Final Time at Silk

Our day in Barbados came just over halfway through our Quantum cruise on day 7. Our dinner that night was at Silk, and after our experience there on the first night, none of us were really looking forward to it. The horrible service and issues with food allergies and mediocre food were still pretty fresh in our memories, but we tried to keep an open mind since maybe they were just first night jitters. Also, this was before Quantum started swapping the menus halfway through, so the options were going to be exactly the same as last time. That was one of the big drawbacks of the (now defunct) Dynamic Dining plan if you're the type who tries a lot of things in one sitting (like we usually did).

Appetizers

The off-menu starter was papadums with sweet chili sauce. We had to request these unlike the wonton chips we got the first day, and the wonton chips were better. It probably didn't help that this arrived after our appetizers, so it wasn't there to snack on while we waited.

The other appetizers we got were:

Crab rangoon with spicy mango preserves: These were pretty good, very crispy, and filled with actual crab. We got two plates of these for the table and were pleased with the choice. Maybe our mistake the first time was not getting as many fried appetizers, since the fried food seemed to be okay there.

We also got the shrimp shumai but those were the same as last time, so not much more to say about that. At least they were good.

Chicken egg drop soup with scallions (M): M's mom ordered this last time. M tried it and generally liked it, but did not like the crispy (soggy) noodles that were on top, so she ordered it this time without them. So much better. The soup was very light and clean, exactly what she was looking for, and she was happy with her choice.

Hot ramen noodle with chicken, bok choy, mushrooms, and spicy ginger broth (A): Since soup is hard to share, we both ordered different soups and just tried a little bit of each other's. This spicy ramen had a nice broth with a good hit of spice. The noodles were chewy, not too firm, but not mushy. There were also sliced mushrooms and bok choy, which contributed to this soup tasting very clean and healthy. Overall this ramen tasted clean, but it didn't have the richness that we normally expect from ramen broth. That's not a bad thing, just different.

Green papaya salad with pea shoots, coriander, peanuts: We ordered this one last time and it was M's favorite appetizer that night, despite the fact that it was orange papaya and not green and that it was one of the most bizarre "papaya salads" we'd eaten. This time it was still orange papaya, but the grape tomatoes had been replaced with sliced up regular tomatoes and there was shredded lettuce instead of arugula. The salad itself was bigger, but it was still strange. We didn't realize it at the time we were eating our appetizers but this was the first sign that the kitchen was starting to run out of ingredients.

Entrees

We don't really remember what M's dad got for an entree, but her mom got the same salmon as last time. Unfortunately this time, it was drier, and for some odd reason came with broccoli instead of bok choy. It seemed like maybe the kitchen had run out of bok choy for the salmon dish and was saving it for the soup (in smaller amounts). Everyone's seemed to come out with broccoli, so M was glad she hadn't ordered the salmon. Looking back and comparing to the first night, the shiitake mushrooms also seemed to be missing. 

M ordered the chicken tikka masala with coconut jasmine rice and mango chutney as her entree, because the one A had gotten the first night was really good. Sadly, this was not as good as the first night. The chicken part was saltier, and the coconut rice just didn't have as much flavor. It was unfortunate that one of the few hits from the first night fell short this time. The kitchen was pretty inconsistent.

To share, we ordered the Thai beef salad with "marinated sirloin, tomato, onion, cucumber, lime-cilantro dressing." No idea who wrote the menus for Royal Caribbean, but it should have said "marinated sirloin, snow peas, celery, basil, red onions, carrots, and cucumbers." Our initial bite of this salad was good, but it got very monotonous just eating lightly seasoned raw vegetables. The beef itself wasn't that great, so it didn't make the salad much better. It just felt like a chore eating this even though based on the ingredients, we should have liked it. There was just a complete lack of flavor/seasoning.

A ordered the hibachi steak which was teriyaki steak and wasabi mashed potatoes with stir-fried vegetables. The sliced steak was cooked medium rare which A thought was perfect. The wasabi mashed potatoes had a good hit of wasabi but it wasn't overpowering. The flavoring of the dish was basically just like pepper steak. As for the stir-fried vegetables, they were red peppers, onions, snow peas, and carrots. This ended up being a good dish. Everything was actually seasoned well and cooked properly.

Desserts

We didn't really like either dessert that we tried on our first visit, so we got two new ones this time.

M chose the cardamom pot au creme with chai spiced palmiers. The cream here was very rich, but we thought it would make for a good ice cream flavor. Sadly the cookies didn't have much flavor. We had been looking forward to the chai spices, but they were barely there. Like most of the dishes from Silk this night, it lacked flavor.

A picked the chocolate lychee tart with fortune cookie crust. This was very rich, but nowhere near as rich as the chocolate dessert from the night before at Chic. The fortune cookie crust didn't taste like fortune cookie. The lychee was salted which was really disappointing. A was hoping for, at the barest minimum, a sweet lychee to eat.

Overall, our second (and last) meal at Silk was okay. The handling of food allergies was still a bit of a mess, but it was better than the previous visit where no one had a clue. The service was a little more attentive, but that was mostly due to our server constantly dropping by and asking us to tell his supervisor that he was doing a good job. The food itself was hit or miss again as far as flavor which was disappointing. On top of all that, we saw some dishes on other tables that looked good, like spring rolls, but hadn't seen those on the menu. On our way out, we learned that all the stuff that looked better was on the kids menu. If only we had known that in advance, we might have had better meals there. We were pretty glad that we wouldn't be returning to Silk based on what we did eat, but if we had another one scheduled there, we would have definitely been investigating the kids menu.

Now With Apricots

Every fall we look forward to the seasonal turkey sausage at Trader Joe's which just tastes like it belongs in a Thanksgiving meal. This year, the sausage seemed to arrive on the shelves a little later, and instead of cranberries and apples, it substituted apricots for the apples. We were curious to see if it would make a difference.

The ingredient list for this sausage was a little different from the previous version, combining turkey, dried cranberries, and dried apricots with honey, salt, parsley, vinegar, brown sugar, black pepper, onion powder, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice. The flavor profile was a little bit on the sweeter side, and we found it sweeter than the previous version. It was still good, it was still full of autumn flavors, and it still went well with stuffing, but it was just a little different. Not sure which one we prefer between the two, maybe the previous one since it was a bit less sweet and the apple was more subtle.

Buy again? Sure. We usually pick up one or two packs of this sausage every year and it's good for the fall/winter.

Harbour Lights

After eating our flying fish sandwich at Cuz's, we got back in the cab and tried to go to the Boatyard, a beach club that was supposed to have good specials and a prime location. They were completely full, probably with other ship passengers and definitely with a lot of the crew, so we walked further down the beach until we found Harbour Lights. It was a little quieter down at that end, and they still had a special where you could get chairs, an umbrella, and a couple of drinks for a pretty decent price.

As we relaxed on the beach under some intense (and amazing) sunlight, we ordered some Mount Gay rum punch. The guy serving our section said it was really good because he made it extra special, by which he really just meant he made it with a double shot of rum plus some juice. When we first heard we were going to Barbados, we had considered visiting Mount Gay Rum itself, but since we were there on Sunday, they of course had no tours and were closed. The rum punch was excellent though, and very refreshing.

We spent most of the afternoon just relaxing and soaking up the sun, knowing that we wouldn't see sun like this for months once we returned back to wintry NYC. We got hungry at some point and ordered a flying fish sandwich. The flying fish this time was fried and came with a side of fries and a little bit of salad (greens and tomato). They also gave us a few sauces on the side, ketchup, mustard, and a yellow hot sauce that packed quite a bit of heat (we guessed maybe from scotch bonnets). We liked the fish sandwich, but liked the one from Cuz's a little better.

You might remember seeing this sandwich or hearing about Barbados before, and that's because it made it on to my 2014 favorite food memories list. We just had such a glorious afternoon there, the perfect beach day we had been wanting all year. Carlisle Bay Beach is beautiful, and we would absolutely return.

Cuz's Fish Shack

From our research on Barbados before our Quantum trip, we knew there were two things we had to do while there - go to the beach and get a flying fish sandwich (also called a cutter) from Cuz's Fish Shack. Everything we read about this sandwich made it sound like a must-do. We had to take a cab to get out to Cuz's, but luckily there were plenty at the cruise terminal and that also put us right near the beach we wanted to go to.

We ordered one sandwich to split. The fish was cooked on a griddle after being dipped into a spiced batter. The coating wasn't too "bready" but it had great flavor. It was the perfect mix of saltiness and the right amount of heat. The sandwich came with lettuce and was sandwiched between a soft, pillowy bun. Each sandwich came with two pieces of the flying fish.

The fish itself was firmer than either of us was expecting, but it wasn't as firm as, say, swordfish. The flavor from the spices provided all of the flavor the sandwich needed even though there was a small assortment of hot sauces at the truck.

The fish sandwich was delicious and well worth the trip. It just tasted so fresh, which wasn't surprising since we were on an island in the Caribbean, and it was a great start to our day in Barbados.

Fiesta in the Solarium

Another Quantum morning, another breakfast at Devinly Decadence in the Solarium.

Another breakfast full of chicken, turkey, egg whites, sweet potatoes, and delicious Southwestern flavors.

But this time I also got something new, a fiesta shrimp omelette. In addition to the buffet options, they usually had a made-to-order dish if you got to breakfast early enough. That seemed to change every day (from what we remember), and this time it was an egg white omelette. Tasty and healthy.

Also different this time was the view from the Solarium. Every other port we had been to, we had been missing this view of bright sun, puffy white clouds, and turquoise water. Finally, finally, in Barbados, we got the perfect weather we were looking for.

It wasn't a humid evening like in Puerto Rico. It wasn't raining like in St. Maarten. It wasn't cloudy like in Martinique. We were pretty excited as we looked at the hot and sunny weather since we had a beach day planned, and after our tasty breakfast, we couldn't wait to get going!

Week 51 - 30 Minutes or Less

Making dinner in 30 minutes or less sounds great to me, but it doesn't happen very often with challenge meals because I am really slow in the kitchen, especially when trying a new recipe. I think I laughed out loud when I saw the Week 51 challenge was 30 minutes or less. Could I really make a full dinner in 30 minutes? Including prep time and thorough washing of vegetables? Was that really possible?

I decided not to try something new, but instead to do a variation on something I've made on a semi-regular basis, and also to use a few "shortcut" products. I figured in 30 minutes I could cook some panko breaded chicken tenders in the oven (pre-breaded from Costco) and then make a vegetable saute from scratch (but using frozen pre-roasted corn). Those shortcuts would certainly shave minutes and make it more likely that I wouldn't go over in time.

I started preheating the oven early, and didn't count that in the 30 minutes because technically I could have left the oven preheating all day and it wasn't really part of making dinner. After the oven was ready, I started the timer, laid foil on a baking pan, and then got the chicken in the oven. (It would take 25 minutes.) Then it was time for the vegetables. Wash and chop zucchini. Get it started in the pan with some olive oil (covered with a splatter guard to keep some of the heat in). Once the zucchini has softened some, add frozen roasted corn. In the meantime, wash and chop scallions. Add scallions after the corn. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder. After pulling out the chicken, add feta cheese to vegetables, and cook vegetables and cheese together until time runs out. I was happy with the vegetable mixture with about a minute to spare, and just let it keep going for the final minute since I had the time. I was pretty proud that I didn't go over in time, and also that I managed to do it while watching Scorpion too.

This is the type of everyday meal that we'll have for dinner sometimes when I'm not trying out new recipes or cooking a challenge meal. It's nice interspersing simpler meals like this that are still healthy and tasty with some of the more complicated ones, unlike a recent week when I was catching up on challenges and did four in one week with another new recipe for day 5. It helped that I've made these vegetables before, just without the zucchini, so I already had some idea of how it would go and mostly had to just keep one eye on the time. It also helped that there was minimal washing to be done as that always seems to be a time drainer. At least now I know that it's possible to make something in 30 minutes if planned right!

Chic

The last complimentary restaurant we tried on the Quantum was Chic. Out of the four (Chic, The Grande, Silk, American Icon), Chic had the menu we were most excited about trying. (We were even more interested in Coastal Kitchen but weren't special enough to be allowed access to it.) Chic was billed as "contemporary" cuisine, which meant some more interesting combinations, but otherwise wasn't that revolutionary.

Our meal started with a bread basket filled with soft dinner rolls and some breadsticks. The rolls were fine but some of the breadsticks were a little soggy/stale.

Appetizers

We decided to get a bunch of different appetizers to split since we were having a hard time narrowing down the selections. They all sounded so good. The first one we tried was a pastrami-cured salmon with caper-egg remoulade and toasted bagel chips. This was so, so, so salty. The overwhelming flavor was just salt, which made it a little hard to eat. Sure, smoked salmon is often salty, but this was like another level of sodium. The bagel chips and mustard sauce didn't add much to it, as it really just tasted like salty smoked fish.

The next one we tried was the jumbo lump crab cake with herbed frisee lettuce and chipotle mayonnaise. This was really good, the best of the appetizer set we got, and we kind of wished we had each gotten one of these instead of some of the other stuff. The flavor of the crab cake itself was good, it wasn't entirely made up of filler, and the dressing for the crab cake had a nice flavor. It came with a little salad on the side which added some freshness. We were happy with this one, just wished we had more.

We also tried the grilled Catalan shrimp with soppressata, pickled peppers, and a cilantro emulsion. The grilled shrimp had good flavor. The soppressata was a bit salty (like it should be), which unfortunately overpowered the dish a little bit. The cilantro emulsion didn't have much flavor at all and the peppers were kind of just there. The shrimp here was good, but the rest of it, we didn't feel very strongly about.

The last appetizer was the fresh mozzarella and beet salad, with shaved beets, fennel, and burrata cheese. We didn't really like this one that much. The orange didn't seem to go very well with the other ingredients, the beet sauce was really sweet, and everything, while fine in quality, just seemed a little mismatched. Wish we had gotten a second crab cake instead of this.

Entrees

For the main course, M got the baked salmon strudel with sweet carrots, green asparagus, and a dilled hollandaise sauce. She had been picturing salmon baked inside of pastry coming out looking like an actual strudel, but what actually arrived was a baked salmon with pieces of strudel pastry coming out of it. Not only was that a little strange and unexpected, but the salmon itself was overcooked. The asparagus and carrots were fine, as was the sauce, but the fish itself was just okay. Experimentation with the strudel here didn't lead to a better fish, in her opinion.

Since it was a cruise, we ordered multiples of each course just because we could and because then we could try more. We decided to split the pan-roasted Australian barramundi with sautéed spinach, radish, pineapple and caper brown butter. Similar to the salmon, the fish here was a little overdone, but it was mostly okay. We thought the pineapple caper sauce was also just okay but we liked the spinach and radish on the side.

A chose well for his entree, getting the crispy crusted chicken with smoked bacon, caramelized onion, potatoes, and honey dijon mustard jus. This was really good and the chicken was nice and juicy. The accouterments added a nice sweetness and smokiness to the dish, and the moist chicken was really paired well. The potatoes gave the dish a little heartiness to complete everything.

Desserts

We ordered two desserts at Chic, but tried a third. The one we didn't order was this dark chocolate torte with pretzel crust, bittersweet ganache, and caramel drizzle that M's dad ordered. This was way too rich and heavy, so rich that it was hard to eat more than one bite of it. It was an explosion of chocolate but in the worst way possible. We were glad we hadn't ordered another one of these for ourselves.

A got the carrot cake trifle, spiced cake with cream cheese mousse, that came with some weird sorbet that tasted like bubble gum. We saw lots of carrot cakes arrive at other tables so we thought this would be good. It was kind of bland and the sorbet was just so odd.

When she saw the dessert menu, M immediately chose the plum crepe mille-feuille with lemon creme, vanilla, and apricot. This was a really good mille-feuille, nice flavors, with a texture like thin and fluffy pancakes. The lemon creme in the middle was also really light and didn't overpower it. The sweet sauce with plums and apricots had great fruit flavor. It was rare on the trip to find lighter fruit-based desserts but this one was quite good.

Overall our meal at Chic was pretty good. There were some misses, but also a few good dishes (or parts of dishes). Now that we had tried all four restaurants, we weren't sure which one we liked the best yet, but nothing had blown us away either. At least our time at Chic was pleasant and for the most part the food wasn't too bad.

La Case à Glace

Martinique was an interesting port. Most of the people on the ship with us absolutely hated it there, constantly complaining that there was nothing to do, everything was closed, no one spoke English, and more. Fort-de-France wasn't a very developed cruise port compared to some of the others we had visited, but we felt like people were being a little bit unfair. Sure, being in Martinique was a little more challenging, especially if you didn't speak French, but why should you expect every person you meet in another country to speak English? Yes, things seemed to close early because it was a Saturday (which meant I couldn't mail my postcard), but you can't expect people to change their entire culture and lifestyle just because your ship decides to show up. The refusal of so many people on the ship to push their boundaries and accept a different way of doing things aggravated us so much (and not just in relation to Martinique).

Anyway, back to our day in Martinique. We had planned from the start to go to the beach, knowing that it was one of the things we could definitely do on a Saturday. We had heard some good things about Anse Mitan, so that was our intended destination. After a brief walk around town, we got on a ferry to the beaches which was going to stop there and also at Anse à l'Ane. Despite our original plan, we ended up going to Anse à l'Ane instead because the majority of the ferry got off at Anse Mitan and in addition to the crowds, we weren't feeling drawn to it. Anse à l'Ane was quieter, had far less people, and was a much more peaceful beach day for us. The weather wasn't perfect; it was cloudy and sprinkled a bit, but it was nice to just relax on the beach and do nothing for a little while.

Eventually we decided to eat lunch. There weren't a ton of options on the beach, but we saw a bunch of people, including some who looked like locals, at one of the beachside restaurants called La Case à Glace. We were pretty excited about lunch, partially because things on other tables looked good, partially because we were hungry, and partially because it would give us an opportunity to attempt to communicate in French. I don't speak a ton of French, and my pronunciation is horrible, but I had tried to practice a little bit before our Martinique day, knowing that we wouldn't have internet and couldn't completely rely on our phone apps.

We scanned the menus (all in French) and tried to figure out what to order. I asked for the poulet au coco (coconut chicken), since that sounded good and I knew what it meant. The server (in French) told me that I shouldn't get that but instead the colombo de poulet. I had no idea what that was but agreed. They were the same price, so it wasn't like she was trying to get more money out of us. What arrived was a plate of rice with a little salad and a big bowl of chicken curry, three drumsticks with potatoes and carrots. The chicken was wonderful, very soft and tender, and it just fell off the bones. The curry sauce had a lot of flavor but not as much spice as we thought it would from the aroma and look of it. I was pretty happy with my meal, especially considering I had absolutely no idea what it was going to be. But that's part of the fun of eating a meal in a new country for us, being surprised by how great something is that you have no expectations about.

A ordered the plat du jour (daily special), which was the poulet boucané. That was even better than my chicken curry. It was a smoked, barbecued chicken thigh and leg that was topped with chopped vegetables for which we have no better description than that it was a like a French pico de gallo. It also came with rice, green beans, and a small salad. The flavor of the chicken was so good, just a perfect amount of smokiness that wasn't overpowering. The rice for both of us was fluffy and nicely seasoned, maybe made with chicken broth. This smoked chicken was so good, and we tried to savor every bite since we knew we would never be able to replicate it at home. We've found a recipe online that looks similar, but there's no way we can get those flavors with the equipment we have. Looking it up, we learned that it seems to be a style of cooking out of the French Caribbean islands like Guadeloupe, so it was perfect that we were able to enjoy it on our Martinique day.

Overall we had a nice time in Martinique. It wasn't our favorite port but we actually appreciated it for being unfamiliar and different. It's one of the things we like the most about visiting other countries - being out of our element, expanding our horizons, exercising the foreign language sections of our brains (and even better, without sacrificing any physical comforts). This meal did all of those things. There were people at a neighboring table that tried to talk with us, and our French wasn't nearly good enough for that, but they seemed nice. I was able to understand and answer the server when she asked if we wanted any dessert like ice cream (which we declined, despite the name of the restaurant). We managed to order and check for food allergies in French.

Then there was the fact that I had no idea how to ask for the bill in French and we sat around for a while trying to figure it out (and also wondering why we hadn't thought to look it up in advance) until we just walked up to the register to pay with some other people. Even though this meal was just as long ago as our other Quantum entries, it's obvious that this experience imprinted on us much more than many of those, and the entire reason is because of the way it affected us as people, pushing us out of our comfort zone. Isn't that part of what travel is all about?

Return to the Solarium

The first thing we did on day 6 of our Quantum cruise was head up to Devinly Decadence in the Solarium for breakfast. We were really excited since we had really liked the breakfast options the day before and wanted to see what they would come up with this time.

We found that the buffet was almost exactly the same as the day before, and we picked up a lot of the same stuff. Unlike other buffets where the repeated dishes could get tiresome after a while, we liked the breakfast buffet here so much that we didn't mind if the same dishes were there every single time. There was so much variety to begin with that if you really wanted to, you could eat something different every day (instead of a little bit of everything like we usually did). And the flavors were just so much better and more interesting than the Windjammer. We tried to make it a point to get up early enough to come here for breakfast every day after that.

The Grande

Note: In doing some reading about dining on Royal Caribbean before putting up this post, we learned that Royal Caribbean has essentially abandoned the Dynamic Dining concept for the fleet. Our recaps probably would have had more relevance had they been posted before this happened, but we're going to keep forging ahead with our trip recaps and hopefully will finish soon!

The next dinner restaurant in our (unofficial) rotation on the Quantum was The Grande, the formal restaurant. This was the only spot on board where you had to dress up (i.e., jackets for guys) and we saw some pretty creative ways of meeting the dress code (like the guy who showed up in a winter coat since we were there in December; it still counted as a jacket). The service there seemed to be elevated as well to match the formal attire which was nice. During our time on board, The Grande was the place where we had the best all-around service, and we were very pleased.

Starters

The meal started off with a bread basket. The bread was like a mini-baguette and it had cheese baked on top and olives baked into it. The olives added a bit of saltiness to the bread, but the cheese didn't pack that much flavor. Overall the bread wasn't bad, but it didn't knock our socks off.

For one of our appetizers, we both got the prawn cocktail, described as "chilled jumbo prawns with chili-horseradish cocktail sauce." The prawns were big and cooked properly. The "chili-horseradish cocktail sauce" was really just cocktail sauce with a fancy name, but cocktail sauce and shrimp go together well so who cares. It was a solid dish.

A also decided to try the escargots à la bourguignonne in garlic-herb butter which he found a little weird. We had seen photos of the escargots on Instagram and Cruise Critic before our trip and were a little disappointed that these were escargots that were just smothered/doused with garlic-herb butter instead of the regular ones baked in the butter that you usually find on cruises. They still tasted okay, but they were just odd. M didn't get the escargots since the new style here wasn't that appealing to her.

Instead, M decided to go with the French bacon and egg salad which had "poached egg, bacon lardon, wild arugula, dijon dressing." This was really, really good. The egg was poached perfectly, the dressing had nice flavor, and it's hard to go wrong with a crisp arugula salad with bacon and egg. That combination just works. The slight bitterness of the arugula was a good match for the other ingredients, and she really enjoyed the salad.

Entrees

There was a nice range of entrees offered at The Grande: seafood, fish, chicken, beef, lamb, lobster, pasta, and vegetables. They tried to cover all the bases which was appreciated (except vegan, but we honestly have no idea what you would do on a cruise ship if you were vegan).

For M, none of the options really clicked with her until she got to the eggplant napoleon at the bottom, which also included ratatouille, spinach, goat cheese fondue, and tomato coulis. This was basically an eggplant tower with layers of goat cheese and ratatouille and spinach in-between and on top. Not really sure what was meant by goat cheese fondue, as it just seemed like creamy goat cheese and not like fondue that you would get at a cheese spot. The whole dish tasted so healthy and clean, and the flavors of the vegetables themselves really stood out. M really liked this dish. It was probably one of the best things she ate during dinner on the ship.

Just like they messed with the escargots, they also fussed up the lobster tail, which we were prepared for thanks to Instagram and Cruise Critic. One of the things we've always looked forward to on cruise ships is getting lobster tails, either alone or as part of a surf and turf. Instead, at The Grande, there was lobster tail thermidor, which came with truffled leeks, new potatoes, and a shellfish armagnac sauce. From what we heard about later cruises, it seemed like they abandoned this in favor of the traditional lobster tails, but we were guinea pigs.

In the end we shared one order since we weren't sure what to expect from this preparation. Unfortunately we don't remember much about this dish other than the sauce tasted weird, and we didn't like it all that much. We ended up scraping it off the lobster which tasted sweet as lobster normally does. The potatoes were cooked nicely and had a good bite to the outside while still being soft on the inside. The leeks were braised down to near mush, but that's okay since we like them that way.

Apologies for the stripes - something about the lighting on the ship really messed with the iPhone camera
A also ordered the braised lamb shank, which arrived with root vegetables, rosemary potatoes, and garlic-lamb jus. According to the waiter the lamb was braised for 7 hours every day. Based on how soft and tender it was, A didn't doubt that. It fell off the bone, and the jus was rich and lovely. The root vegetables picked up the flavor of the jus and added their own sweetness which paired with the meat very well. He really liked this dish, but there wasn't much of the gaminess that A likes to expect from lamb.

Desserts

We got two desserts to share. The first one was the German chocolate cake which the menu said came with coconut ice cream. It didn't say anything else, so what arrived wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We thought it would be like a traditional slice of German chocolate cake with the coconut and chocolate inside and a scoop of ice cream on top. Instead it was a piece of chocolate cake with brittle, and a little shredded coconut holding the coconut ice cream in place, with a dusting of pistachio on the side of the plate. When you ate a little bit of everything all together, it did indeed taste like German chocolate cake. The flavor was really good, and we were intrigued by the fact that it was deconstructed like this.

The other dessert we got was the key lime tarte about which the menu just said "graham cracker crust, merengue." (Yes, it said merengue like the dance, and not meringue, but we don't think we pointed that out to them there.) This was pretty good, one of the better desserts on the ship. It had a nice balance of tartness and sweetness, and the meringue offered a good stiff texture. Although it was good, it didn't meet A's high standards for key lime pie. He's something of a key lime pie snob and has definitely had better offerings.

We had initially only scheduled one night at The Grande since we weren't sure we wanted to bother with more than one formal night. But after the really nice experience we had, better than the other "free" restaurants we had tried so far, we made a second reservation for later in the cruise. This was definitely one of the better places for dinner in our opinion.

St Maarten Food Souvenirs

Other than Christmas ornaments, we don't generally bring home many souvenirs from our trips other than food. We didn't know much about what food souvenirs there would be in St. Maarten other than chocolate, since M's parents brought home chocolate from each of their past trips, and guavaberry liqueur, since M's parents also gave us a little bottle of that after one of their visits.

There was a guavaberry "colada and rum shop" right at the port where you could buy souvenirs and also get some samples. Even though M's parents had brought us something guavaberry before, we hadn't actually gotten around to opening it, so we didn't know what it tasted like. We gladly tried the small frozen drink sample, and found it sweet and refreshing (we think). Two years later, not really sure how to describe the flavor other than we liked it but didn't feel compelled to buy any.

The chocolate shop M's parents like is called The Belgian Chocolate Box. It was amusing to see a Belgian style chocolate shop in St. Maarten of all places, but the owner of the shop apparently studied chocolate making in Belgium, and you can definitely tell when you eat them. We got a few bags of their dark chocolate. For lack of a better term, they're little pellets of dark chocolate that are amazingly rich and not too sweet. We also got a couple bags of chocolate covered rice crisps as we love that style of chocolate.

We had a good time in St. Maarten. We were only there through the afternoon, so hitting the beach, watching the planes, having lunch, strolling the town, and buying chocolate was pretty much all we had time for. We walked back to the ship from the Philipsburg beach area soon after buying our chocolate (didn't want it to melt!) and then got on the North Star, a capsule-like thing on the ship that elevated you high enough to get good views, at dusk to say goodbye to St. Maarten before dinner. It was a nice first visit!

New Mexico Caesar

One of the things I love most about Chopt is their changing menu of specials. Currently their "destination" focus is on New Mexico. I love the southwestern flavors of New Mexican cuisine (and someday hopefully we'll get there to try it in-state), and immediately knew on a recent lunch trip that I wanted to get the spicy New Mexico caesar salad.

The salad combines romaine and purple cabbage with FreeBird Chimayo chile chicken, goat gouda, avocado, pickled jalapeños, and masa crisps. Although they recommended the spicy hatch chile caesar dressing with it (and I do love hatch chiles), I opted instead for the Mexican goddess because I absolutely love that dressing and it had been a while since I had it. The chopper I got on this trip applied some really vigorous chopping skills to the salad so everything got combined really well (other than a rogue giant chunk of avocado, which wasn't really his fault because that part was underripe and hard as a rock).

I really liked this salad and it was definitely spicy. Those pickled jalapeños were so much hotter than I was expecting them to be, and I was thankful for the creamy avocado and side of bread to counteract the heat. The chicken was so well-seasoned, and it was the type of marinated chicken I'd love to make at home in salads or bowls. The masa crisps were interesting. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, maybe something similar to masa fries we've had before, but these were more like seed and grain crackers. They tasted really similar to a brand we've had from Costco before (but which one specifically I couldn't place in flavor). This combination was so good, and I would love to get this salad again, but I'm not sure how much longer the New Mexican options will be around.