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St Maarten/St Martin |
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ISLAND NEWS
Weather and Beach
report: Happy Spring and Vernal Equinox! Saturday
started out beautifully. The wind which had backed around died off and Cupecoy
was calm and the lagoon was flat. There is still a bit of beach in the
little cove at Cupecoy, none at the NW end, and a lot at Cliffhanger. The night was wonderful
and Sunday dawned just as pleasant, possibly a bit more breeze, but no whitecaps
on the lagoon. By Monday the wind had picked up a bit, but it was still
lovely. Tuesday was another damn perfect day in Paradise, hot on the beach, lots
of sun, no rain, and a lovely evening for dining outside. Wednesday through
Friday were hot and muggy, but on Friday the sun found an opening on the horizon
and went down in a green flash.
Sunset is now about 6:20 and the moon is full.
Dutch Carnival: The carnival village opens
on 14 April, the grand final parade down Front Street in Philipsburg is on
30 April, and the final jumpup and burning of King Momo is on 2 May this
year. We will be having lunch and watching the parade from the porch at L'Escargot. If
you are on the island and want to join, make your reservation early. Here is the
full schedule.
Heineken Regatta:
I have finally uploaded all the photos from the regatta. They are here. It's worth a
visit just for the final sunset shot.
Travel Shortcuts: Roy Marlin noted that
people are not using the bypasses or shortcuts. Possibly this was directed at
locals, but you might as well know about them. Take a look at this map. There are four
roads you should know about. On the way into Pburg from Simpson Bay, you can
turn left just after the Tropicana Casino or at the next intersection and work
your way over to Marigot or Ram's Cole Bay Supermarket without passing through
the mess at the bottom of Cay Hill. This works coming from Marigot back into
Simpson Bay - even better because there are right turns rather than left turns
across traffic. If you are going to Philipsburg (or on to Orient), you must pass
through the mess until they put in the planned roundabout. Further along, you
should know that the roundabout at the top of the hill affords an easy access to
downtown Philipsburg. If you are returning from downtown, this works in reverse.
If you are returning from the back of Philipsburg you can take the Cakehouse
bypass, named after the Cakehouse Bakery, which is no longer there. The
entrance is across from Ram's and though the road is rather steep, it
is paved and will deliver you to Cole Bay. This makes it easy to get to Marigot
or even to proceed toward Marigot and take the Cole Bay bypass back to Simpson
Bay. Finally, lowlands residents heading for Grand Case can avoid most
of Marigot by taking the turn toward the water just before the cemetery as one
enters Marigot. It heads along the water to Rue de la Republique. At that point
you are in the heart of Marigot and, if you want to get to Grand Case, turn left
and follow the water to the roundabout at the far end of Galis Bay.
Travel notes: If the previous info doesn't
help and you are still fed up with traffic in SXM, consider these hot bits of
news from the Daily Herald: Our sister island, Saba, has announced that
they will be paving the roads to and from the airport. Our other sister island,
Statia, is currently troubled by goats wandering around the airport.
Art at California Restaurant: Zouzou says
that for the month of March, and possibly longer, she has a seashell art
exhibition in the restaurant containing mirrors, mobiles, jewelry boxes,
seashell boards, cards, and more. there are a couple examples on the boutique
page of the California website.
Photo feature:
a secret location not posted here. Subscribe to the newsletter to get the location.
There was a sign
in Grand Case, some frigate birds, an interesting delivery truck, and a
parade.
Special feature: In conjunction
with the current contest, we have released a special feature on Simpson Bay. There are
a four panoramic shots, one from an airplane, and the other three from Cay
Hill. The best is a reproduction of a print of Simpson Bay by local
artist Jill Alexander. The good news is that it only costs about $30. The bad
news is that you can only get it on the island.
CONTEST
The winner of the Hot
Tomatoes contest is Randy Arnoldussen. Congratulations, you
just got $100 toward a meal for two at the only place on the island with a
wood-fired pizza oven.
Several businesses in Simpson Bay are
sponsoring a contest that runs from 27 March to 24 April
2005, offering prizes worth about $100
each. Just click their name to go to their website, find the
contest code(s) and the link to our new signup form, fill it out, click
send, and you are entered. Put all the contest codes for the contests you want
to enter on ONE entry. Do not send multiple entries.
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 get the contest code 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 are
the current sponsors. Put all the contest codes for the contests you wish to
enter on one entry.
Simpson Bay Feature - 27
March to 24 April 2005:
Horny Toad Guesthouse - seven low season days for the price of five
Hideaway
Restaurant - $75 off a dinner for two
Unity Cars - $100 off a one week car
rental
Tri Sport - Kayak Snorkel
Tour for two
We have so many prizes that we will be doubling and tripling
up for several contests and producing feature photo spreads in conjunction with
the contests. Here is the list of future contests and feature photo
spreads:
Celine Pub Crawl - 25 April to 5 June 2005 - two
tickets on the Lagoon Pub Crawl
Grand Case Feature - 6 June to 17 July
2005:
Escapade
Restaurant- $100 gift certificate for two
GCBC Snorkel Trips - A guided
snorkeling trip for two around Creole Rock and an afternoon on our lounge
chairs on Petite Plage
GCL
Car Rental - $100 off a one week car rental
AIA Massage - Two
massages for the price of one
Cupecoy Feature - 18 July to 24 August 2005:
Villas in Paradise - $100
gift certificate to Temptation for two
Cliffhanger Beach
Bar - $40 gift certificate for two
Marigot Feature - 25 August to 30 September 2005:
Orient Beach Feature - 1 October to 15 November
2005:
Chez Pat - $100
toward a day on Galion Beach
Sol é Luna Apartments - $100
off on a one week stay
Nono Car Rental - $50 off on a one week
rental
Philipsburg Feature - 16 November to
15 December:
Lucky/Hibiscus Cars - $100 off a one week car rental
Lucky/Hibiscus Cars - $100 off a one week car rental
Karen and Pascal's Restaurant Feature - 16 December to 6 January 2006
Auberge Gourmande - $100 off a meal
for two
Montmartre Restaurant - $100 off a meal for two
Sunset Café - $100 off a meal for two
Montmartre Restaurant - $100 off a meal for two
Sunset Café - $100 off a meal for two
.
RESTAURANTS
On 12 Mar the euro was at
1.347 and today it is at 1.295. French side restaurants with many costs in dollars and many American (or
Canadian) clients have been offering more favorable exchange rates. Some
restaurants offer a 1 to 1 exchange. We got that at Escapade, Bikini
Beach, Restaurant
du Soleil, California,
Auberge
Gourmande, and La Marine. We
noticed Rainbow
Cafe, Alabama, Balaou,
Santal, Sebastiano, and Marlin's Cafe were offering the same. Note that some only offer this rate for cash. We will let you know about
other places as we find them. As always, know what the euro is worth, what the
restaurateur is offering for an exchange, and what the costs are on the menu.
Finally, you are here to have fun and fine food, not to do complex financial
calculations, so don't worry about it too much.
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 15% discount on dinners afterward.
Dining: On
Saturday we went to Hideaway Restaurant at La Vista Resort in the Pelican Keys. It really is
hidden as you have to drive through the Pelican Resort and out the other side to
find it. It's worth the effort. They have parking and a lovely restaurant
overlooking their infinity pool which overlooks Saba. Admittedly, at night, Saba
is not the bright lights of Broadway. For that, come on a Saturday (or a couple
other nights) and catch the entertainment in the bar. On Saturday, Les Hodge
plays keyboard and sings. After things in the restaurant quiet down, Mario, the
manager, joins him on vocals. It really is played at a volume that is
entertaining. We were dining on conch accras with a homemade tomato and basil
(and more) dipping sauce ($10.50) and could actually converse at poolside over
our Chalonnaise from southern Burgundy ($23). Dinners were some tasty shrimp in
an old rum and pineapple sauce ($19.25) and the tender magret du canard, duck
breast with exotic fruits ($21.50). We had a couple coffees and Armagnac. With
the 15% service charge (mentioned on the menu) our total bill was a touch under
$100. We turned over an extra $10 for the very good service. We were having such
a good time listening to the music that we moved to the bar for a few more soda
pops or somesuch. It really was a lovely evening in the warm night air. Note
that Hideaway is a sponsor of the current contest. It's an inexpensive restaurant
and with $75 off for two, it's almost free.
Sunday lunch at Restaurant du Soleil brought lovely views of Grand Case Bay, nice food, and nice
conversation with Patricia and Timothy from L'Esperance Car Rental and L'Esperance Hotel. On this lovely afternoon, we ordered a bottle of rose and settled
in. We started with a warm goat cheese salads, warm goat cheese and
rosemary on crispy toast atop a bed of interesting greens with a light
vinaigrette. We choose three specials of beef on skewers topped with mushrooms
and a reduction sauce with veg and mashed pot. Pretty good and very good with a
red Rully from southern Burgundy, near the home of our waiter Frederic. The
fourth diner had the lobster tail and sea scallop fricassee with dirty rice - no
problem getting this tasty affair to stand up to a full-flavored Burgundy. I
can't think of a better way to ease into a good afternoon flop on the beach than
a great lunch overlooking the beach. This is a great place to
start.
On Monday night some friends asked us
to join them at Montmartre Restaurant. How could we refuse? They are one of the best French restaurants and as
they are on the Dutch side, the price is not a matter of debate. Great food,
great service, lovely place, not much view, but it is next to Atlantis Casino.
We shared some goat cheese salad, onion soup, and the foie gras for aps. The
foie was lightly cooked with Monbazillac and I added a glass of sweet
Monbazillac rather than the wonderful 97 Beaune Premier Cru Champs Pimont that
was waiting. The Burgundy was wonderful with the capon leg stuffed with
more foie gras and topped with morels. The French seabass in a salt crust
arrived looking like Lot's wife, but after Olivier's ministrations emerged as a
pair of moist, boneless filets. The ouassous (large freshwater shrimp
farm-raised in Guadeloupe) were menacing looking with their long claws still
attached, but quite tasty. The filet mignon with peppercorn sauce was a lovely
piece of beef, cooked to perfection, and surrounded by veg including a roasted
garlic head. The roasted veal chop was flambéed with cognac, and
bathed in a morel mushroom sauce. One of them made an excellent lunch the
next day. Coffees arrived with a dessert platter that disappeared in a flash.
The dessert platter is an excellent way for a group to sample the pastry chef's
abilities (in this case, quite good) without anyone having to admit that they
ordered dessert. The bottle of home-made flavored rum was left on the table and
we were the last to leave.
Tuesday may have been the nicest day
of the year and the evening on the balcony at La Vie en Rose was perfection. A soft breeze stirred the night air as we looked
over the waterfront to Anguilla. This restaurant has been here for 25 years and
seen lots of changes on this waterfront, but they still have a lovely spot in
beautiful location. Fine china, good silver-plate, and excellent service
complement an extremely interesting menu. We had the 2002 Jaboulet
Crozes-Hermitage at 30 euros again. It's not overpowering and as we were having
a mille-feuille of tuna and eggplant that seemed a good idea. The mille-feuille
had large baked parmesan cracker leaning against it and floated on a bed of
greens. Our dinners were a veal loin stuffed with a poultry and veg forcemeat
and the lobster and boneless rabbit combination in a light honey and
vanilla sauce. The veal dish was quite good and sounds fairly normal, but it is
a bit of work to prepare as it combines several elements. My dinner sounds
stranger, mixing fish and meat and adding honey and vanilla? Francois, the
maitre'd, raised an eyebrow and noted that it was a bit sweet as I ordered it.
It was and it worked. Our bees in NY produce a delicate honey from our fields
that have a hard time producing bee balm, goldenrod, and other wildflowers. This
was a more full flavored honey, possibly acacia, but used sparingly with just
hints of vanilla to make a lovely light sauce. The chewy lobster and the tender
rabbit produced a nice contrast and their delicate flavors were
complemented by the honey and vanilla. We had coffees with
complimentary plate of small desserts and finished out the evening
talking about these dishes and the fact that we would happily have tried any of
the other dishes on the rather long menu. Our friends had departed, so we could
not order the dessert platter. Our bill was 116 euros, which became about $140
via a 1.2 to 1 rate - not bad given the actual 1.35 rate!
On the way home, we
stopped at Mario's Bistro to make reservations. Martha's brother, the
Executive Chef at Frank's Restaurant in Pawley's Island, SC, will be
arriving next week and this is one stop we wanted to make. We got a table for
seven on April Fool's Day and an invite to the corner table on the water for
Armagnac. This is another great spot for enjoying the lovely night air. Armagnac
and gossip flowed as Didier and Martyne finished their night in the dining room
and Mario eventually emerged from the kitchen. Ever mindful of the
balloon-toting gendarmes, we finished with glasses of water and headed home
through the lowlands. The legal limit on the French side is 0.5 BAC as opposed
to 0.08 in the US. Basically it means you can charge up on 2.5 drinks (rather
than 4, as in the US) and then have one per hour after that.
Warning: This may bore
the pants off all but the most interested foodies: The next night at
dinner Martha and I discussed the meal at La Vie en Rose. Martha was
a chef at what was arguably the best restaurant in the Saratoga Springs area in
the eighties and went on to a career in restaurant consulting after that, so she
has some knowledge of this field. I started cooking in a late night diner at the
age of 15. It was entirely illegal, but my parents at least knew where I was.
Eventually I was the captain of one of the largest dining halls at MIT and did a
bit more short order cooking and hung around my first wife's restaurants and
bars entirely too much. Specifically, we were discussing a topic brought up on
TTOL: is the cost of the best restaurants here justifiable or worth it - not
exactly the same question.
Let's start with justifiable.
The waterfront location adds some cost. The physical plant is in perfect nick,
not cheap in a rough environment at the end of a long supply chain. The deep
pink enamel paint on the woodwork is stunning and
matches the awnings, etc - somebody, a designer perhaps, thought about this and
got paid for his thoughts. Real china costs real money and real heavy
silverplate costs a heavy amount of silver. The staff knows service and has been
there for some time. You can't keep good staff if they don't make good money.
All these expenses come before one even considers the food. The menu
has four soups, nine aps, six fish dishes, six meat dishes, and six desserts. A
quick comparison with several online menus from around the island shows this to
be one of the larger menus and even that is deceiving as many dishes, like my
lobster and rabbit, or Martha's veal and poultry forcemeat, contain two main
course ingredients. This is not necessarily as expensive as it could be because
the lobster from the fish course doubles as the lobster accompanying my
rabbit and the offcuts from the poultry on the menu become part of the forcemeat
in Martha's dish. It is a complication and complications are where major money
comes in as people are required to do the work. Forcemeat doesn't fall off the
back of the Sysco truck with the jalepeno poppers and breaded mozzarella sticks.
Many of the dishes had a pastry accompaniment. The mille-feuilles did
and my veg came with a pastry crust. The lamb dish that I had on our
previous visit had chops with the loin in a pastry crust
with oyster mushrooms and truffles. My ap had a baked parmesan
cracker. The dishes contain many ingredients, many of them expensive,
and all have to be assembled. We think these efforts justify the cost, although
we don't have much knowledge of local labor costs. We do know that we find it
difficult to get food of this quality at this price in the US and this comment
extends to almost all restaurants on the island.
The other question, is it worth it,
is really up to you. Dino's Craig Spann-designed Temptation and his new Dare to
be Rare steakhouse (opening
soon), Citrus Restaurant, Montmartre
Restaurant, and Sol e
Luna are all beautiful and we
like to dine in them, but we also like a view with dinner so the waterfront
restaurants appeal to us and we recognize that we pay for that and the beautiful
restaurants. Good service is fairly easy to find, but the better
restaurants have a lot of staff to handle the busy times. Will plastic
plates and cutlery cause the foie gras to taste less luscious, especially if the
Monbazillac is in a plastic cup? I don't know and I doubt that you will find out
at any restaurant. Does the Laguiole cutlery at Le
Cottage Restaurant make the
duck platter taste better? Probably not, but as my Cliffhanger tee-shirt says: "You don't need alcohol to have a good time,
but why chance it?" Indeed, why chance it? The truth is you
don't have to do this all the time. The same TTOL thread mentioned Bistro Nu,
Saint Severin, and Marrakech where you can get a great meal in Marigot for under
$100. Just as I like contrasting flavors and textures in my food, I appreciate
good, honest food prepared well and served efficiently in modest surroundings.
Gotta go, you are hereby saved by:
Vinissimo's Wine
Tasting: We had a
taste of a lovely 99 Chambolle-Musigny from Clerget and the Chateauneuf-du-Pape Soleil et Festins from
Domaine Saint Benoit. We took home three bottles of the Chateauneuf-du-Pape
as it was a big, bold wine capable of standing up to the lamb tenderloins in a
spicy curry that we were having for dinner.
On Friday we had a lunch at Cliffhanger above Cupecoy Beach,
one of the few spots that has sand. It was a spectacular afternoon with great
views of the beach and on the beach. Talk about a cheeseburger in paradise! We
actually had a very tasty mahi sandwich and a hamburger with several Presidentes
to while away the time until the green flash descended into the blue
water!
SHAMELESS COMMERCE
DIVISION
JD McKnight, aka ruralcarrier,
set us up with a company that puts calls into SXM from the US at less than
20¢ per minute. But wait, there's more. All right, I'll stop
the Ron Popiel act, but I have now been using this for about a month and I am
extremely happy with the way it works. It's a prepaid plan, so there can't be
any BIG surprises. It starts out as the usual approach wherein
you have to call them, enter a pin, then the number you want to dial. By the
time you do that, you're too tired to want to talk to anyone. This company adds
online features that make it much easier to use. First, you go to
their website, sign up for $25 and they give you $26.25, making phone calls even
cheaper. You get a pin that consists of your phone number and a few more digits,
not impossible to remember, but a bit of a pain. You can continue online and set
up your home phone to be recognized by them via caller ID and you don't even
have to enter your pin. In addition, you can program your favorite numbers into
their speed dial online. I set this up from the island, found the seven digit
local access number for my father's area, set his phone as an authorized
user, and set my cell phone number here on the island as one of the
speed dial numbers. My father can call me for less than 20¢ per minute by
dialing a seven digit local number and then entering two digits into the speed
dial! I checked and they are doing the accounting well, no surprises. You could
do the same by getting a cell phone from Pack Light
Rentals. Do it early enough and you can get
the cell number reserved. Go online and set this up. Your kids, housesitter,
parents, whoever, office, can call you in an emergency or just for a low cost
chat. Incoming calls to your cell cost you nothing. Moreover,
this service allows you to call from the US all over the world
and all over the US, not just SXM. The rate in the US is 3.5¢ per minute, so
we'll be using it there also. The shameless commerce part is that if you go to
this page, and I refer you, I
get $5 credited to my account, if you sign up.
BARGAINS
Look on the SXM-Restaurants website
for a list of all restaurants that have coupons for some freebie or
discount. There are several coupons there to make your vacation a bit
cheaper.
L'Esperance Hotel in Philipsburg is bargain at $75 per
night for a 1BR suite with a kitchen. It's not on the water, but they have a
pool.
Turquoise Shell Guesthouse in Simpson Bay is bargain at $700
per week for a 1BR suite with a kitchen, all taxes and service included. It's
across the street from the water and they have a pool. Make a reservation and
get a $50 coupon to Ama Jewelers and a $25 coupon to Hot
Tomatoes.
The Banana
Cabana, a one bedroom studio on the
lagoon in Cupecoy, is only $695 for the week all taxes and service
included.
California has two apartments for rent that are right on the water
in Grand Case. The one bedroom, sleeps four, is $900 and the two bedroom, sleeps
six, maybe more, is $1100 for the week.
Sandy Molloy at Molloy Travel says that she has negotiated a great deal at Alamanda and has can't
beat rates at Le Petit, L'Esplanade, Maho, and La Plantation. If you like great
food, Le Petit and L'Esplanade are the two bookends on Grand Case's restaurant
row. Maho is in the thick of the action in Simpson Bay and if you're part of the
birthday suit crowd, La Plantation is a lovely place within walking distance of
Orient beach. I've never been in Alamanda, but it's even closer to Orient Beach.