St Maarten/St Martin 20 March 2011 Newsletter Other newsletters Contests | Restaurants | Bargains and Happenings ISLAND NEWS

Thursday and Friday were much the same, but Friday evening had a little bit of rain. The fullish moon lit up the waves at Coralita Beach beautifully as we drove north from Oyster Pond to dinners in Grand Case and Cul de Sac. Above right is a shot taken on Saturday after we returned to Cupecoy. It was a clear largely cloudless day, but Saba's rain forest on the top of Mt Scenery has a crown of clouds. Below left and center is a photo of a tub that has been bobbing about off our balcony in Cupecoy. It appears to have plenty of communication facilities and few markings. It appeared around the time of the regatta and is still here. Below right is a shot of Saba later that evening as the sun set.

The box shows the current local conditions and here's the detailed forecast from Weather Underground and here's one from the Weather Channel. Sunset today is at 6:26 and the moon is full. The next few days will be a great time to be dining on the water. In 2011 the full moons will be 18 Apr, 17 May, 15 Jun, 15 Jul, 13 Aug, 12 Sep, 12 Oct, 11 Nov, and 10 Dec.

SXM-Beaches: On the right is a shot taken from the Horny Toad Guesthouse looking east past Azure Beach Studios, La Siesta Residence, and Turquoise Shell Inn to Royal Palm (the low white buildings on the right). Behind them is the taller Atrium building and between these two is where the final party of the Regatta went on until 3AM. If you want to be part of it, be here for the first weekend in March. Bear in mind that this is only half the beach. The view to the west goes past Mary's Boon and Karakter (a great beach bar) and ends with the setting sun. This part of the beach is quite close to the runway. The panorama below was stitched together from photos taken at Bonita's Cantina. If you took your eyes off the 10 TVs, this is the view you would have. The background is the central highlands and the foreground is the lagoon. On the right is Marina del Sol, home of the mega-yachts. Dead center with the red roofs is Port de Plaisance which sports a few yachts of its own. Rising up the hill behind that is Almond Grove which has some spectacular villas, some with views to the sun setting behind the airport as the planes take off toward you, before veering to the southeast.

Beach reading: Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman - about $8 - This is one of the first of the Joe Leaphorn series. The story begins with Ernesto Cata, a twelve-year-old Zuni boy, proudly and diligently practicing for his role as Little Fire God, in which he will lead his village and dance an all-night attendance on the Council of the Gods. But, in a practice run, the boy comes face to face with a kachina. The Little Fire God disappears and then his best friend George Bowlegs, a Navaho, also disappears. As Leaphorn investigates, George's father is murdered. A hippie commune, the FBI, a narcotics agent, and an archeological dig all get woven into the story before it is neatly tied up. Along the way, you'll learn alot about the Zuni and the Navaho tribes.

Sapphire Beach Club: We are in our condo at this time. It will be available for rent again starting in mid-April at rates ranging from $700 to $1000 per week until 15 Dec, when high season kicks in again. You'll get a 10% discount from Unity Car Rental, one of the longest running and most trusted on the island, and many more coupons as well, including the use of our 2010 SXM Privilege Card that gets you discounts on many restaurants. Check the calendar on our website for available dates. A recent visitor said, "Erich, We had a wonderful time at your condo for the third year in a row. We appreciated the coupons. Hope to be able to do it again next year." On the right is a view of Les Mammelles, the twin peaks in the French lowlands, taken from our lagoon-side balcony. Atop the left hand peak is the home of Stew Leonard

For those of you who wish to sell or rent their week or unit, we have opened up the Sapphire Beach Club website for that purpose. We charge $25 per year. If you wish to rent or sell your unit, send us some text (and $25 to esk@sxm-info.com via Paypal). If you wish to rent or buy a unit without high middleman fees, check out the website. At present, there are 20 sales and/or rentals available directly from owners. Given a 25 to 35% standard rental commission, there should be some bargains in eliminating the middleman and dealing direct.

SXM-Hotels: We are vacationing in Oyster Pond this week, staying at Lighthouse Villa 1A for a week with the owners of the unit and another couple. Actually, it's not much of a vacation as I still am laboring away on this newsletter. This unit has two fantastic bedrooms with king-size beds and large and lovely attached bathrooms. The third bedroom has has a queen-size bed with a smaller, quite adequate bathroom. This is a first floor unit, so in addition to having 2100 feet of indoor space, it has 800 feet of terrace overlooking the entrance to Oyster Pond, which gives it the panoramic view of the nature preserve below.

Activities: It's not much activity, but you can drop a fishhook off a dock. The gentleman on the left is on the dock in Grand Case. There are often people fishing off the French Bridge. Deep sea fishing charters are readily available, try Rudy, Lee, and Taylor Made. Prices start at $150 per person for a half day charter to $300 per person for a full day. None of them let you keep your catch, though they all say you can have enough for dinner. Roy says you can keep your catch. On the right is some mahi caught by two lucky gentlemen.

Groceries: On Monday we headed over to Skipjack's to pick up some fresh fish for dinner and found some luscious mahi, picking up two pounds for about $25. Martha made a marinade with some orange juice, garlic mashed with salt, olive oil, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, and ground pepper (styled somewhat after Skipjack's pineapple salsa), cooked the fish over charcoal, and served it with a bit of rhubarb relish. Great. We cooked at home again on Wednesday night, having foraged for some half-price duck breasts in the frozen food aisle at Grand Marché.

Alcohol: Earlier on Monday we stopped in at Select Wine Cellar to procure enough wine to get us through the week. We sampled a 2007 Bourgogne Chardonnay Domaine Amiot Servelle (around $25) and a 2009 Vouvray Les Argiles from Chidaine (around $33). The burgundy is a bit old for a white, but was quite good. The Vouvray has a hint of sweet fuzziness, making a very cold bottle a thing of beauty on a warm day. We then had a great lunch at Champagne Snack Bar (see below), during which Sylvain brought out a 2008 Sancerre Rouge from Vacheron ($35). A red Sancerre is not rare, but at least unusual. We bought three of each and rounded out a case with three bottles of our house wine, the 2007 Cote de Beaune from Chantal Lescure ($33). I picked up six more 750 ml bottles of Angostura Rum (about $22) at Sunny Foods in Pburg. They are on the grocery map. I put four bottles (3 liters) into a plastic wine bladder and asked some friends to take it home. Declare three liters and they'll generally let two people in with no duty.

Traffic: We've done a bit of traveling this week as we have been out in Oyster Pond. It takes about a half hour to get to either Grand Case or Cul de Sac from here. Orient Beach is about five to fifteen minutes closer, depending on the section of Orient you wish to visit. Philipsburg is about a ten minute drive. On Friday, our friends were meeting some friends at the Café on the Bay on the lagoon in Simpson Bay between Pineapple Pete and Tropicana Casino. They left at 5:00PM for 5:30 cocktails and arrived on time. Their friends left Cupecoy at 4:00PM and got stopped by both the 4:30 and 5:30 bridge openings, arriving about 15 minutes late, even though it is a much shorter drive. The lesson here is that one cannot head east through Simpson Bay after 3PM during the week. The photo on the right is from blog by Jess: An American in St. Maarten.

Nature: On a recent trip from Marigot to Grand Case we saw a lone iguana on top of the ghut at the entrance to Friar's Bay, first of the season. Shortly thereafter I saw two dead on the road and chased one off the road in La Savane. Another first of the season is this tomato on Wendy K's patio. Given the cost of water down here, I'm not sure what this one costs, but I'm told it was good. Our office is well over 100% solar-powered and our servers are about 130% wind-powered. Small Island story: The Daily Herald had a story about the island's PM attempting to soothe the Dutch after the Committee for Financial Supervision rejected the 2010 budget again, because it was neither balanced or realistic. Other than that, I'm sure it was very nice. I'm sure you missed it, I know I did, but this is the budget for 2010 they are arguing about.

SXM-Info welcomes a new prize to the list: a one week rental for half off the posted rates on the LAW Car Rental website. Taxes and insurance are NOT included. As you can request five prizes on one entry form, you could win a bargain on lodging, car rental, entertainment, dinner, and a gym to work it off! That would be five prizes to one person.

Current Contest:

27 February to 24 April 2011
Caribbean View Condo - half price summer rental (May-October)
Lagoon Pub Crawl - two for one ticket
Skipjack's - $50 off a dinner for two
Select Wine Cellar - Wine tasting and a bottle of wine
Random Wind - $40 gift certificate
MMG 2000 - Two for One week at the gym with a shake
Peg Leg Pub - $50 off a dinner for two
Radiant Gems - $50 off a purchase of $200 or more
Lighthouse at Oyster Bay - $1000 off a summer week (June-October)
Piazza Pascal - $50 off dinner for two
SXM-Privilege Discount Card - One free monthly card
LAW Car Rental - Half price Car for a week

Read our rules, visit the websites of these sponsors, find their contest codes, and enter them on our entry form.

One of the rules is that you should enter each contest only once. You can enter five of the drawings on one entry. Thus, you could win a rather nice vacation at a considerable savings by combining accommodations with dinners and activities.

Future Contests:
24 April to 24 July 2011 | 24 July to 30 October 2011 | 30 October to 25 December 2011
same cast of characters as current contest

La Source Restaurant     In the previous week, on Friday evening we headed over to Marigot Marina Royale for a Soirée Cochonnaille, a two to four course dinner based on pork products from David (left) at La Source. It's located in the old Hediard shop just off the marina, behind Le Village Restaurant. By day the restaurant serves breakfast and lunch, focusing on fresh, maybe even healthy, cuisine. There is also a formula lunch featuring a plat du jour and a drink for a fairly low price. The restaurant itself is very modern and new, quite smart with an indoor air-conditioned space and an outdoor terrasse, but with no view of the marina. Dinner was 29€ for two courses (main, cheese or dessert) and 43€ for four courses (ap, main, cheese, and dessert). We ordered one of each option so we could taste everything. We were given a kir (a shot of cassis mixed into a crisp Bourgogne Aligoté) and shortly thereafter an amuse bouuche arrived (right).         It was boudin, a blood sausage, on a bed of caramelized onions on crisp toast. The smooth texture of the boudin contrasted with the crisp baguette and a sweet onion flavor worked its way into the boudin. It was quite a treat and even though we were drinking a white wine, the infusion of the cassis added enough flavor to make it an interesting companion to the plate. Our next course was a plat de charcuteries artisanales from France, a plate of cooked and air-dried pork products. On the left of the plate hiding behind the cornichons there are two slices of raw ham from Vendée (just south of Britanny) and proceeding clockwise we have Andouille from Guemené, dry pork, and a bit of garlic saucisson. All of these taste delights were handmade in Britanny in northwest France, ie close to Britain.       My main course was the Palette de porc à la Bourguignonne (pork shoulder) with chestnuts atop a moussiline of celeriac (left). The rich brown sauce added a lot of flavor as did the chestnuts. The creamy smooth moussiline added a textural counterpoint to the chestnuts and pork. Martha had the Saucisse de Morteau with potatoes and onions. The sausage features garlic and demands the mustard while the potatoes and onions add flavor and texture. Neither of these are David's creations, they have been around for a long time, but they have been around because they are so good. In my old age, I'm beginning to like authentic food rather than loft and whimsy.         David presented a selle su cher (the white cheese with the black rind), a reblochon (the creamy cheese with the white and yellow rind), and a ti medoc au noix (a cheese from the Medoc with walnut oil brushed on the rind). The first was a creamy smooth and fairly mild goat cheese. Reblochon is one of my favorites and the walnut infusion on the last made it quite interesting. A garnish of crisp arugula was included. If you want to know more, get it from the source: Steven Jenkins' Cheese Primer. Steven really likes reblochon, as do I. We stopped at US Market and picked up a half round (about a two-thirds of a pound) for about $11.       Our wine was a bottle of red Burgundy which worked well with the charcuteries, main courses, and the cheese plate. We finished that as the dessert arrived: Ice cream and fried bananas atop French toast The menu at 29€ is about $40 and the 43€ version is amost $60 at the current exchange rate. That is a great deal for a four course course meal. It was even better because David is using 1.2 as the exchange rate. With wine, we spent 116€ which came to $140 for a four course meal with a good bottle of Burgundy. We did leave a bit more for a tip, but in the 5-10% range, not the 15-20% range. I asked David to let me know when he will be doing another of these dinners and I hope I get enough lead time to tell you.

Champagne Snack Bar On Monday we went to Select Wine Cellar for a tasting followed by lunch next door at Champagne Snack Bar. We were in this terrace, hard by the parking lot, but the sun was shining and except for the guy in the baseball cap, I had a great view. The specials were blanquette de veau (a veal stew, $15) and tuna two ways, carpaccio and tartare ($16). Our friends had a chicken salad and and a half rotisserie chicken with crisp fries. Sylvain ducked into the store and brought out a 2008 red Sancerre from Vacheron. It was a great lunch all around and with waters and coffees, we still spent well under $100 for five of us.

On Sunday, our first night in Oyster Pond, we took it easy and walked over to Daniel's by the Sea, (Mr Busby's Beach Bar during the day). It's run by Daniel who used to run Da Livio's in Pburg. Eventually, he gave up on the western end of Pburg and moved out here. He traded one of the more upscale restaurants in St Maarten's main city for a beach bar next to the Oyster Bay Beach Resort. In doing so, I think he caught up with the changes in tourists coming to the island. This seemed especially true when we were told we could have a table, but they were so busy that no one could wait on us for about 45 minutes. Big Fish, a recent arrival, is also doing well having moved from its small location on the water to larger digs in the Coral Beach Club. Their old space is now called Floaters and, similarly, they could not accept a party of six. We eventually walked over to Infinity, Oyster Bay's fine dining restaurant run by Spartaco who used to run his own restaurant in Almond Grove. This one also features Italian cuisine and a pretty good wine list. Service was good and the prices were fair. I forgot the camera as it was the end of a very busy day, so no photos. Obviously, the one on the right with the beautiful daytime view was not happening at 8PM when we arrived, but is available most days.

Ti Bouchon Restaurant On Tuesday, all six of us headed over to Ti Bouchon for a dinner with Momo. We were pleasantly surprised to find Thierry Delaunay in the kitchen. We have long considered him to be one of the most interesting and innovative chefs on the island. By this I mean combining French and island flavors or adding Asian touches without resorting to foolish visual jokes. On the left is a frog leg appetizer. It's simple, frog legs crumbed, cooked in butter with parsley on a bed of lettuce. It's also quite good, although it doesn't taste any better no matter how cutely you arrange the legs. Our other ap was a pea velouté, a velvety pea soup. We ordered a bottle of Borgogne (Chardonnay) to go with the aps. Our dinners were a jumbo shrimp dish (left), a special of hake with sliced shrimp (above right), a pork tenderloin with a creamy light colombo sauce (Thierry adding an Asian touch, right), four extremely large scallops, lightly seared (below left), and a marmite featuring all of the seafood mentioned and a bit more in a lobster-based sauce (below center). They all were priced in the $24 to $30 range       As I shared some of Martha's marmite, I can say that all of the seafood was quite good. My hake and shrimp dish was very nice. Hake is related to cod so it is a delicately-flavored, not very firm, white fish. The texture of the dish was improved by the addition of the few slices of firm shrimp and the slices of leeks in a creamy sauce. There was plenty of flavor in any of these fish dishes and most of us had Fleurie, a cru Beaujolais, with our dinners. Our sole (meaning only, not the flat fish) dessert was a creme caramel, unless you count my old rum. We had a couple bottles of water and various coffees, bringing the bill to $380 for six people or about $130 per couple. We added a bit of a tip as we had Momo working hard to serve a table of six along with a fairly full porch. If you go to the site, you'll see that the dining room is the wraparound porch on a brightly colored Créole cottage. We had a great time on that porch especially as a fullish moon was lighting up the land. Momo has more stories than Aesop and many of them have something to do with food, some are even true.

Palm Beach Restaurant We headed up to Palm Beach for a loaf on Orient. We had reserved a cabana and were offered a choice of the two-level cabanas away from the beach or the primo spot in the cabana between the main building and the beach. That's the one in the photo that opened this newsletter. It was quite pleasant in the shade with a breeze keeping us cool. We ordered water and rosé and enjoyed an hour in the cabana before moving to the upstairs dining area. If this photo of the dining area (ignore the patrons) doesn't make you want to come here nothing will. Sitting on the second level looking over the beach to the mountains in the distance while enjoying good food and wine with sunshine and an 80F temperature seems to me to be the quintessential Caribbean experience.   Palm Beach is owned and run by Koko and Marina, and is at the northern (Mount Vernon) end of Orient Beach. The grounds are stunning, the facilities are the newest on the beach, and the accoutrements are spectacular. We had polished off two bottles of the La Croix rosé (29€) and ordered a bottle of Cotes du Rhone Monredon for lunch. We had three orders of moules, two with cream, one with a touch of curry (18€ each), a duck breast salad (19€), an salmon salad (18€), and a Caesar salad (11€). I can vouch for both versions of the mussels and Martha liked the duck breast salad. The total bill came to 194€ including a new French side 2% tax and via a charitable exchange rate of 1.3, we paid $252 plus a tip for a fabulous afternoon and it wasn't over as we went back to the cabana for a few beers as the daylight faded.