Wednesday May 4 - more beach, May the 4th be with you

Today is our first breakfast next door at Coco La Palm.  They have a wonderful vegetarian plate that I look forward to every year, consisting of sauteed ackee, boiled cabbage, callalo and tomatoes.  It is rare that I can have anything so savory from a restaurant for breakfast, and as potentially unappetizing as boiled cabbage sounds for breakfast, mixed with the callalo it is a really wonderful salty goodness.

 The ackee is the yellow stuff, which you just can't get in the states.  

I struggle to describe callaloo... it is a green leafy vegetable with the texture of maybe mustard greens, but a flavor closer to spinach mixed with something else.  I love almost all green vegetables anyway, but coming here and being able to taste something with such a unique flavor, and which plays so well with other flavors and textures,  I have developed a greater appreciation for the potential of vegetables back home... and makes me want to explore them in more ways than just "steam something and throw it on the plate."

Our view from Coco La Palm

G enjoys her oatmeal

The banana bread here apparently surpasses anything I can make at home - I suspect it has to do with the bananas being so much sweeter and more flavorful than whatever it is that comes to us - under ripe - from Ecuador.  When I get back home I'm going to source some honey bananas and try making my bread with them.

As we finished our breakfast, I noticed a couple of woodpecker type birds concentrating on an insect nest tucked under the branch of one of the trees. I hustled right back to the room to grab my camera and followed them around the trees for a bit.

After breakfast it was back to the beach for more floating, swimming and snorkeling.  While we were on the beach, one of the local fishermen paddled up on a sit-on-top and was showing off his catch.

Tyrone popped in to chat for a bit on our porch, then drove us into town to grab some lunch.

He took us to a place called the Health Shop - a vegan place that serves up baked patties, puddings (what I would call a dense cake) combination meals, and fresh juices. Unfortunately they were nearly sold out by the time we arrived, so D and G ran next door to Juicy Patty to pick up their lunch while I nabbed the last veggie patty from the Health Shop for myself. 

After lunch we enjoyed some more swimming and reading out on the beach until it was about time to head in and shower up for dinner.  As I waited for D and G to be ready for dinner, I wandered out onto the beach to enjoy the sunset.

We gathered ourselves together and headed over to Canoe for dinner.  This place has consistently had the best food on every trip, and they lived up to our expectations once again.

G and I in front of the meny for Canoe, which is written on a chalk board out on the deck.

 

We picked the beach tables to sit at tonight... this roving dog decided to join us by alternating between laying 5 feet from our table, and jumping up to chase after crabs in the sand.

This is what Canoe looks like at night (without the flash of a camera lighting things up)

 The jerk shrimp.  The reason to come here... spicy as all get out but so good, and comes with a great fruit salsa to help cool down the burn.

 My dinner.

I had the mahi mahi, which was served with a citrus sauce overtop of it, grilled vegetables, a couple slices of fruit, and a pasta salad.  In the future I need to remember to have them leave that part off since I can't eat it.  Oh, and I normally completely despise green bell peppers, but the ones they grow here are actually not entirely disagreeable.  There is no... nickley flavor.. like the ones back home.  Though I will say, they are still better as an ingredient as opposed to a thing to eat on it's own.

After dinner at Canoe we headed back to Idle Awhile, where we wandered out to the bar to play a few games of dominoes before crashing out for the night.