Honeymoon Eats

I had planned to share this with you on Friday (since Friday and Food have this handy first-letter-in-common thing), but what with all the decking the halls and cleaning out the refrigerator and preparing for a rather large spruce to invade our cozy home and chasing after a puppy that went on this weekend, here we are at Monday. Try to look past the fact that "Monday Food" just doesn't have quite the same ring.
We ate such amazing meals on our honeymoon that I'll be blaming them for the drool on my pillow for months. Sadly the pictures don't always do the meals justice, but trust me when I say that just about everything I put into my mouth in Barbados was absolutely heavenly.

This meal (in all its fuzzy glory) wasn't consumed on the honeymoon, but was actually my birthday dinner. We didn't have set plans for the evening, but ended up downtown and decided to try this new burger place that serves mostly local/organic eats. I toasted 25 with a "Citizen 75" (sparkling wine, gin, simple syrup, and lemon juice -- so good and only half a century off... ha!), we started off with way too many truffle fries, and my burger started with local grass-fed beef and included onion, sauteed mushrooms, and rosemary aioli. The whole meal was excellent and I'm happy to add this restaurant to our date night rotation.

This lunch happened twice in our time on the island -- crab salad wrap, fries, and frozen drink, all served poolside. Quick and reasonably priced at the resort's little bar & grill, but so good!

Dinner at the best restaurant in Barbados, which happened to be right at our resort: Dan (left) had teriyaki beef and chicken from the Japanese menu, and I had beef tenderloin, onion, and mushrooms in an oyster sauce (right) from the Thai menu.

Dinner at Mullins Restaurant on the west coast... sadly the only picture I got was of our bread and the yummy olive tapenade they served. After that, I was too busy eating: we started with beer-battered shrimp served over creamed leeks, corn, and chorizo, and my entree was a bouillabaisse-like dish with mahi mahi, shrimp, mussels, oysters, and squid. Everything was delicious except the calamari, which was super over-cooked and terribly chewy :(

Two of the best drinks we had all week (at Mullins before the above dinner). Mine had Malibu, melon and banana liqueurs, and lime and pineapple juice -- although you can't tell from the picture, it was a pretty bright green. The resort had a long list of mixed drinks served at all of their restaurants, bars, and even right to your room, and we tried so many great combinations. Bajans are particularly proud of their rum -- we visited their Mount Gay factory, which is the oldest rum in the world, and brought some home with us. I was also pretty impressed by their wine selections and had a few great reds with dinners. I drank more in a week than I do most months, but never felt sick or regretted anything the next morning -- definitely a sign of a successful vacation!

The best okra I've ever tasted. We Dan cooked dinner in our little kitchen on Wednesday, and this was definitely the highlight for me -- fresh and super cheap at the grocery store.

Not exactly a meal, but how cute is this??

Dessert one night: a chocolate milkshake that was, according to my chocolate-milkshake-connoisseur hubby, one of the best ever, and an absolutely incredible "mud pie" tart.

Our last night on the island, we headed out to a Mexican spot and enjoyed huge margaritas, amazing nachos, and a cilantro/dill sour cream to die for. I had a burrito that beat any I've had in the states, and Dan will be talking about their cheese sauce for years, I think.

Notable meals that escaped my camera:
 -- Two excellent breakfasts at the resort with eggs, blueberry muffins, banana bread, and the best hash browns I've ever eaten.
 -- Our first dinner on the island at the resort's Italian restaurant: Tuscan pizza that might have been Dan's favorite meal of the whole trip, and an incredible wild mushroom risotto for me.
 -- Wednesday's lunch was served on the catamaran and included chicken, flying fish (a Bajan specialty), pasta salad, au gratin potatoes, and lots of rum.
 -- After leaving Barbados, we stopped for an overnight layover in New York City. Although I had plans for a fancy dinner in the city, we were both exhausted and it was late, so we opted for a few slices of New York style pizza and an early bedtime. Still delicious!

Several times over the week, I groaned to Dan "I'm not eating a single thing from now until Christmas." Of course, I broke that promise on the way home from the airport when we stopped at Wawa...

   Love,

    Meg