St Maarten/St Martin
12 March 2005 Newsletter

 

 

Dutch Carnival: The carnival village opens on 14 April and the grand final parade is on 2 May this year.

 

 

 

Hot Tomatoes is sponsoring the contest that runs from 5 March to 26 March 2005, giving $100 toward a dinner for two. Just click their name to go to their website, find the contest code and the link to our new signup form, fill it out, click send, and you are entered. Obviously everybody that is getting this email is already signed up for the newsletter, but you are not automatically signed up for the contest. You really do have to go to their website and click the email link to show you visited their site. Just tell me you are already on our mailing list, and I'll leave you signed up for the newsletter and just add your name to the contest list.

 

Here is the list of future sponsors. We urge you all to sign up ONCE for each contest. Our clients want you to see what they have to offer. Go to their websites at the appropriate time, click the link, and you could be a winner. Look for future gift certificates from:
Chez Pat - 1 October to 15 November 2005 - $100 toward a day on Galion Beach
Lucky/Hibiscus Cars - 16 November to 15 December - $100 off a one week car rental
 
 

 

We went to the Thursday wine tasting at Vinissimo and met a chef from a megayacht who had brought over some brioche and bread that he had made that morning. The brioche, being a bit sweet, was not meant for the cheese and pate that Sylvain had laid out for the tasting, but the dark whole wheat bread was great with the creamy foie gras pate, the goat cheese, and the pave d'affinois cheese from the Loire valley. We started with a gewurztraminer, the spicy traminer grape from Alsace, an excellent aperitif wine. We then tried a sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux and the chef pulled out a Condrieu from the Rhone valley. It's made from the Viognier grape and, like gewurz, is a bit of an acquired taste. I told Sylvain that we really had to get home as we needed to buy dinner, prepare it, and get some sleep before our guest's 6 AM departure. Our guest, Mr Bowen, bought four bottles of Bowen cognac. Unfortunately he is no relation and must buy the cognac. We asked for some burgundy to take home for dinner and Sylvain insisted that we try some before buying. The 1999 Savigny Les Beaune from Simon Bize "Aux Grandes Liarts" was lovely, as was his "Les Marconnets, so we took some of each. However, before we could go, the chef pulled some chocolate truffles out of his bag and Sylvain offered up some sweet Madiran as an accompaniment. If you are here on Thursday and like wine, this is the place to be.

 

 

TTOL party: The Wharf Restaurant will be having a TTOL party from 6 to 8 on 28 March. Bernard will be supplying appetizers, happy hour prices will be in effect, and look for a discount on dinners afterward.

 

Dining: We caught the beginning of the Sunday regatta while having a wonderful and leisurely lunch at Restaurant du Soleil. We had guests and they were thrilled with the lovely view and beautiful decor. The service and food were pretty good also. All meals start with fresh potato chips made in the kitchen. We enjoyed a cold bottle of rose as we looked over the menu. Our aps were a Napoleon of tomato and goat cheese with basil and Japanese-flavored sauce ($10) and snails in a phyllo crust with spinach, mixed greens, and herbs ($14). Both dishes have varying textures, the crunch of a fresh tomato contrasting with a silky smooth goat cheese or the crackle of crispy phyllo dough surrounding tender snails; and both dishes have many tastes. A bottle of white burgundy arrived for the appetizers. The main courses were a veal filet mignon with a creamy mushroom sauce, croutons and roasted apples with Calvados brandy (fantastic), a red snapper fillet with cajun spices, a roasted rack of lamb with rosemary with vegetables Provencal, and the grilled ahi tuna, with vanilla flavor, mashed potatoes and two sauces (soy and Creole). No complaints were heard and there were no doggie bags for dinner. A couple glasses of red wine were added for the meat eaters. Cedric urged us to try the profiteroles for dessert - good pate a choux, very good ice cream, and luscious chocolate sauce - this from someone who shuns desserts. Our bill came to a bit less than $100 per couple, aided by the 1 to 1 exchange rate for cash.

 

We went to Bamboo Bernies for sunset on Sunday, where we bumped into Patty, the sungoddess, from TTOL.. Nothing like free drinks: mudslides, margaritas, or beer. Starting at 5:00 PM they are free for a half hour, 50 cents for the next half hour, a buck for the next hour, and two bucks for the next hour. Pretty cheap sundowners with a great sunset. Pictures soon come, mon!

 

Our guests choose Le Cottage Restaurant for Monday night's dinner (the second set of guests to do so, and with good reason, IMHO). Stephane poured a gewurz to get us started and we ordered a creamy lobster bisque, a special scallop appetizer, and foie gras terrine. The foie gras consisted of two slices from different approaches to terrine making, but I cannot choose a favorite - it's all good. Our dinners were roasted monkfish with chorizo, a Portuguese approach that was very tasty, a rack of lamb, the duck platter consisting of liver, leg, gizzard, and breast with braised endive, and a special crusted scallop dinner. I've seen a lot of blather about the best duck on TTOL and there is a bit to know about cooking duck. As Frank Perdue keeps his chickens in a cage, they have tender breasts AND legs, tender, tending toward mush. Ducks, however, generally are allowed to swim and wander about making the legs tougher. The legs, therefore, benefit from longer cooking times via roasting, etc. The breast is still fairly tender as the ducks rarely fly and it requires fast cooking with special attention to the layer of fat on the breast. This is not a secret and I doubt that there is a chef on the island who doesn't know this. Another variable is the quality of the duck breast, but the French take care of that even more so than the USDA (see below). I think this is a great dish because I like gizzard and liver and appreciate the bitter taste of braised endive. I also like the various textures in the four bits of duck. This is an entirely gratuitous aside, as I had the crusted scallops and enjoyed the crunch Stephane brought a bottle red which we guessed as a Rhone but were surprised to find that it came from Les Baux, one of the prettiest and most amazing towns in Provence. Les Baux was also one of the first places where a clayey mineral containing aluminum was found. Hence, we call the ore bauxite. The wine was much better. Coffees and Armagnac ended a wonderful evening on the front porch. Our bill for the wonderful food and an immense amount of interesting wine was about $300. They don't do 1 for 1, but they do have very good prices. Le Cottage is now closed on Sunday nights.

 

Our guest had worked in La Havre on the NW coast of France for several months around 1970 and the style of food at Bistrot Nu sounded pretty good to him. It is not cutting edge, but is good solid bistrot food. They are located in an alley off the main road to Grand Case and have been consistently busy since  opening in the early 1980s.  Visitors and locals go there for a large menu of traditional French and Creole food at excellent prices, and we had a fine diner there on Tuesday.  We ordered a bottle of chardonnay to accompany our starters:  a big pot of mussels with white wine, cream, and herbs,  a generous platter of tuna carpaccio, and a goat cheese salad.   We followed with four selections from the blackboard menu.  The duck breast came with a ragout of mushrooms and a selection of vegetables.  The stewed conch was tender and full of complex herb and vegetable flavors that only long, gentle cooking can achieve.  Red wine braised rabbit was served with potatoes and carrots.  And the intrepid fish eater at the table ordered stuffed trunkfish, a local reef dweller with a hard outer shell and white flesh, served whole and filled with a crab and vegetable mixture.  We washed it all down with a Cotes du Rhone.

 

 

Wednesday night found us back at Temptation at Atlantis Casino. we started with a bottle of Sancerre to go with aps of a walnut crusted Vermont goat cheese salad, a grilled peach salad, and crab cakes. Dino continues to add taste and texture treats to everything and these aps were no exception. Martha had liked the tandoori duck so much that BOTH of our guests ordered it. Martha had the tamarind mahi and I had the salmon crusted with peanut bits floating in a broth flavored with lemongrass and ginger.

 

 

 

Quality food: Most of the beef that we in America eat is Choice (like Lake Wobegon, all the beef is above average, 53.2 % is Choice and 35.2% is Select). The best quality, from young cattle with good marbling is Prime and it is only 2.9% of the total. Add these up and you will see that the top three (of the eight) grades account for 90% of all beef?? Select actually is leaner and more people may be getting that in today's health conscious culture. Standard and Commercial grade beef frequently is sold as ungraded or as "brand name" meat. Think about that the next time you buy your supermarket's special brand. The three lowest grades — USDA Utility, Cutter, and Canner — are seldom, if ever, sold at retail but are used instead to make ground beef and manufactured meat items such as frankfurters. Contemplate that as you have a hamburger or hot dog.