Conchs and Ten Bay

We asked the bartender at The Beach House for a suggestion of another beautiful spot we might enjoy and she suggested Ten Bay, which I thought she was saying 'Tam Bay,' but I was wrong. Her directions were a little unclear, and the way I transcribed the directions were even more troublesome. This led us to go down one long and bumpy road (most all roads in Eleuthera are long and bumpy) that ended in a loading ramp for boats and plenty of lime stone. It soon became clear that this was a spot where conch fishermen come in and separate the meaty conchy from its pink shell. This resulted in the whole area being littered with empty, slightly broken but still incredibly pretty shells.
I made friends with two of them.

I also took one back to the apartment but ultimately decided that it didn't deserve to find itself in Philadelphia forever. It deserved better than that.
So we didn't get lost exactly (it's hard to get lost on an island with only one main road), but we did struggle to find the turn off for Ten Bay. So we stopped at a little farm/plant store and took a look around before asking the woman manning the register what we were doing wrong.
With her guidance we successfully got to Ten Bay. In fact we had started going down the road that would have ultimately led us to the beach, but it was so bumpy and seemingly remote that we backed up and turned around. The lesson there is, of course, always drive to the end of the road; Lenny can take it. It was a very calm bay, shallow for what seemed like at least 3/4 of a mile, and clear blue waters for as far as you could care to look. There were two houses just feet away from the shore, which inspired a fierce jealousy in me. What a life that would be.


Jealousy.

There were a few others on the beach, but it was very low key and a great way to milk the rest of the day's sunny hours. I think I finished my book there. Family Fang, good book. Really, go read it. I'll wait.

Grouper and Conch Lunch c/o The Beach House

During my plane ride to Eleuthera I did ask the woman across me about good spots for eating. Using the incredibly vague directions I wrote down as a result of that inquiry, we knew that we were looking for The Beach House. And with only a little trial and error, we found it successfully. It was a great spot with plenty of views of the Atlantic. We chose to sit outside in direct sun. The two Bahamian beers one can choose from are Sands and Kalik. I preferred Kalik, I thought it had more actual taste. Ugh. It's too much that this was only 10-ish days ago.
I debated between the grouper 'burger' and the grouper salad. L. was also attracted to both, so we ended up ordering one of each and trying one another's dishes. L. had the lion's share of the burger, while I enjoyed chomped on the salad. When the wind picked up, some of my lettuce blew away.
Fresh fish, great flavor. Food ain't cheap in the Bahamas.
Conch fritters!
After we enjoyed our meal and beers, we followed the Beach House's path to the ocean and took a little look around. The water was far more rough than on the Caribbean side, which makes sense. So we didn't really bother trying to swim or lay out.
Happy vacation faces. It is a tragedy that during the entirety of the trip I had a pimple by my mouth, but we don't have to really linger on the way it mars my otherwise obviously perfect visage.
Seaweed for days.

Driving to Coco di Mama Beach

As is often the case, I awoke an hour or so before L. and took a quick around the grounds of our home for the next five days. We were staying in a one bedroom apartment set up, one of five that were connected. Not right on the beach, but only a short walk to one. It was already nice and warm and the sun, oh how it shined. That is not aloe. It is agave.
You can see a glimmer of the Caribbean just over the trees.
The building.
Me and my new sunglasses.
This kitten just wasn't quittin'.
Before departing from the airport area, we first purchased a case of Sands beer. Then we went to the grocery store and picked up a few essentials: milk, bacon, eggs, turkey hot dogs, Coca Cola, not so great Brie, triscuits. You know. The things that really count.
And then it was time to hit the road. We hadn't originally planned on renting a car, but we soon realized that while everyone might hitch in the Bahamas, we wanted our own set of wheels and autonomy. This worked out for us, as L. had made a call the night before and some time in the early morning, 'lo a car appeared. This was not the Hertz or Avis version of renting a car. No, this was giving a guy $140 cash and being reminded to drive on the left. And the car itself, which we named Lenny in honor of Eleuthera's perhaps most famous sometime resident, was full of quirks. L. took the wheel that day and did an excellent job of driving on the left while I became infatuated with pineapple soda.
We had a number of opportunities to ask and answer the age old question of 'Why did that chicken cross the road?'
Eleuthera has plenty of pretty beaches, or that's we ascertained from the number of suggestions we were given over the course of our stay. On this day we decided to go to the Coco di Mama beach as our first stop. And I think this was an excellent choice. Warm, lovely weather is what it was. You might not really see it, but I'm in this photograph.
L. is in this photograph.
We met another dog. I think this might have been the most handsome and chill of them all.
Even when he walked away he did it with grace.
I think we spent a couple of hours on this beach, alternating between lying down in the sun, lying down in the sun and reading, floating in the water, sipping on one of our Sands beers and then lying down with our eyes closed. Relaxing.

Flying to the Bahamas

As I have mentioned a handful of times, I recently went on a Bahamas vacation adventure with my dear friend L., who left her hubby (Fat Tony) at home. Since we live in different cities, we planned on both flying into Nassau (the main island of the Bahamas, or at least the most built up) and then meeting up and catching a smaller plane to the island of Eleuthera where we were going to get our vacation on. My flight was a direct flight to Nassau from Philly, which left in the mid-morning. The flight was uneventful. Except for the views.
I loved how the glare of the window caused that rainbow effect, and that then you can see the shadows of the clouds on the water below. I also saw a bunch of weird orange/browny stuff that I tried to take a decent photograph of but couldn't. I decided it was oil that had gotten away from the Gulf Coast, which may not make any sense. This photograph below, I like it because it is a photograph of an island and a sea, but it could also be some weird soapy something.
It's good that I risked roaming charges to turn my phone on when I landed, as it was through doing so that I learned that L. had managed to get a direct flight from Miami to Eleuthera, thus cutting out one whole leg of flying for her. I killed some time before my scheduled flight by drinking Kalik beer and reading The Family Fang. The plane to Eleuthera was small, but I struck up a nice conversation with one woman who basically suggested a lot of things I had already read about, but it was nice to get a confirmation of my choices. The plane was very small. There was a moment when it all could have gone wrong when I got off the plane and walked to the small airport and didn't see L. It was at this time that I asked my new lady friend if the plane made two stops, which it did, and caused me to realize that if I didn't hustle/run back to the plane, I was going to be 30 miles from the airport to which I was supposed to be arriving, and with no way to let L. know. Thankfully there are times when I really can hustle, if hustling is truly called for. So, crisis averted.
I safely landed at the N. Eleuthera airport and quickly found Louise enjoying a beer and the company of a native Bahamian at the bar directly across the street from the airport. We hugged. We giggled. We got ourselves to a taxi, which then took us to the Land of Smiles (grocery store) and then on to our abode for the next five nights.
Here begins a series of photographs I took of L. making friends with animals. This little kitten was a resident of the five-apartment set-up we came across. He was cute but rambunctious as hell, as you might pick up on in a later post...but maybe you won't. It'll work out either way, I'm sure.

Lunch c/o Cichetteria 19

The Wednesday before my Bahamas departure I had a few errands I had to run in order to be totally prepared for the vacation that awaited me. It was also 65 degrees and gorgeous. So when I found myself in Center City with most of my errands complete, I decided a last minute Restaurant Week lunch was in order. I got in touch with LW, who also took the day off, and we ended up meeting at Cichetteria 19 (now being rebranded as C19). The deal for lunches during restaurant week is that you get a 3 course meal for $25. Or I think it was $25. I ordered a cocktail, the main notes of which were aperol and seltzer. I liked it though the orange garnish was a little withered.
We both chose the soup option for our first course...peas and rice with Porcsalt bacon bits to boot. An above average rendition of split pea soup.
We also both opted for the "Jonathan King Burger," which was prepared with roasted leeks, Lancaster mushrooms and Gorgonzola dolce. It also came with fries.
A hearty burger nicely seasoned. Didn't go overboard with the gorgozola, which is good because that stuff was riiiiiich. Not really capable of competing with Village Whiskey's wow factor, but definitely a cut above the standard.
And there you have it, basically my last meal worth mentioning before the Bahamas.

Brunch c/o Creperie Beaumonde

My last Sunday before my big Bahamian trip was another rather warm day for so late into the winter season. L. had arranged a brunch party for BC's birthday, which had actually been a little earlier in the week. I walked there, which was a good walk for me to make. It took a little while for the whole party to straggle in, but the coffee was quickly delivered to us and the cream dispensary units were properly in cow shape.
I did not hesitate to order a bloody mary. J. also ordered one but expressed her dislike of olives, so we did an ingenious switcheroo wherein she took my celery in exchange for her olives...we were both pleased by this arrangement. The drink was good and had a nice dollop of horseradish.
I agonized over exactly what kind of crepe I might order. They had a few suggested combinations that certainly appealed to me. In the end I decided on the scrambled eggs with roasted poblano peppers, tomatoes, cheddar cheese (they made it with Swiss but I requested the sub), avocado corn salsa and carmelized tomato sauce. I especially enjoyed the poblano and carmelized tomato tastes, though I was a bit jealous of others' dishes that included poached eggs.
So many potential crepes can be made from their extremely exhaustive list of potential fillings. On a Sunday the place was definitely bumping; families with kids, hipsters making out for what I assumed were engagement photos, middle aged dudes...and us of course. We sang BC a rousing round of happy birthday at a decibel not to be messed with. I imagine the whole restaurant turned and thought to themselves 'who are those bewitching women at that table?' Go with me on that one.
It was nice to see all the familiar faces as well as a few new ones. And thanks to BC for having a birthday to make it happen!

Brunch at Khyber Pass

At some point before my recent vacation I went on a second date. I won't really get into that, but I did take the suggestion of brunch as an opportunity to cross one of the restaurants on my New Years Resolution list off. We started with the beignets, all hot and sugared up.
I debated between a po boy and the fried green tomato BLT and in the end I followed the call of the green tomato, with a side of collard greens. There were a lot of other things on this menu that I'd like to try - fried chicken, the aforementioned po boys, grits etc. The beer list is also no joke. I will return.
Afterwards I met up with BC and enjoyed a mega margarita at Applebees. Our bartender gave us some interesting advice and perspective on the dating game.

Sushi c/o Shiroi Hana

Well, hello there. At the end of January I met up with LW and her friend A. for sushi at Shiroi Hana. Because we were all hungry for it, we ordered the Sushi Love platter, which came with a slew of things. I also added wasabi tobikko and white tuna, LW added a roll that had jalapeno, and A. requested a double eel roll.
I'd never been to Shiroi Hana before and was glad to finally try it. Good food, good company, good price.
Afterwards we went to the Ranstead Room for drinks. I think we all asked for some version of 'let the bartender make us what they want.' My base was bourbon with a flash of benedictine.
We got the sweet corner booth.
A nice evening to round out a rather long and tiresome day.

Time

Ack, I don't have time to catch the blog up to present day before my impending trip to the BAHAMAS. But don't worry, when I return there will be sushi, sandwiches and (I would imagine) plenty of photographs of the beach and me lying on it.

Restaurant Week Dinner c/o Buddakan

Some weeks ago, I asked AS if she might not want to go to another fancier-than-average restaurant during the winter Restaurant Week madness. She expressed interest, so it was on. We decided to go big and try out Buddakan, which wasn't too far away from Union Trust, which is where we went in the fall. I walked the three + miles, which wasn't too much of a thing since winter isn't really doing its thing this year...except that about a mile in to the walk it began to spit rain and I hadn't thought to bring an umbrella. Thank goodness it didn't really get worse. We both decided to get specialty cocktails. I chose "Solid," which was a mixture of bourbon, jasmine, honey and cherry. AS went with a drink that I recall being named "Strength," which I don't see on their downloadable cocktail list. I think it was gin based with cilantro perhaps? I enjoyed my beverage very much and appreciated the slightly fancier version of cherries - no neon red, but a subdued burgundy that packed a sweetness and a bit of tartness into each little bite.
Because it was restaurant week, we were given a few different options for our three courses. We were both intrigued by the satay and dumplings, so ordered both and split them. The satay was certainly above average in terms of the cut of meat or its preparation. Far more tender and rare than the satay you might get in a high turnover thai place. You'll note that the lighting posed a considerable challenge to me. In fact none of the dumpling photographs are worth any of our collective time, but they were delicious and I could have eaten far more than the two allotted to me.
Our server was pretty cool considering the shit show of people in the place. When I asked him if I should go with the fried sea bream or the shortribs with chow fun, he suggested the bream as it better displayed what the chefs could do. I'm not sure I 100% understand that argument, as the bream was fried and I've always thought that it takes less talent to fry something than it does to slowly make something tender as hell...but if I am not anything, I'm most certainly not an expert. The bream came with a mandarin miso sauce and gingered cucumbers and a few peppers. The citrus note of the sauce was a little weird for me, but the fish was really delightful. The light batter was nice and crisp and had a saltiness to it that worked, and the fish inside was nice and moist and flaky and delicious. AS also ordered the wasabi mashed potatoes, which were an interesting combo. I think I would have liked them even a little spicier.
For dessert I chose the 'dip sum' donuts. These five spice sugar suckers were fresh from the fryer and came with a chocolate sauce, blackberry jam and gingered cream cheese. These were quite tasty but filling at the end of the meal. I wasn't able to actually finish them all and AS' chocolate lava dessert was so filling for her, she couldn't give it a shot either.
It was certainly crowded. And we were given a table by a column, which blocked the view of the larger dining space/giant buddha on display...but the server wasn't grumpy and the food was really tasty. I'd go back again and try a few different things. Though probably not all at once; place is pricey.