All through Sicily and our sojourn up the west coast of Italy, we ordered either a mixed seafood pasta or pizza at every opportunity.  The variety of seafood was changeable depending upon what the local catch had produced and species native to the area.  The varieties would usually include: prawns, mussels, clams, calamari, conch and whitefish.

On Isla Mujeres the seafood choices are as plentiful and the chefs as expert.  I can especially commend La Brisa’s Grill right on the beach (off Medina) and Angelo’s on Hidalgo.

I actually got to sample La Brisa’s Frutti de Mare linguine twice.

First time at La Brisas

The first time we were a large table and were able to sit right in the sand on a beautiful evening.  I employed a spoon and a fork to get a perfect bite of seafood and pasta with every bite and used up all my pasta before I could consume all of the seafood-that’s how plentiful the seafood was.  I took home the prawns and got to enjoy them in a picnic lunch the next day.  When my daughter arrived on Isla and heard my ravings about La Brisa,  she requested that we go there for lunch near the end of our stay.

Lunch at La Brisas

Three of us shared the linquine again, along with an order of their Frutti de Mare pizza to compare it to Angelo’s.

La Brisa’s Pizza

Although it was my first time to La Brisa’s, I’ve enjoyed Angelo’s many times during the years of our stays on Isla.  On this night the weather was variable and we started the evening at a table on the street; but as the rain made an appearance, they were able to move us all under shelter in the open restaurant. 

Angelo’s Linguine

D ordered the pasta on this occaission and I the pizza.  Except for the pieces of mussel shell that surprized me a couple of times-I was as crazy for the pizza at Angelo’s as I had been for the pasta at La Brisas’s.

Angelo’s Pizza

I would say that La Brisas won the Frutti de Mare pasta round and Angelo’s the pizza one.  Two fabulous restaurants serving up Italian fare as good as is found on the Italian coast, on the little piece of land known as Isla Mujeres in Quintano Roo, Mexico.  Who woulda thunk?

Kath’s quote:  “Do not overcook this dish. Most seafoods…should be simply threatened with heat and then celebrated with joy.” –Jeff Smith

To make the journey from my cozy bed in Winnipeg to my precious Isla Mujeres is sometimes a breeze. It all depends on what times other planes set down and whether you luck out in the correct line for immigration and customs.  On this particular day, the journey was not too onerous but we still required cold cerveza for the ferry crossing and were hungry for lunch.  So after we wheeled our suitcases to the edge of Centro, we changed into our suits and made our way to Casa el Pio where the rest of our entourage was staying.

We were ecstatic to plunk down in the sand at Sergio’s, order more cold cervezas and gaze at the sea.  To top things off, handsome men started to come over and hug and kiss us (Lionel & Roger) and welcome us back to the island!   Why do I love Isla so, you ask?

We ordered breaded fish,

Chicken Maya

and my first taste of Coconut shrimp of that trip (but not the last).

The Garlic fish was so fresh, perfectly cooked and delicious!   We are always amazed by the quality of food that is put out of the little kitchen window right on the beach.

Kath’s quote:  “How good one feels when one is full — how satisfied with ourselves and with the world! People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained.”-Jerome K. Jerome

Previous to my arrival on Isla, I have prepared a list of restaurants that I intend to visit again or try for the first time.  The idea of going to a single Isla restaurant more than once during my stay, never ever crosses my mind.  And yet during my 2011 visit I went to La Lomita, Tino’s (the Rib Man), La Brisa’s Grill and Fredy’s twice each and Chuuk Kay and Bally Hoo three times each!

Since Bally Hoo is close to the ferry, it was our destination of choice when D and Daughter #1 arrived.

It also made sense to watch the sunset from there before boarding the ferry to start our journey home on departure day.  While savouring Isla for our last moments, we feasted on shrimp ceviche one more time.

Both days we went ga-ga for the fresh caught fish and chips (although I do wish that they hadn’t resorted to serving frozen fries). 

But I could eat that fish every single day and wouldn’t even use a fork,  just pick the fillets up like a chicken finger and dunk them into the tangy tartar sauce. We also sampled the fish tacos-equally good.

On one occasion we stopped to have breakfast.  The coffee was steaming hot and poured often.  The setting was gorgeous and breakfast pretty darn good too. 

To be honest: I was on Isla, surrounded by the most stunning view, with my best girlfriend (who doesn’t live in the same city as me and so we only see each other twice a year)-it wasn’t about the food that day.  

Below is a photo of a Bally Hoo which are frequently used as bait for saltwater sportsmen.  They attract tuna, sailfish, mahi mahi and dorada.  As you dine on the stilted platform of the restaurant, they swim all around you in the shallow water.

Ahh Isla-my beloved second home. 

Kath’s quote:  “The only kind of seafood I trust is the fish stick, a totally featureless fish that doesn’t have eyeballs or fins.” –Dave Barry

When we gather on Isla Mujeres it is a process.  Itineraries vary accounding to shcedules back home and flight costs/bookings.  This creates two distinct pleasures for me: the anticipation that someone I love will soon be on the Island that I love and going to meet the ferry.  At one time the ferry only meant one thing: that I had to leave, but now with my new routine there is joy as well.  Unfortunately, on the day that Sister #2 arrived on Isla (with my beloved bro and sis-in law and Brother #3) I missed the boat.  That is to say, they had arrived earlier than expected and were already settling in while I waited on the dock.

But because there are so many of us and it is a small island, word got around efficiently that we were meeting at  Como-no’s that evening for dinner. I have walked by Como-no’s patio tables many times and to be frank was never lured in by the modernistic furniture and hookah pipes but the interior was so cozy and comfortable that we felt as if we had been invited into someone’s great room.

We did not notice at first, how long it took for our dinners to arrive because we were content to visit and get caught up with news of Isla and news of home delivered to and from the newly arrived.  So too, the Frozen Mojitoes and perfectly shaken Margaratias were liquifying the passage of time.  We also knew that Lee and his wife were expecting their first baby and thought-tonight may be the night!

Well anything worth doing (or eating) is worth waiting for and oh my goodness, the food was divine!  Most of the table (at my end at least) ordered the special of fresh Grouper and Shrimp.

Sister #2 chose the Mediteranean Platter and I surprized even myself and ordered the Chicken Schnitzel.  It doesn’t really matter what we order, as we all taste from everybody else’s plates anyway.  After all-we are  family (or honouree family).

Both the Schnitzel and the Grouper were so delcicous that many in the group came back to sample them again later during our stay.  The Schnitzel was huge enough to share, but by this time I was very hungry and managed to put away every bite.  My love of thin meats, lightly breaded and sauteed comes from my little Polish Grandma Felicia who made fried chicken like no one else on earth! 

Lee the owner, surprized us with a complementary dessert to sample.  It was a chocolate sausage which we cut it into a half dozen slices and the chocolate and nuts were so rich and dense that it was enough to satisfy the need for something sweet to conclude a lovely meal.

Lee and his wife are from Israel.  V who was my room-mate for that stage of the vacation and I, and our husbands, have all travelled to Israel on seperate occaissions and felt instantly connected to this talented, hospitable (handsome!) and soft-spoken man.  We were eagar for news of his babies’ safe arrival and I understand that Yahi (a healthy girl ) was born to them days after I returned home to Canada.  Maxel Tov Lee and Chen!

Kath’s quote: “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”-Julia Child

After months of craving the cuisine of Isla Mujeres, I surprize even myself when I get a hankering for a hotdog or crispy bacon or hot buttered toast like home.  Three days into my last trip, when we were settled in to watch the Oscars on a big screen TV at Brisa’s Mexicana on Hidalgo-I went and ordered a burger for supper!  Somehow James Franco and Ann Hathaway inspired me to do so.  Of course, it was not the restaurant’s forte and I looked longingly at V’s Chiles Relleno and Sister #3’s Shrimp Tacos.

Barlito Bakery & Market Cafe is right on a sunny corner of Hidalgo & Abasolo and is the perfect place to run into friends, people watch or when you get a craving for back home baking.  I found myself joining tables of people that I knew on a couple of occasions and heard the oohs and ahs while freshly squeezed oj and steamy mugs of coffee were consumed.

One morning after one of D’s solo morning walks he arrived back at our place with piping hot biscuits filled with cheese and egg.  We split two, three ways and they were a satisfying breakfast.

I understand that the biscuit recipe is one that has been acquired from an aunt or uncle of the owners Tiffany and Brad Wareing.  I breifly got to make their acquaintance but they were very busy at “command central” behind the counter.  I look forward to doing so again and trying their White Lasagna or Carolina pulled pork next time.

Kath’s quote:  “In the Virginia of the olden time no breakfast or tea-table was thought to be properly furnished without a plate of these indispensable biscuits…..Let one spend the night at some gentleman-farmer’s home, and the first sound heard in the morning, after the crowing of the cock, was the heavy, regular fall of the cook’s axe, as she beat and beat her biscuit dough…..Nowadays beaten biscuits are a rarity, found here and there, but soda and modern institutions have caused them to be sadly out of vogue.”-‘Virginia Cookery Book’ (1885)