Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Basting Away In...


The east end of Anguilla (our preferred spot) is less developed. There are no real resort hotels and thus very few restaurants, but there is one tiny and delicious french bakery. It is best to place your orders for the week on that first morning of vacation because they sell out of the few precious items they bake. There are no croissants like these to be had in Brooklyn and their butter content is what drives me to fast-walk the beach every day for an hour as penance.
I can whip up a reasonable cafe au lait in the kitchen of our rental villa with coffee I bring with with me. I also brought a small stash of blood oranges – as fresh fruit and vegetables have the status (and often the price) of truffles on little islands with ocean reef soil and no rain. In the old days I used to bring lots of food, things I'd prepare and freeze and pack into cooler bags. Pickings were very slim on this island. These foodstuffs would be just about thawed when our bags tumbled off the small prop plane that was the last leg of the trip. We'd eat them the first few few nights because things didn't keep well, as the electricity was iffy and the refrigerator was often unreliable. The food is much better now.
We tried a new place last night, Picante, a Mexican restaurant, the island's first. This place is on the far west end of the island, a ten-mile, thirty minute drive from our villa on Shoal Bay East. The one road that runs the length of the island has been widened and paved in the last two years and all the speed bumps are gone. End of an era. Anyway, the margaritias were excellent and we had to have a few while waiting forty-five minutes for our table – because the place was packed.
Uma Thurman and her kids were sitting at the table behind us, my second vacation sighting of Uma this year – she was on our beach this past summer in Quogue, too. The fish taco, in a soft corn tortilla was good and smothered in finely chopped very red and flavorful tomatoes and Mac-hub's rib's and black beans were tasty and plentiful – we couldn't even finish them. Probably because we had filled up on a cheese-spinach concoction that we had ordered with the (heated up – a nice touch) chips and salsa at the bar earlier. The bar was ringed by pilgrims (exactly as you would expect them to be) to the Jimmy Buffett concert, which had happened a few nights before, and dotted with young-young golf pros and assistant golf pros from the nearby, outrageously expensive, golf resort run by St Regis. (Remember neither soil nor fresh water are indigenous to this island) the sprinkler system alone, geesh!
So it was - another successful day in my favorite zone-out zone.

2 comments:

Maestra said...

Another Uma Sighting!?
If there is a third just go up and introduce yourself maybe you're meant to be buddies.

I read your entries and feel so relaxed afterward. You are really good at describing your surroundings.
I think I'll go out on my terrace now. It's 70 degrees today woo hoo

Anonymous said...

I agree. Lovely to read about. Makes me glad I took the plunge and booked my trip.

And I agree about Uma, too. That's just weird.