Port Zante

After our lunch at Ballahoo, we strolled around Basseterre some more and made our way back to the ship. M's parents were calling it a day, so after we parted ways, we went off to see more of the village around the port since we hadn't investigated it much earlier in the day beyond buying a couple of postcards. The area was called Port Zante, and not only was it where the cruise ships docked, but there were restaurants, bars, and shops all around the terminal. After a bit, we decided to go for a snack at a place called Scoops (which seemed to support all New England sports teams, but we won't hold that against them). Scoops was a local ice cream shop that, from what we remember, advertised themselves as being completely homemade.

A loves ice cream and it was a pretty hot day, so some ice cream and sorbet sounded great. We tried a couple of flavors and then decided to get a cup with two different flavors. One was Cookie Monster, of which we got two scoops. This was basically cookies and cream with a fudge swirl in it. We also got a scoop of guava sorbet because M really wanted that, thinking that guava would be better in the Caribbean. It was nice since it was so late in the day that they just gave us the rest of the sorbet that was in the tub. The sorbet was more icy than some others because it clearly was made from real fruit. We weren't sure how well they would mesh together in one cup, but they were surprisingly good together.

We also got some ginger ale to drink which was actually made and bottled in St. Kitts. This was good with a really natural ginger flavor, not as strong as the Bruce's one that has real ginger in it. A was hoping there would be more ginger flavor to it but thought it was refreshing and not too sweet. It was very carbonated though, which limited how much of it M could drink.

As we headed back to the ship from Port Zante, some sadness set in as our vacation was ending. This was our last port and soon we would be back on the ship for a few sea days and then back home to cold, gray December. We had a nice time at the ports, even if we didn't get to do everything we would have wanted, and they were definitely one of the highlights of this Quantum trip.

Ballahoo

We didn't have a lot planned for our time in St. Kitts. We had an earlier dinner so we didn't want to travel too far from the ship, and we decided not to take a taxi to the beach, as much as we love beaches especially in winter, because we had gotten quite a bit of sun (and sunburn) the day before in Barbados. We spent most of our time just strolling around parts of Basseterre with M's parents and then stopped in at Ballahoo, a very centrally located spot, for lunch.

We didn't have much experience with Kittian cuisine so we weren't sure what to expect. Some sites on Google that we are looking at now tell us that it is Caribbean with Trinidadian and British influences, which makes sense to us now that we've tried it. (As a side note, unclear if it is Kittian or Kittitian, and if it's the second, this is not meant to be offensive, but Google isn't giving a definitive answer.) We just went with what sounded good.

M ordered the chicken roti which she really liked. The flavoring and sauce on the inside tasted a little like the chickpeas from Trini-Paki Boys, which was good because that's one of our favorite parts of the chicken over rice there. (We absolutely noticed similarities with Trinidadian cuisine, even if we didn't know about it then!) Inside the roti wrapper, there was shredded chicken with mashed up curried potatoes and carrots, and then the whole thing was very lightly griddled. The curry flavor here was so good. The fries were fine, nice and crispy, but especially good when dipped into the extra curry sauce on A's plate.

A got the lunch special which was chicken curry. The curry flavor in his dish didn't taste the same as M's roti, but was more of a yellow curry with coconut milk. The chicken was a leg and thigh, and the meat was so tender that it fell off the bone. On the side, there was a generous helping of green beans and carrots and some rice with green peas, both good, along with a salad of romaine, tomato, and cucumber with olive oil and vinegar that was nothing special but refreshing. It was a very hearty lunch plate with great flavor.

After eating, we couldn't decide which curry we liked better between the roti and chicken curry. Both were so good, but different. We were very pleased with our dishes at Ballahoo. M's parents got a barbecued chicken leg and a chicken avocado club sandwich, and seemed happy with those. We were pretty happy we went for the Caribbean dishes though.

Not only did we have good food at Ballahoo, but we had a nice view looking out into town and people watching, basking in the sunlight of a beautiful Caribbean winter day. We would recommend a visit here.