am back at remembering (not always with clarity) our time on Isla in 2013.

Day 13-We got so attached to our golf cart that we once again decided to keep it for another day.  This meant that we could scoot around the island to start to say our good-byes and finish up some shopping.  First stop was Hortenzia’s where D had a play with her granddaughters.

Next stop was at the shop of our old friend Gladys’s.  I did some shopping as I love everything in her shop, in fact, I loved the shop itself from the floor to the shutters, both pictured above.

While in Centro we ran into my new friend Jackie who was on Isla because she had discovered my posts about the island on my blog.  She and her travel companion joined us for lunch at La Lomita’s.  The familiar little place (we often stay across the street) was getting a hand-painted spruce up.

It was our friend’s first visit and she was blown away!

I started with the chicken tortilla soup.

Jackie ordered this amazing soup but I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the dish but, isn’t it exquisite?

Her friend sampled the enchiladas.

D and I split the chiles relleno, our all time favourite La Lomita dish!

Except for their papas fritas of course.

This lovely face belonged to our helpful server.

We spent the afternoon shelling the beach right in front of our apartment and then it was time to get ready for our date night that evening!

We started off  with happy hour at Villa Bella with beer so cold, it makes your teeth hurt.  The place was quaint enough in what Doug described as a kind of Rotarian club get together from the past.

But, the beer did indeed make my teeth hurt… assisted by the insulated cozy that it was served in.

D had a lime margarita shaken, on the rocks and served in a coconut shell.

We noitced that the sun had almost set and since it was near the end of our time on the island,we wanted to take in the last rays,

so we stopped at Iguana’s before we headed back to Minioes to share a fish Veracruz style and a couple more very cold beer with our feet in the sand.

It was too dark to get a really good shot of my fish but you would get an idea of the ingredients from this photo: tomatoes, Serrano chilies, green olives, capers, cilantro and fresh lime wedges. Omgosh, it was delicious.

Next stop was Bastos where we shared garlic shrimp.  They split the abundant meal onto two piping hot plates.  The perfectly cooked shrimp was served alongside a buttery fettuccine and steamed broccoli, carrots and zucchini sticks.  With a glass of vinto blanco and tinto, I think that it came to $25.

On the way home in the golf cart, we stopped to visit our gang (minus one bro and sis-in-law who had gone to Rolandi’s on their own) at Mangoes.  They were dining with Isleno Ricardo and his new wife Patty.  Sister #2 and her husband first met Ricardo when they stayed at Chac Chi.  He was such a helpful staff member.  I even remember that he accompanied our gang including our daughter on her scooter through colonias to baseball tacos so that we wouldn’t encounter any of those surprising sidewalk gaps.  Both were born and raised on Isla and Patty worked hard to get her education by traveling back and forth on a daily basis to go to university in Cancun.

Last stop was at an authentic gelato shop in centro (authentic because we inquired with the owner and he shared that his family was from Bologna).  So I enjoyed a satisfying coconut gelato on a sugared cone and D a pistachio one.  We had also met another Italian couple on the island: Mariuccia and Carlo holiday every year on Isla, all the way from Rome.  We first became acquainted when she was speaking to another traveler about my beach skirt.  She had admired it, but put forth her opinion that it must have not been purchased in North America but somewhere in Europe, guessing Italy.  AND she was correct, as I had bought it in Positano when D and I had traveled there years earlier.  The funny thing is that the bathing suit that is an exact match was picked up at a little second hand store along Osborne in Winnipeg; about as far away as you can get from either Isla or the Amalfi coast.

Kath’s quote: “Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.”-M.F.K. Fisher

Love-that is all.

Disclosure: This post was created for the Manitoba Canola Growers Be Well Blog .  I was compensated for my work.  My ideas and opinions are my own.

We have always held family pizza nights in our home.  When our now grown children were younger, it was Thursday evenings.  This was a time designated to “us” as a family.  Now though, we are influenced by travel and our favourite Chefs.

Read my Adventures with Pizza and try my Quattro Pizza on Homemade Dough recipe on the Manitoba Canola Growers Be Well Blog and be sure to enter The Great Pizza Story Contest while you are there.  Great prizes to be won including a personal pizza making lesson for you and 5 friends with Chef Mary Jane Feeke of Benjamin’s Foods in Selkirk.

Eat Well.

Kath’s quote: “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”-Yogi Berra

Love-that is all.

We opted to keep our golf cart for another day.  This gave D an excuse to hop into the cart and go and scare up some breakfast.

He found the juice man and then made his way to Café Aluxe.  D had met the baker the night before at Limon’s.  He had spent the entire long day previous baking and by the time D got there, he was almost sold out.  We did manage to get a couple of wedges of coconut-encrusted banana bread which was packed with flavour and beautifully moist.

We decided to check out Da Luisa at Casa Louis Ixchel.  We were considering the restaurant for the progressive dinner we were planning for the following evening.  Our son and daughter-in-law had celebrated their wedding anniversary there and thought that we might like it as well.  We were encouraged to look around and thought that it was a gorgeous spot.

After toodling around for the morning, we came upon Oscars Grill and we had built up a hunger and a thirst.  D opted for the shrimp tacos and I a fish sandwich.  Both were pretty good but the truth is, we had eaten so much amazing food over the two weeks, that we were quite used to pretty good.

We think that we might have happened upon the Oscar of Oscar’s.  Can anyone verify this?

I dropped D off at Little Garrafon for an afternoon of snorkeling as I spent the time shelling, shopping, writing and reading.  At happy hour, I met up with the gang at Casa de los Suenos.  After visiting the island once or twice a year since 2006, this is another place that I had never been.  We were delighted with the atmosphere and the décor of the open bar.  

But it was pretty obvious what we were there for….the food!

We ordered and shared tastes of a variety of their offerings including: Tortilla soup,

Chiles Relleno,

Chicken Nachos,

Fish Tacos,

Crab Cakes,

Calamari,

and Caesar Salad.

We were serenaded

and then treated to another stunning sunset.

Our happy hour treats turned out to be our supper and so we whiled away the evening with a whole lot of nothing which is exactly what we love to do on Isla.

Later that evening though, we were getting a little bit peckish and realized that we had not indulged in desert yet so we hopped back onto the cart and headed into Centro.  We knew exactly what we wanted and who would be serving it.

We have a number of local Isla friends that we miss when we don’t get to see them and we had not yet run into our friend Jose until earlier that day.  We had whizzed by him on our golf cart when we heard a shout “Hola! My friends!”.  We turned the cart around and there was Jose with his big grin and winning ways.  We had not seen him since he had taken such good care of us two seasons previously at Hotel Pariso.  How he recognized us, we will never know.  We stood in the street to get caught up and he shared with us that one of his jobs was selling baking for his friends. When we stayed a couple of years at Pariso and he acting as co-host he would do anything for us.  We asked him each evening as we headed out for dinner, if we could bring anything back for him.  He would sheepishly suggest diet coke and when we would stock him up, you would think that we had given him the most amazing gift in the world.  Jose is one of the many reasons why we love Isla and the islanders so very much.

Jose recommended the peach pie and we could not get the anticipated taste out of our head!

So we started our day with a sweet and ended it with another but then again, every day spent on Isla is sweet.

Kath’s quote: “An apple is an excellent thing — until you have tried a peach.”-George du Maurier

Love-that is all.

 

We can never get enough of Ziggy and even though we had dined at Monchi’s the night before, we saw him at our next meal at Café Cito in the morning.

D chose the fresh fruit and Mexican eggs and I once again had the scrambled eggs and sautéed potatoes.

The piece de resistance at Café Cito is the toast (or buns) and the coconut/pear jam.  I can’t get enough of it.

This was the day that we rented a golf cart and so we boogied around before we settled in for our primary task of the day.

We were pleased to host a special happy hour that evening in celebration of Sister #2 and Brother #3’s birthday (yes-they are twins).  The preparation made us feel as if we were locals.  I even picked flowers.  Isobel, who’s family owns Luna D’Miel was such a huge help with our preparations.  She is an extraordinary hostess and I would shout her accolades from the mountaintop (except that I am selfish and want to ensure that we can always get our room there).

Just as our guests started to trickle in, I captured another couple of gorgeous sunset pics.

Our niece had arrived by this time and even though many of the guests that we had invited did not attend in the end, it was our gang, Jean, Rich, Jan, Bruce and Pollo made an impromptu appearance.  As we had not decided where to go for the evening, we asked Pollo what he would suggest.  He called Sergio over at Limon and low and behold, there was room for us!

From the outside, I had no idea that the interior would be so sleek and luxurious.  But as gorgeous as the décor was, the food was even better.  We were the last table to arrive that evening and  we knew that we were low persons on the totem pole with the kitchen.  Sergio not only circulates through the dining, he personally oversees everything that comes  out of the kitchen and we know that good food is worth waiting for.

We were content to catch up with Richelle and imbibe with the red wine that had been poured out at the table.

After a couple of caprese salad

and tortilla soups were consumed at our table,

the staff surmised that we would be more comfortable if we moved out to the gazebo in the garden.  The breeze was lovely and by this time Sergio himself had an opportunity to join us at the table.

Richelle and I shared the fruita de mare fettuccine-with conch, shrimp and clams.  Tossed in a rich cream sauce, Richelle declared that it was “moan worthy”.

Doug  tick ‘n chix.

Donna avocado salad,

Michael fettuccine bolognaise,

Kim and Sue hibiscus tacos.  Of the many amazing restaurants on Isla, Limon is now on my “must visit” list for future holidays.

It had been a long day and we were weary.  We decided to grab a cab instead of walking home.  The thing about spending time on Isla is that I am never disappointed when a fabulous days ends because I know that another amazing day awaits…..

Kath’s quote: “This dish is “moan” worthy”. -niece Richelle

Love-that is all.

Last but not least at our culinary adventure at The Little Mexican Cooking School in Puerto Morelos was our study on chilies.  As was explained to us at the school:

The chili pepper works as a catalyst in Mexican Food, having been served for centuries to modify flavours of a basic country diet, and with the corn and the black beans, it creates a good nutritional balance.  The chile has helped give the Mexican people the ingredients for their best biological development and kept them healthy since pre-Hispanic times.  The lack of essential amino acids makes corn an incomplete protein, but beans contain those in abundance, so together they are a high quality protein.  The chile also contributes vitamin A and C.  As a general rule the littler ones are spicier than the big ones.

Chef Christobal patiently explained the different varieties of chiles utilized in Mexican dishes but I still could not copy them down quickly enough so I found this cheat sheet:

Serrano: A small, fresh, green hot chile. Used for spice and flavor in cooking and as a garnish.

Jalapeño: Larger than a serrano, though still small. This fresh green or red chile is probably the easiest to find in America. The ripe red version is sweeter; the green version can be spicy.

Poblano: A dark green, medium-sized fresh green chile often roasted and stuffed.

Habanero: A tiny, lantern-shaped fresh chile of extraordinary heat. Interchangeable with the incendiary Scotch Bonnet.

Chile de arbol: A small, red dried chile. It’s the chile used for the dried red chile flakes in the spice section of the market.

Chipotle: A medium-small, wrinkled, dried brown chile with a unique smoky flavor reminiscent of bacon. It’s the dried, smoked version of jalapeño.

Chile negro, or pasilla: A long, narrow, dark brown dried chile used for grinding into moles.

Ancho: A medium-sized, wrinkled, brown dried chile with a mellow, earthy, sweet flavor. It’s the dried version of the poblano.

With this explanation, the theoretical part of our training had concluded but the demonstration of technique was still ahead.  And the best part was that we also had a great deal of tasting to come.  At our first little break, Chef Christobal demonstrated the versatility of chili powder by paring up a fresh pineapple, slicing it and serving it with a glistening of sea salt and chili powder-so refreshingly different.

Then we prepared our own pico de gallo and guacamole.

Another ancient Mexican technique was demonstrated to us with “stone” soup where a lava stone is heated and then placed into a soup bowl to finish cooking the ingredients.  This was one of the courses of our lunch finale for the day.

Our main dish was roasted pork and apples.

Dessert was a creamy rice pudding.

Perhaps you have not incorporated learning into your vacations as of yet.  The Little Mexican Cooking School is a great excuse to change all that.  The setting is comfortable and the little touches of the day, a real pampered treat.  You meet wonderful like-minded people and get to share an amazing meal and libations with them.  Isn’t that what vacations are all about?  Well for me, they are and I am looking forward to returning to the school when we next vacation in the area.

Kath’s quote: “The smell of roasting meat together with that of burning fruit wood and dried herbs, as voluptuous as incense in a church, is enough to turn anyone into a budding gastronome.”-Claudia Roden

Love-that is all.