Category Archives: Food

Off to the St. George Spice Market, The Carenage, and De La Grenade Nutmeg Garden

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Of the four island countries we are visiting on this trip, I knew the very least about Grenada before this was all booked. And lo and behold, Grenada seems like the most expensive of the four, at least from a tourist transportation standpoint. Many fixed tours/plans are done by the hotel, but they run only on certain days and also require a minimum number of people (usually 8-10) to run. Given we’re in low season, on many days of the week, the tours do not run at all if there is a lack of demand/interest. So the original underwater sculpture snorkel excursion I wanted to do would not run due to a total of zero other people wanting to come. So when I asked the excursions specialist about spice garden tours/farms, she said that their specific fixed tour including several spots on my list would not be running Monday, as in today, our last full day. But, she said, we had the option of spending $375 for a private driver for up to eight hours; that’s a LOT of money! Like in St. Lucia, distances are very deceiving because the actual drive time can be quite long due to road conditions and congestion. Most of Grenada’s major national parks, waterfalls, and larger spice gardens/farms are at least 45 minutes to 1.5 hours away from us. So we had to construct our own Spice Isle excursion today, centered on local spices, foods, and culture and rely on the local ride app.

Our first stop was at St. George Spice Market. No cruise ships were scheduled to arrive in St. George today, so we were lucky and got to experience Monday morning calm at the market. I also read that vendors typically increase prices when cruise ships dock, and they don’t do this otherwise. Either way, I had a ballpark in my head of how much each spice I was interested in should be, so I’d know whether someone was trying to rip me off.

I didn’t have to worry much, though, in terms of vendor interaction. All the vendors I interacted with at the spice market were quite warm and friendly. Some let me haggle a little with them. All of them asked me questions about me, Kaia, how long our trip would be. One of them even kept a close eye on Kaia and kept letting me know where she was hiding, as she predictably ran amok through the aisles of the enclosed section of the spice market. While there, I picked up some spices I had on my shortlist that Grenada is known for, including the obvious, which was whole nutmeg, whole nutmeg wrapped in mace, black peppercorns, dried Grenadian bay leaves (which are actually distinct from the typical Mediterranean bay laurel; it’s more aromatic and complex, offering notes of allspice, menthol, cinnamon, and even citrus!), and ceylon cinnamon (real cinnamon, which is rare, as most places that grow or sell “cinnamon” are really using cassia, which has a stronger, pungent, spicier taste). Ceylon cinnamon is rare, as the majority is grown in Sri Lanka (hence its name given Sri Lanka was a former British colony), with small amounts grown in places like Madagascar, The Seychelles, and the West Indies (this includes Grenada!). So it was interesting to be able to find it at this market. I also did a subtle “test” to see if the cinnamon really was cinnamon by gently pushing down on the sticks to see if they would break. Real Ceylon cinnamon should break, whereas cassia pretending to be cinnamon will be really hard to break.

We also found several vendors selling mangoes, which was also my list of things to find and eat here. We picked out four ripe Ceylon mangoes (also originally from Sri Lanka, brought over by British colonizers from there), the only variety that this one vendor had. I was thrilled to try mango varietal number FOUR on this trip now. Ceylon mangoes are known for their smooth, stringless flesh, and intense, sweet flavor. Some locals even find the mango too sweet, so they will balance the flavor by squeezing fresh lime juice over the flesh while eating. We got four ripe Ceylon mangoes for 5 XCD/$1.85 USD, which to me is quite a good deal!

After we left the market, we had a chocolate tasting at House of Chocolate, bought a bunch of chocolate as gifts and our own at-home eating pleasures, and walked the Carenage, which is the historic horseshoe-shaped natural harbor right in the center of St. George, the capital of Grenada. The Carenage is extremely picturesque, with a large promenade and a working port. There are many brightly colored 18th century colonial buildings with lots of red-tiled roofs. It all looked like the perfect postcard to market Grenada. The promenade, staying true to the Spice Isle nickname of Grenada, is even lined with hanging metal renditions of painted split nutmegs, complete with red mace enveloping them.

We had a quick lunch spot at a local open-air restaurant and then made our final stop of the afternoon, which was at De La Grenade Nutmeg Garden, where we did a private tour of the gardens high up in the hills (benefits of low season!) and got to see and learn a lot about so many varieties of fruit and spices. In preparation for this trip, I had read that nutmeg syrup was very popular here, But to be honest, that did not excite me too much because all I could think of was how potent nutmeg (the seed) was as a spice; a tiny bit goes a really long way. What I didn’t realize before coming on this tour is that when nutmeg syrup is made, the nutmeg’s fleshy outer fruit, known as the pericarp, is used for the syrup, which is much subtler and almost fruity in flavor. The whole idea here is to have zero waste and to use as much of the fruit as possible.

This is a description of how the nutmeg fruit anatomy breaks down by part:

  • The Pericarp: The soft, fleshy outer fruit –> This is what is used for local nutmeg syrup.
  • The Mace: The bright red, lacy, web-like membrane (or aril) that covers the shell.
  • The Shell (Endocarp): The hard, dark seed coat underneath the mace.
  • The Nutmeg: The actual seed inside the shell. –> This needs to be cracked and grated to make the nutmeg ground spice as we know it.

After the garden tour, we did a tasting of every product they offer, ranging from the nutmeg syrups, jellies, and jams, to pepper jellies, hot sauces, rum punches, and local Grenadian liqueur. And one of the most unusual things we tasted was something I’d seen at the market stalls back in Barbados but wasn’t so sure how it would taste: sea moss. It usually appears pink or yellow and is sold dry by the weight. The description for sea moss said that it was high in minerals, like iodine, magnesium, and calcium; helps hydrate the skin and promotes natural glow, and even strengthens hair and nails. It is usually consumed by being blended into flavorless gel that thickens smoothies, teas, and desserts. Our tasting guide served the sea moss for us with a drizzle of nutmeg syrup. It was thick, gelatinous, and a very different experience; I could actually taste bits of the ocean in it! Since it had nutmeg syrup on it, Kaia was quite happy to eat her sample up quickly!

We ended up buying the nutmeg jam, rum punch, and Grenadian liqueur. When planning this trip, I had a feeling that if there was one place we’d bring home souvenirs or consumable goods from that it would be Grenada given its reputation. And it looks like that feeling was right. We had a really well spent, enjoyable day without a private driver, and learned a lot about global food versus what we’d known before. I love learning these bits about food and the world when we travel — we’re still always learning.

Castries Market: THE MANGO VARIETIES and the big fruit haul back to Rodney Bay

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I’ll be honest and say that I was disappointed with the Cheapside Market in Bridgetown, Barbados, we visited on our first full day. I was hoping to see lots of different vendors selling specialized fruit and vegetables, but in the end, almost every vendor was selling the exact same spread. No one specialized in a handful of fruits or vegetables seemingly. A lot of the vegetables were wilted or rotting so badly that I wondered how they sold anything to anyone; would they even use these produce that looked so limp? And almost none of them sold any interesting fruit. Maybe three sold the same type of mango (mango longue). So when I read about Castries Market here in the capital of St. Lucia, Castries, it sounded like it would be what I was hoping for: a market with rows and rows of vendors specializing in very specific fruits and vegetables. As soon as we arrived this morning at the market, I knew I was going to be happy. The spreads were quite elaborate and extremely fresh: lots of dasheen (taro!) and root vegetables sold by one vendor, greens (lots of callaloo) by another, mangoes, papayas, and related tropical fruits by another. I knew for sure I’d find the right vendor to get me all I was thinking about and more: multiple varieties of mango, passion fruit, and if we got lucky, guava. And if I could find a new fruit to obsess over, my mind and belly were open to it.

So we stumbled upon one vendor who looked like she had everything we could possibly ask for: three varieties of mango (Julie, Graham, and Mango Longue), starfruit (a surprise for Kaia, as I knew she’d get a kick from seeing fruit in a perfect star shape), passion fruit, and multiple varieties of tropical bananas. And all the fruit were organized by ripeness. She had a large tray at the front of her stand where all the ripe, ready-to-eat-today fruits were grouped together by type. All the fruit that needed time to ripen before eating were in huge piles in the back. So, I kind of went to town on her fruit, but in piecemeal because I was so overwhelmed by the variety that I would miss something else she had that we would like. We bought four Julie mangoes, three fat Graham mangoes, one mango longue, one starfruit, two small red bananas, and seven fat, heavy passion fruit. We SCORED BIG at this market today!! This place was definitely my vibe and the produce market I was dreaming about experiencing while in the Caribbean.

Here are the Castries Market prices for our incredibly happy fruit haul (which we hope made our fruit vendor very happy that she got an unexpectedly big sale from us!):

Julie mangoes: four for 3 XCD

Graham mangoes: three for 4 XCD

One mango longue for 1.25 XCD

One starfruit for 2 XCD

Seven FAT, heavy passion fruit for 10 XCD

Two mini red bananas for 2 XCD

So in total for a very heavy load of the most beautiful, delicious fruit on earth (and with special gratitude to my fuzzball for carrying this very heavy load for a while all over town!), we spent $22.25 XCD, or about $8.23 USD. If that is what heaven costs, then heaven here is quite a good bargain!!

We had a very juicy, custardy, desserty evening with our mangoes and passion fruit tonight. I was so, so full after dinner and about half this fruit (the other half is being saved for our last day tomorrow before we leave!), but all of us were glowing from how complex and delicious these mangoes were. I can’t believe it took us this long to try the fruit from this part of the world. The closest mangoes we’ve had to this region before this trip have been from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Kaia especially loves the Graham mango and kept going crazy for more bites of it. This is how I know she will embrace food: she names the exact varietal she loves!

“I want the Graham! I WANT THE GRAHAM!” Kaia kept shouting excitedly as I hurried to slice yet another chunk of mango off the skin for her to eat.

And we all know Chris really, really embraced these mangoes because for the first time in my entire life, he actually started using his teeth to take every last bit of mango flesh off the inside of the skin. “You leave too much on the skin otherwise,” he insisted, as he continued his toothy mango eating. Usually in the U.S., I peel the ataulfos or Kents we get, but this was true dedication on his part!

Here is a description of each of the three mango varieties for drooling purposes only:

Julie mango: This is the mango that was talked up by people we spoke with in Barbados and here. It’s the famous “Caribbean favorite” mango, usually more on the small side, a little flat/oblong, and like a lopsided oval. The skin color changes but can be green-yellow to yellow-orange-red. The flesh is deep yellow to deep orange and the flavor is creamy, juicy, extremely fragrant, floral, tropical, and very tangy.


Graham mango: Chris’s mango palate is quite discerning, as when we cut the mangoes this evening, he immediately said that the Graham was the “partying version of the Julie.” He was right in that Graham is actually a Julie seedling from Trinidad, so the two are related. But these Grahams are significantly larger and more rounded and oval than a Julie. It ripens to be a deep orange/yellow with some pink/red. The flesh is rich, aromatic, sweet, dessert like. The flavor is multi-noted. A description I read about Graham said that it can be considered “Julie’s larger, slightly more robust cousin: still fragrant and dessert-like, but often less sharply tangy/floral than the best Julies.”

Mango longue/ Mango long: We first had two of these in Barbados. These are small, elongated, narrow, and have a citrusy, sweet-tart flavor, and are extremely fibrous. They are juicy, so juicy that the juices will run down your arms when eating them at their peak!  

In addition to all this fruit we hauled back (on Chris’s shoulder), at Castries Market, we also tried “cherry” juice, or acerola fruit juice, which was orange in color and a lot more citrusy than the bing cherries we are used to in the U.S.. We also bought and shared a golden apple ice pop. Golden apple is also known as a June plum or pommecythere; it looks nothing like any apple you’d find in the U.S. and looks more like a plumcot. It tastes like a mix of apple, mango, pineapple, with a citrusy finish. Both treats were delicious and added to our list of new fruits and varietals we’ve enjoyed on this trip!

Now I know that even if I don’t see the best produce markets on the Grenada or Trinidad legs of our trip that my heart and belly have been satiated with fresh, local, tropical fruit here in St. Lucia. And now when I think about it, why would you choose to come here when it’s NOT mango season…?!! What a true loss that would be!

Soufriere, St. Lucia, and its treasure: Les Pitons

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I told a colleague originally from St. Lucia that we would be visiting his birthplace, and he said that the one thing he recommended we had to do was to visit Soufriere, a town on the southwest coast of St. Lucia. Soufriere, which has strong French-Creole heritage, is near the famous Pitons, Gros Pitons and Petit Piton, the twin volcanic peaks that appear in almost every St. Lucia tourism ad. The name “Soufriere” comes from French and is named as such for the area’s sulfurous volcanic landscape. “Les Pitons” in French means “mountain peaks” or “pegs.” In English, they are another word for “metal spikes.” Given that St. Lucia changed hands between the British and the French 14 times, seven times to each side, ending with the Brits, you can easily see the British and French influence here. Because of this turbulent colonial tug-of-war, St. Lucia earned the nickname “Helen of the West Indies.” The French influence clearly persists in the island country given the naming of places like Les Pitons and Soufriere itself. But alas, while “Soufriere” pronounced the proper French way would be said “Su-free-AIR,” the British (and lazier) pronunciation of “Su-FRAIR” is more widely said by locals.

So today, we hired a driver to take us down the twisty, windy “hair pin bendy” roads to Soufriere. Everywhere we went, there were mango trees upon mango trees upon MORE mango trees. I just couldn’t get over how many mango trees there were everywhere. I’d never been any place quite like this before! It seemed like they just grew out in the wild and no one person even owned a lot of these trees. Some are so tall and gigantic that you’d never even be able to reach even a tiny fraction of the fruit available! And when there weren’t mango trees, there were bread fruit trees, more bread fruit trees, and endless other fruits like papaya, gooseberry, guavas, wax apples, and the list just goes on forever!

Along the way, we stopped at some really well staked out viewing points of the Pitons and Anse La Ray (Bay of Stingrays), had some delicious local tastes of hand-pounded cassava bread (cherry-raisin and pineapple, the latter of which Chris declared “tastes just like a hot cross bun without the raisins!”), also visited Toraille Waterfall (overrun by cruise ship tourists and was our first time really feeling like we were surrounded by other tourists this trip!), and did a quick tour of the Sulphur Springs. It’s described as the Caribbean’s only “drive-in volcano,” but that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. You can drive up to the edge of the area, and then you have to get out and walk around it. You are also assigned to a guide… who expects a tip at the end (damn U.S. tipping culture invading other societies!). When doing the tour here, of course the smell of rotten eggs was pervasive. As soon as we got out of the car, Kaia yelled out, “It smells!” The area also had lots of fruit trees, including a fruiting mango tree and a fruiting cashew tree. I’d imagine these trees’ fruit would be especially delicious!

For lunch with the help of ChatGPT premium and my targeted prompting, we went to Martha’s Tables just off Sugar Beach in Soufriere, a little quaint open-air restaurant that feels like you are eating on a huge deck of someone’s private home. They had a large, lush backyard filled with so many types of fruits and vegetables that I couldn’t even name them all. When we complimented our server and said we loved the garden (which we have to walk through to reach the restrooms), she went into the kitchen to tell the chef (maybe Martha?), and the chef came out eagerly to give us a mini tour of her garden, filled with guavas, pomegranates, golden apples (also known as June plums), wax apples, and so may pineapple bushes! None of the fruit were ready for picking except the wax apples, so the chef picked off a large bunch of the wax apples, and to my surprise, gave them all to Kaia! Kaia was ecstatic; she kept squealing nonstop every time she came across yet another pineapple bush! The meal and setting were amazing, but this level of warmth and hospitality was truly above and beyond. We left feeling very welcomed and taken care of.

Our next and final stop before heading back up to Rodney Bay was at the Tet Paul Nature Trail, where we’d go for a hike to see more views of the Pitons. The trail was originally developed as a community tourism/eco-tourism project, run and managed by the people of the town just below. Our kind and friendly driver ended up having to watch Kaia nap in the car because she passed out on our drive to the Nature Trail. This ended up benefiting us because if she had come, she would have whined endlessly about the uphill climb and how long it was (45 minutes isn’t that long, but for a four-year-old, that feels like an eternity without sitting…!).

The most interesting thing about this trail was that the entire time, it felt like I was in an open-air compost pile because of all the fallen, rotted fruit (mostly mangoes!) that were everywhere. There was so much fruit, too much fruit, that no one could ever keep up with all this. While the smell stunned me a little in the beginning, after a while, it actually just felt nice, like we were truly immersed in nature. And along with all the beautiful bird songs, it felt very special. The trail also had many other fruit, like the locally beloved wax apples and bread fruit. And we got really lucky when we saw not one, but two different Antillean crested hummingbirds. I have loved birds since I was little, likely due to the influence of my dad who loves birds, and whenever I see a new, colorful species out in the wild, I always get excited. These little hummingbirds are a stunning blue and green irridescent shade with some black, and most notably have a funny tuff of “hair” on their heads. The hair almost looks like a bumpy mohawk! One of them posed for us for what seemed like a very long time, and our guide (as with the volcano, a guide was required here) noted that it is actually very rare to see these hummingbirds; often he will go weeks with multiple tours and not see any. So the fact that we got to see two was very, very special.

When we finally reached the pinnacle of the trail, known as the “Stairway to Heaven,” we got to see the sweeping views of the Gros Piton et Petit Piton we had originally come for. We also got to see different angles of Sugar Beach, Jalousie Bay, and the south coast. After this hike and all the spectacular views we saw today, I can understand why people love St. Lucia and think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Some people like mountains, while others prefer the beach and ocean. And for those who don’t like either, they have rainforests. St. Lucia has it all — and in a single view point and region!

On the 1.75 hours drive back to our hotel, I still admired all the mango trees we passed by every other second. I know that soon, this will not be my view out the window, and so I want to soak it all up as much as possible. Mango. Trees. Everywhere. I was just floored. I will likely be thinking about this for months to come.

Mangoes from the Dominican Republic

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In the U.S., the majority of the mangoes we can get here are imported from Mexico. They are usually either the Kent or Ataulfo varieties. There are also a few varieties I’ve heard of that are grown in Florida, but they are not widely available depending on where in the country you are, and either way, Florida has never been impressive to me when it comes to fruit. For example, when people talk about Florida oranges (okay, the rare times they do), I always roll my eyes on the inside; I think we all are aware that California navel oranges in the U.S. are the best when it comes to pure flavor nuance and sweetness, both for eating and drinking!

Every year as March rolls around, Chris gets excited as a mango lover as Ataulfo mangoes become readily available. Whole Foods usually has large stocks of these small yellow mangoes, which we always have a large supply of at home, ripening while socially distanced at our window sill. Mangoes are always, always at our place from March through July. This is generally when the Ataulfo mango season is.

So when some friends came over on Saturday and brought us some Dominican Mingolo mangoes from a Dominican market near them in Brooklyn, I was intrigued. These were larger, fatter, and heavier. The fragrance was evident as soon as you held one up to your nose. And they seemed quite ripe already! I cut them, and given they were so ripe, most were peeled and then disintegrated into some mango mush. While it isn’t as firm as Ataulfos, these Mingolos tasted a bit more tropical, more tart-sweet than Ataulfos, and were definitely far more juicy. I think they would be really good in desserts or just simple shakes with some added ice.

And the added bonus: once Ataulfos go out of season in July, Mingolos are supposedly still available (usually at Dominican markets across the city) until end of August! So if we are lucky and can source some from Dominican neighborhoods, we can still keep eating mangoes through the end of summer!

My very first cacao fruit — in Honduras

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Few things excite me more than discovering new food, and especially new fruit, while traveling. I love that different countries and and climates have different fruits that can only be grown in certain areas. Some people are upset by this, as they believe that globalization should enable anyone anywhere to get whatever produce they want anytime they want, but I think that’s just unrealistic given how delicate and sensitive some of these fruit and vegetables are. Indian mangoes are a great example: while many are being exported to the U.S. from India, it’s a huge gamble which of them are actually intact once they make it to stateside. Many would have rotted in transit, and they all need to be sprayed to prevent infestation. The one time we bought a box of Indian mangoes in New Jersey and brought it back home, I still remember one of them never ripened, while a couple others were rotted and black. There’s a no-returns policy on these, so it’s fully at your own risk!

While in Guatemala on our day trips to Antigua and Lake Atitlan, I talked to our driver about cacao fruit, and he had mentioned that locals did buy it to eat the fruit around the cacao beans. We saw it at a few fruit stands there, but the road conditions and traffic were unpleasant, and so I never asked our driver to stop. In Ecuador in July, our driver who took us to Quilotoa Crater Lake told us that one of his sons absolutely loves cacao fruit and that it’s one of his favorites, so he gets it just for him. My interest was piqued; I needed to try cacao fruit at least once!

So when we passed several street-side vendors selling the fruit, I asked Javier our driver if that was in fact cacao, and he confirmed it was. So we stopped by a fruit vendor, and from there, I was given a cacao and chose the ripest possible mango (out of likely over 20 that were ROCK hard!) given we had less than 24 hours left here. I just spent over $2 USD on local Honduran fruit, and I was extremely, extremely thrilled.

Back at the hotel last night, I asked if someone from the kitchen could help me cut the cacao in half. I got it back and scooped out all the cacao seeds (beans), which were covered in a thin, custardy white layer — this is the fruit! Chris and I shared the fruit since Kaia seemed extremely uninterested in it, and I didn’t feel like pushing her given it was a potential choking hazard. The flavor was sweet first, then a little tart, with a custardy texture and finish. Chris remarked that he wished there was more flesh to eat, which I agreed with. The more I thought about it, the more the flavor and texture reminded me of the cherimoyas we had while in Peru. Cherimoyas are a lot less work and far more flesh to eat, though! The act of sucking off the flesh from around the beans — this was definitely reminiscent of the mamoncilla fruit we ate while in Colombia and El Salvador. Those seeds were extremely large and round (super big choking hazard!), with a thin, bright pink flesh.

Fruit adventuring while traveling is one of the best things. Now I can finally say I’ve tried cacao the fruit!

A day spent exploring the surrounds of San Pedro Sula, Honduras

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If you look at places to see and what to do in San Pedro Sula, you can tell almost right away that it was never a place built with tourism in mind. There’s virtually zero tourism infrastructure. People obviously live there. Many businesses are located and/or headquartered here, so people come for business travel. But when it comes to sightseeing, most of that is found outside of San Pedro Sula, at least an hour outside the city, where you forget “urban” even exists because of how green, jungle-like, and rugged the area outside of it is.

We didn’t want to rent a car or drive in mainland Honduras, so Chris tried for a while to find a driver who could take us on a day trip, but it was challenging. Some of the drivers he found and reached out to didn’t seem legitimate. Others were quoting such astronomically high costs that they would even be absurd if we got quoted those numbers back home in the U.S. Finally, and unexpectedly, we were able to enlist the hotel manager’s help ahead of time in finding us a safe, legitimate driver who charged a reasonable amount to be our driver for the day outside the city. We were warned he didn’t speak any English, but this was fine because we’d give him our desired itinerary ahead of time. And of course, there was always Google Translate (what a savior!).

We visited a number of interesting places today that made us forget about the city completely. Our first stop was at D&D Brewery and Restaurant in the Pena Blanca area. It’s this little brewery/restaurant/inn that you’d totally overlook when driving passed it because it’s so tucked away. It’s physically inside a rainforest close to Lago de Yojoa (Lake Yojoa). Given they are a craft brewery (that uses mountain spring water), we got a pineapple and raspberry beer along with a slice of very light and fluffy chocolate cake to appease Kaia. We also walked around the property, which really did feel like we were right in the center of a jungle. It was a really beautiful spot with friendly service despite the language barrier.

Our next stop was at Los Naranjos Eco-Archaeological Park, which contains pre-Columbian ruins of a major Lenca city dating back to 800 B.C. That is even older than Copan, the famous Maya ruins also in Honduras that is likely better known. Copan dates back to 400 A.D. There, we got to walk along a long wooden boardwalk that curved through these huge wetlands at the edge of Lake Yojoa. I loved all the unique bird songs we got to hear while walking through it — how beautiful it would be to be able to fall asleep to those nature sounds at night! I also appreciated how relatively covered we felt by the endless large trees from the UV rays (I am officially in my forties now, after all…).

Just past midday, we went down to Lake Yojoa and took a calm, relaxing boat tour of the lake and surrounds. This time, our driver Javier came with us, and he occasionally pointed out interesting things to us, like the famous Goblin’s Cave and the turtle shaped island in the middle of the lake. While on the boat, I was reminded of this time last year when we were in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, for a day trip. And the mountains in the distance here and the faint mist over them reminded me of that time. There are so many beautiful bodies of water in the world to see and explore!

We passed so many street side fruit vendors that I had to take advantage of this. So I asked Javier if he could stop by one so I could check out some fruit. I ended up getting a local mango and my very first cacao fruit — all for 70 Lempiras; more on this tomorrow!

A typical lunch by the lake will include fried fish, fried fish, and fried fish, all caught from the lake, with a side of freshly fried plantains in the same oil. Chris managed to find us a teeny tiny little quaint spot overlooking the water called Comedor Mayra, where a very nice lady was able to communicate with us and get our order in. I asked if she had juice, and though she didn’t have any, she was eager to get it from a nearby fresh juice vendor once we told her what we’d be interested in. We ended up having a hibiscus and mango juice. The fish was delicious, as were the tostones and the juices. And I’m still in shock from how cheap the meal was: an entire whole fried fish with tostones with all the cabbage and pickled vegetable fixings, plus two large fresh juices for just 250 Lempiras — that’s not even $10 USD!

Our last stop for the day was at Cataratas Pulhapanzak (Pulhapanzak Falls), meaning “white river overflow in Mayan. “Pulha” as it is known is 43 meters/140-feet tall, located on Rio Lindo about an hour’s drive outside of San Pedro Sula. The area served as a pre-Hispanic center, likely overlapping with the Mayan civilization. Before the Spanish arrived here, the falls were deeply revered as a sacred, mystical site by the indigenous Lenca people. Now, it’s fully set up for tourism, with the option to do cave walks, behind-the-water splash adventures, river tubing, and even multi-course ziplining. There is a big “Pulha” sign for photos with the large waterfall in the background, complete with a large platform to which you can walk up to get the perfect photo opp. It felt like mostly locals and maybe domestic tourists when we went. A lot were getting into the water and swimming in calmer, shallower areas. The whole area felt like a big family-friendly outdoor hangout, and a very natural one at that! I do not recall seeing a single obviously foreign tourist there other than ourselves. The falls were beautiful, and the mist went much farther than it appears it would. We had a feeling that we probably came on a lower flow day because the actual fall itself was relatively small.

We packed a lot into today, with the day planning done by Chris and Claude/Gemini, and some occasional help and friendly pointers from our driver Javier. We ended the day with yesterday’s Power Chicken leftovers (a very popular fast food spot with HUGE portions all over Honduras that should be visited if you ever come!) and a good night’s sleep. And luckily by midday today, my right butt cheek stopped hurting and burning, so I hope I’m on the short road to recovery from these coral reef scrapes.

Sloths, extremely premium coffee, and lunch in a mangrove

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We started our first full day in Roatan at Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout, where you can see and interact with monkeys, sloths and parrots up close. There was a time when the Hangout would allow you to hold a sloth for a few minutes, but unfortunately (for us, anyway), Honduras passed a law prohibiting this. Sloths are native to Honduras (mainland), but not to Roatan. The sloths and monkeys at the Hangout were all rescued. Some came from abusive, dirty, dingy environments. Some of the monkeys were even former pets of people who just tired of them (that type of thing makes my blood boil).

The sloths, for the most part, were… sloths. They were mostly sleeping, occasionally waking up to look at us and scratch themselves. “Sloths don’t do anything. They’re lazy. Sloths are just like koalas, just uglier,” Chris remarked. While it could be interpreted as a bit mean, he’s got a point. We watched them on their trees, and then eventually moved on to see the green and scarlet macaws up close. The macaws, if given an incentive (something tasty), would fly onto people’s heads and arms. For the second time in my life, I got to have a macaw perch on my arm. She was a lot lighter than I thought she would be. It’s likely my dad’s influence since he loves birds and most animals, but I’ve always loved these creatures. Seeing this scarlet macaw up close with her beautiful vibrant red, yellow, and blue feathers, all so tightly preened, was so much fun. Kaia was a little scared when she saw the macaws and didn’t want to get too close, but when she saw one on my arm, she immediately was intrigued. I think she is definitely more like me than Chris in this regard: Chris doesn’t care to get close to any animal unless it’s on his plate. Kaia loves looking at and petting animals.

The last stop was the spider monkeys cage, which we were warned could potentially result in us getting pooped or peed on. Given we were already there, I figured I’d be okay with that risk. Plus, I wanted Kaia to experience getting close to the monkeys. The monkeys would jump from person to person, either on our heads or shoulders, in a circle. While the monkey never climbed on top of Kaia, a monkey did get on top of me, which Kaia was super excited about and giggled endlessly for. I just loved seeing her reactions to the different animals and hearing all the questions she would ask about them and what they were doing. This animal experience definitely piqued her curiosity.

After the Hangout, we made a stop at the beautiful Spirit Origin Coffee, where we enjoyed an extremely meticulous and premium coffee tasting flight (that cost almost $50 USD!). We got to see views of the water on both sides of the building. And while I sat with Kaia on a comfy couch overlooking the ocean and we took turns drawing on her doodle pad, Chris got to sit at the coffee bar and listen to explanations of how the coffee was made and the stories behind it. I occasionally went up to the bar to share tastes and also to sniff the differences between the whole beans versus the ground beans. In all three bean scenarios, the ground vs. whole scent was a world apart! I never would have guessed the grounds were from the same whole beans. This place is so fancy that they even do a coffee omakase experience, where downstairs, you can have a full tasting menu meal with a coordinated cup of coffee to go with each course. They sent us home with two packets of coffee — each valued at about $9 USD each. The 12 oz. bags range in price from $36 to $69; we’ve never paid that much for coffee in the U.S., so I think this definitely gave us a sense of exactly how luxurious this Honduran coffee truly was.

And after the very premium coffee stop, our next stop… was a confusing one because Chris didn’t know how we’d get to the restaurant he wanted us to get to. The land ended, and there was water we’d have to go through to get to this, place, and it was unclear how we’d do that. The further east side of the island is far more local and residential feeling. We were driving in a very grassy area when a random guy came out of nowhere and asked us where we were trying to go. Chris told him he was looking for a specific restaurant that was out in the mangroves, so this man told us that we could pay $10 to park in this private spot (a patch of grass in front of someone’s house), and his friend would help boat us over to the bar. We went through the mangroves and onto a rickety floating bar setup to eat some fried pork, fried red snapper, and tostones, all in the company of the bar attendant and another local. They were likely wondering how the hell we even found this place. But Chris does like to work his magic. The food was really good and fresh. The service was very friendly and helpful; everyone was warm and spoke excellent English. And we got to have lunch in the middle of a mangrove — how often does this happen? Kaia even got to see a baby jellyfish up close because our boat guy found a tiny one and flipped it over so we could see its tentacles up close.

And with that, we went back to West End to pick up some excellent jerk chicken from Anthony’s Chicken & More and then went back to the hotel for more sunset pool time (and more fighting over the floaties between mama and Kaia, then a delicious dinner in our temporary apartment.

We’re not normally resort people, but I must say that I really, really love this hotel property. I love the pool setup and how it’s steps away from the beautiful white sand beach with clear waters. The service has been extremely warm and hospitable. I love the decor and the layout and the different types of living setups, from regular hotel rooms to apartments with balconies to bungalows. And I even love the little details, like the bathroom layouts in the common areas and the open circle swings randomly placed inside. I love that you can see the ocean and the sunset right from the hotel pool, and we’ve been able to enjoy that to get in our “resort time.” I also like that the resort fee includes rentals of snorkeling equipment (everything from the snorkels to the fins) and life vests — and even sand castle building tools! This is very important for my little Pookie!

The amazing pizza guy in Washington Heights who sent me home with a huge sample of his Calabrian chili oil

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On Chris’s parents’ last full day with us before they head back to Melbourne, we took them up to Washington Heights. Chris decided our lunch “appetizer” would be at a local pizza spot that opened about 1.5 years ago, which happens to be just next door to a really good Singaporean hole-in-the-wall we’ve dined at a couple times.

Niccolo Pizzeria was a tiny spot, but was so, so memorable today! We got two cheese slices, which were excellent – super thin crust and crispy. The cheese, tomato sauce, and the crust were all perfection! But what truly, truly blew us away was the super warm and friendly hospitality from Cleber, the manager/owner. He was extremely kind and explained the menu and ingredients to us right away — he made us feel like family there. He even humored Kaia and gave her a VERY generous helping of their daily in-house made soft-serve gelato, which today was white chocolate-pineapple. When we told him we live on the Upper West Side and came just to try a few things in the area since Chris’s parents were visiting from Australia, he was so shocked not only that we came from another neighborhood, but also brought international visitors to his restaurant! So he gave us a second generous sample of their soft serve gelato. He also insisted we not miss his Calabrian chili oil. He told me he imports the Calabrian chilies in oil from Italy, then simply adds high quality extra virgin olive oil to them and allows the chilies to infuse the olive oil. He doesn’t add anything else! At that point, we’d already finished our pizza share, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to try a new chili oil. So I poured a few drops onto my plate and licked it, and WOW! The Calabrian chili oil had this really delicious smoky, fruity flavor with a huge hit of heat at the end, which was really addictive! I told Cleber how much I loved it, and he was so thrilled that he PACKED ME A GENEROUS SAMPLE OF THE CALABRIAN CHILI OIL TO BRING HOME. I nearly passed out from Cleber’s kindness and generosity. In a city as big and packed with endless good restaurant options, sometimes hospitality takes a back seat to food and atmosphere, but most definitely not here.

Trying Calabrian chili oil today was also very good timing because I was just reading Samin Nosrat’s book Good Things, in which she includes a very labor-intensive, 20+ ingredient recipe for her Calabrian chili oil, which is essentially a mash-up of Italian (Calabrian), Sichuanese, Japanese, Mexican chili oils. The description sounds like it could potentially be the perfect chili oil. I was debating whether I really wanted to go to such lengths to make it, but I was intrigued because I’d never tried Calabrian chilies before, nor tasted their oil… until today. And now, I might actually be sold to put her Calabrian chili oil on my growing “project cooking” list.

Morning corn muffins gone awry

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This June will officially mark 18 years that I’ve been living in New York City. I have lived more of my life now on the East Coast than the West, and that feels kind of strange to acknowledge out loud. When people think of things that mark their new lives in a new place, especially in a concrete jungle like New York where tiny apartments and even tinier kitchens are the norm, most of them probably do not think about the kitchen gear they started with.

But I do. I still remember when I had to build my original kitchen from scratch, I slowly but surely made visits to the Kmart (RIP — one at Astor Place in Manhattan, which has since been replaced by the massive Wegman’s) and to Target at Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, Queens. I remember some of my very first kitchen purchases quite fondly: my two tempered glass Anchor brand lasagna/casserole pans, my cheap $8 nonstick cookie sheets that lasted over 10 years, my Corelle dining set (with a design that I really dislike, but I was cheap at the time, so I got it since it was the cheapest option), and my standard sized metal 12-muffin tin.

I don’t have all those kitchen items anymore. Many I gave away, like some Corelle pieces that were duplicates of things Chris had when I moved in with him, or the smaller Anchor casserole pan that I rarely used (gifted to another friendly Buy-Nothing member!). The cookie sheets actually failed, warped, and somehow managed to snap in the oven — they literally went out with a bang — a pretty terrifying one! The muffin tin was heavily used when I lived in Elmhurst, but only sporadically since I moved to Manhattan. And then today, this 18-year-old muffin tin unfortunately saw its demise.

I got inspired to make muffins again during our recent May weekend up in the Finger Lakes/Ithaca with Chris’s parents. Along the way, we made a quick breakfast stop at this delicious, popular spot called Dottie Audrey’s Bakery + Kitchen. There, we ordered two perfectly made breakfast sandwiches, a walnut sticky bun, a sour cream coffee cake slice, and a huge, fat corn muffin stuffed with strawberry jam. While I loved everything we got from here, I will say that immediately, my first thought was that I wanted to try replicating the super crunchy corn top of the corn muffin. I loved the crunchy muffin top texture so much contrasted with the gritty, coarse, yet fluffy, not-too-sweet muffin innards. I remembered that a friend told me she used a blueberry corn muffin recipe she liked a lot from NYT Cooking, so I decided to go with that. The only swap I made was replacing half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour for extra whole grains.

Well, I didn’t have muffin liners, so I generously oiled the muffin tin and filled them with batter, then baked it. Unfortunately, the muffins didn’t beautifully dome the way I was hoping. Instead, they kind of flattened on top of the tin, and I realized immediately that I was going to have a frustrating (and messy!) time popping these muffins out. And it was super annoying: several of them broke apart as I removed them from the tin. One almost completely disintegrated into a pile of massive crumbs, and I ended up eating the crumbs by the handful. They were tasty, but they didn’t have a beautiful dome, and they were nowhere as crunchy as Dottie Audrey’s Bakery + Kitchen.

If we didn’t have Chris’s parents over as guests (or any guests for that matter), I’d never make muffins because Chris isn’t that into them, and I can’t bring myself to eat this many muffins. And then Kaia prefers the mini ones. Muffins are kind of like dessert to me: they are a special occasion-at-home bake like cake or cookies are. We need more mouths to warrant the effort to make them. But with this, I realized that the end of this muffin tin’s life had finally arrived. So after rinsing it, I said goodbye to it as I chucked it into the recycling bin (it’s metal, so it must be recyclable, right?!).

Now, I am debating whether I want to buy a replacement regular-sized silicone muffin plan, or if I should just live with a 6-muffin silicone pan I was gifted at graduation in 2008, plus the mini muffin pan I use for Kaia’s healthy muffin treats.

Unexpected finds: deals at Eataly!

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For our extended family gathering on Saturday at Chris’s mom’s cousin’s place, I originally had planned to make a mango tiramisu to bring over. Unfortunately, the two places walking distance from us were no longer selling ladyfingers, so I had to go with a Plan B option pretty quickly based on my pantry. And because my pantry is pretty well stocked, I had a lot of potential options. But I stuck with my mango theme and ended up making mango lassi butter mochi cake from one of my favorite food bloggers Milk and Cardamom, and it was a huge hit. Since I had to open a large can of kesar mango pulp, I had a lot of pulp leftover. I had already purchased the heavy whipping cream and mascarpone to make the tiramisu, and I didn’t really have the headspace to figure out how to repurpose them. So I decided that for Chris’s dad’s birthday coming up this Thursday that I would make my original dessert of mango tiramisu repurposed as his birthday cake. But that meant I had to find those damn ladyfingers.

Chris insisted I was overthinking it and told me just to buy them on Amazon. So I went on Amazon, found a decent brand from Italy, and purchased two 7 oz. packs of imported ladyfingers for… almost $20. Yes, I thought it was expensive, but I chocked it up to inflation. Chris saw the email receipt from Amazon and balked at the price, asking me why they were so expensive. I told him my rationale, and of course, he didn’t think it was enough. So he started doing searches on ladyfingers and somehow found out that Eataly right here in New York sold a 14 oz. pack of Italian ladyfingers for $7.99, so less than half of what I would have paid on Amazon. He cancelled my Amazon order, and yesterday, I went to Eataly Flatiron to check out the ladyfinger stocks.

I think the last time I stepped foot into an Eataly was pre-pandemic, so over six years ago. I have zero reason to go to Eataly because I usually get my Italian groceries from Little Italy in the Bronx, or at other Italian grocery/specialty stores. Eataly has always just been too packed and touristy for me to enjoy. I always hated going in there and feeling like a sardine; walking in there was never a comfortable experience. But walking in there today (at an off hour, obviously), I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few interesting sample stations set up to entice visitors to either order interesting new drinks or treats. There were also a good number of sales when it came to grocery items, whether it was cocoa-hazelnut spreads, Italian olive oils, pistachio cream spreads, and multiple types of Italian cookies. Then, I found the Eataly brand of ladyfingers, a 14-oz. bag, for even less than what Chris saw online — it was $6.49! So I ended up spending less than a third of what I would have spent if I had bought a similar product on Amazon. Who would have guessed that the cheapest ladyfingers I could find would be at Eataly of all places! I just assumed they would be more expensive there, but I was obviously very wrong. In addition, I picked up a jar of wild strawberry jam from an Italian brand that I hadn’t seen in years — also on sale!

Now that I had this positive experience at Eataly and saw so many interesting items on sale at pretty reasonable prices, I realize that I have more of a reason to occasionally pop in there to browse, especially since there is an Eataly in SoHo, not too far away from Kaia’s current school. So, maybe I will be more intentional about stopping in there when I am in the mood to browse Italian groceries. It’s always fun to find good deals on tasty things!