4/21/2010 Union

on wed we met up with our friend jeff at Union. one of chef ethan stowell's restaurants. we hadn't been in a couple years and it was jeff's 1st time.

(quick shoutout to jeff, who while we were gone threw what turned out to be 1 heckuva party based on the pics i saw, and it was chef ethan and crew who catered it!)

anyway, it was seattle restaurant week. basically a whole bunch of eateries join up and offer this 3 course meal for only $25/pp.  ours was more because we had to order wine. it's meant to get people out of the house, helps the economy, helps the local businesses and farmers et al, and allows people to 'sample' restaurants they've never been to or otherwise might not afford or try. here's the link to the seattle times article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/seattlerestaurantweek/
and here's the FB page:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/SeattleRestaurantWeek?ref=ts

at Union we had 3 choices in each category; appy, entree, and dessert.





 

angela was there to greet us when we got to the table, and brought us out some little oysters. on top was a mix of a few things (i'd be guessing) but it had a little spice to it. i tried one, but it's not my thing, so i let the guys fight over my 2nd. (yes there were 6 initially. i had to fight them off to get a pic of the 4!

prosecco, my favorite pre-dinner bubbly.

frisee salad; bacon, soft boiled egg, and pork rillette (had by jeff and myself)

chilled pea soup; taggiasca olives, croutons (had by matt)

looks pretty good, doesn't it? it wasn't bad. i'm not huge on cold soups or on peas, but it wasn't bad.

halibut; controne beans, fava beans radish (had by jeff but tasted by all) it was *way* yummy!

potato gnocchi; pork ragu, oregano, mint. chef ethan makes the *best* gnocchi!

and we all had teh chocolate budino; creme fraiche, orange florentine( and tuille) for dessert.

4/11/2010-4/17/2010 CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

and we're back at saturday, with spaghetti for lunch.

again the pork chops were tough. i didn't even try it but i watched matt struggle with his. i had the fried fish with tartar sauce.

i took pics of the food line today.

i don't remember what's in the 1st dish - maybe it was salad instead of being set up on the 'special salad cart'
spaghetti in the 2nd
sauce in the 3rd

garlic bread, rice and beans

watermelon and cookies. on all the boat dives we were offered fruit - matt said it was almost always apple or pineapple, and he think it was mango once. however the 1 i was on we were offered some pineapple, and in front of us was a try of watermelon.

for dinner there's the veg on the left, chops in the middle and the fish on the right

rice, veges and something

bread and fruit

and marble cake for dessert. still not quite sure what the icing was but the closest i can come to describing it is caramel.

today i tried that beef fajita. the aroma was fine, and the flavor of the beef wasn't bad, but i got stopped at the tortilla used. in honduras they eat tortillas like we do bread. only theirs is a corn tortilla, and are quite heavy. to me i felt like i was trying to eat cardboard. i didn't care for the taste, it was heavy and maybe a little grainy to try and describe it. oh well. i had nachos instead.

the chicken was pretty good, as was the shrimp. sadly it wasn't as good as the chicken the week before, but oh well. again pretty bland noodles.

fish fingers again! yay! and fried plantains. if you've never had them think banana, that's what they look like. but they don't taste like bananas.

the pot roast was pretty good. i mean if you cook the heck out of a piece of meat it ought to get tender, right? sadly this wasn't as tender as the pot roast your grandma makes. but of course the calamari was durn good. ice cream for dessert, too! but for some reason they chose rum-raisin flavor.

we actually had this discussion on sunday night with the 2 managers. they came upstairs and chatted while we waited for iron chef america to air. (it was the only time we watched tv on the trip but we weren't about to miss holly go battle chef cora!) we talked about how some foods just don't work in chafing dishes, as well as there are some dishes that work for some people and not for others. i love pineapple upside down cake but mitch isn't a fan, where he likes the flan but i just can't do it. and well, i admit PUDC falls into the category i'm about to mention, but there are some foods, rum raisin ice cream, coconut cream pie, key lime pie to name a few, where there are more people who don't like it than do. oh well.

this was breakfast on monday. fritters buried in powdered sugar and honey. YUM!

the drink counter, opposite the food stations. ice, coffee, tea, water and lemonade 24/7. 

tomato soup again. i did try the quesadillas, but in those heavy corn tortillas it was just not happening. matt said the roast beef sandwhich was good :-). actually matt had some of the quesadillas and he said they really weren't too bad. 

dinner on the cay again. the menu ought to look familiar. sadly the chicken wasn't near as tender and juicy as last week's.

here's a picture of the chimol. tomato, onions, jalepeno - at least i think that was the pepper. it might've been a different one but it was hot and green. and a few other things - cilantro was the main spice if i remember correctly. it was really good. the 1st bite's tame, but after a few you can start to feel the heat. 

the desserts laid out at the BBQ

there was actually more on the table the 1st week. i'm not sure why there was so much space this time. that's the rice salad in the front and the chimol near the back of the picture

a couple of the cooks serving up chicken in front, ribs in the back.

again with the stew beef. i had salami sandwhich, tried the baked plantains which were ok but not really my thing. sweet blandness is what i'd call it. i think there's a picture of them in the near future for your perusal.

this day was another day we really didn't eat too much. the vege lasagna just really wasn't the thing, and the baked grouper was bland except for the butter it was drowned in.

chocolate pie for dessert!

ah yes, the baked plantains. as i said they were sweet, but just blah.

this sauce was on every table. not sure if we know anyone who tried it. with the food we were served it never crossed my mind to try it. maybe it would've made the baked fish taste better! next time....

the chocolate pie. yes, you can see i was eating it. it looks good, doesn't it? do you like chocolate pudding? that's really what this was. a chocolate pudding in a pie crust (which was spretty decent but not super flaky) and that dollop of whipped cream on top? it's really marshmallow fluff!

lunch on the cay again. same menu again. this time i tried the hondura tacos. nope, again it was the tortilla, not the insides that turned me off.

the ham for dinner was pretty basic. not quite as juicy or sweet as the honeybaked ham (spiral cut this was not) one gets here in the states, but it was totally edible to where you weren't near hungry later. the shrimp didn't do it for me here. aside from having to peel them (too much work for me) i just didn't care for the flavor. but the mashed potatos were pretty good! creamy, just the right texture.

the honduran tacos hot off the grill

the toppings: jalepeno peppers, chopped cabbage (!), and cheese.  and you can see the cheeseburgers in the corner of the pic, too.

all dressed up and ready to eat.

i think all the soups must've been campbells, because this one looked and tasted just like it, too. i thought about taking a pic of the grilled cheese sandwich platter but i just couldn't. we all know what a grilled cheese sandwich is, right? you butter the bread, place it on griddle/in skillet butter side down, then put cheese on it and stack the bread so toasted side's out, right? these were 2 slices of bread with cheese in the middle, which had been melted in the microwave.

lobster for dinne ragain? gee darn! :-P

plantain chips

and a last pic for you from the trip. it's not sanka, it's kasinka!

4/3/2010-4/10/2010 CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

i thought i'd do a write up on the food at CoCo View, but instead of everyday, i'd do 2 posts, 1 for each week. of course, i thought of this on the 2nd day. lucky for me saturday's menu is pretty much the same every week.

breakfast was the same everyday.
french toast, pancakes, waffles and omelets made to order, some sort of grain/oat cereal, mango or melon slices, yogurt, scrambled eggs, toast/english muffins, and the rotating item was either crispy bacon, canadian bacon or sausage. orange juice replaced the lemonade.


we arrived for lunch on saturday. turns out spaghetti is always saturday lunch. but it keeps well as they have to be able to serve lunch until possibly as late as 3.30.  i have to say mom's spaghetti sauce is the best i've ever had (next to mine of course) and i'd say this was next in line. i was surprised it was so good.

dinner was pulled pork, steamed veges, dinner rolls, a slice of cake, and probably another protein but i don't remember which. the pork was also very good. i was a little skeptical at first, reading that it's all buffet so it's that or nothing. plus seeing how difficult it would be to go elsewhere if they served something where i needed other food.

 on sunday i got my act together and started to take pictures of the menu board. i'll give you a few tidbits as we go, and then there are a few extra pics i took in the 2nd week of actual food.

sorry, some of these i thought came out a little better than they actually did. this one however wasn't me, but the camera had fogged up for a few minutes due to the heat and humidity.

the chili had beans in it of course but it wasn't too bad. went great with the corn chips. the cheese puffs were something else. no, seriously, they were something else. they were little cornbread things.

again the chicken surprised me. it was moist and had a great flavor. the shrimp wasn't too bad either. the coconut bread was a very light bread made with coconut milk and didn't taste anything like coconut. and my favorite, upside down pineapple cake.

the fish fingers were pretty good, too!can't say much for the 2 salads.

the roast beef looked a little tough, which matt confirmed but the calamari was pretty good. it was served with chimichuri sauce. tuesday we had a chimol sauce, and this was similar only more green in color where the chimol is red.

chicken noodle soup, while i enjoy it on a cold winter day or when i'm not feeling well, this was nothing to write home about. boiled shrimp was pretty bland and the beef fajita salad. well it kind of scared me. lunch wasn't too great.

dinner was a good bit better. it was out on the cay. the chicken was very tender and tasty, and i''m told the ribs were good, but i didn't try any. 

by now i'm sure you've noticed a couple common elements all the lunch/dinners have had: beans and rice. turns out beans and rice is a staple on roatan, if not honduras itself. chimol was a spicy little salad. think picante meets a tabouli (pictured later).

again i like tomato soup, even though i'm pretty sur eit was campbell's tomato soup :-). but compared to the 'stew beef' i'll gladly slurp some campbell's tomato soup! the ham and cheese sandwhiches were pre-sliced, individual wrapped american cheese and slices of boiled ham. i tried to have a little but it was just no go.

the vege lasagna was totally forgettable. as was the steamed fish. luckily for the 2 of us there was also salad served every night with dinner. that salad saved me a couple times. the lemon merengue pie was interesting. kind of like a lemon pudding. not what you would expect in the states.

lunch is on the cay on thursdays, weather permitting. i had the cheeseburger. i have to admit it didn't taste like any cheeseburger i've ever had. matt thinks it was just (that we're beef snobs and purchase the highest quality one can) the fact that the beef wasn't quite the same quality we're used to. he's probably right. he did however try the honduran tacos (pics later).

dinner: i'm not a huge turkey fan, but we didn't know what was for dinner until after we returned from our dinner at Gio's.please see previous post for that meal.

fish soup?!? 'nuff said. chicken and rice had a good flavor but the chicken was real hard. a bit too old i think. this was the1st day i actually needed a snack before dinner. the tres leche was a cake made with 3 kinds of milk.

the steak had a great flavor but was very tough. a theme that resonated throughout almost all the meat dishes. but the lobster was great. they drowned it in butter, or rather you could if you wanted as there was a big bowl of melted gold and a ladle. while the key lime pie wasn't bad, i wouldn't have called it key lime.

4/8/2010 Gio's, Roatan, Honduras

We've been eating all our meals at CoCoView due to the hassle and expense of going out. However on this night they offered transportation to Gio's Restauarant for anyone who wanted to eat out. we met up with another family of 3 on 'our' dock at 6:30 for the little shuttle boat to the landing where a cab was waiting to take us into French Harbour, the closest town. it was about a 20 minute (?) ride.

The people we were with have been here before, so we sort of followed their lead. (turns out the majority of guests to CoCoView are repeat customers. but more on that in my travel blog http://camelland-travel.blogspot.com/. Gio's has been around for a while, and both Frommer's and Lonely Planet travel guides say they have the best seafood dinner on the island. ok, i'm game, or should i say fish? .

we sat outside on the back deck. yes there is a/c inside, but the atmosphere is quite different. at least i felt it walking through the place. there's also a decent size gift shop up near the front if you so desire.

making a choice of entrees was actually pretty easy. we all went for the Eldon Special.

yes that says 730 lampeira. but at 19L = $1USD it was only about 35$ total per plate. what this menu entry doesn't tell you is that it comes with a salad, toast, a few veges and a baked potato. we also started with drinks.

a local brew. definitely worth getting the chilled mug. matt had one at CoCoView bar and said drinking it from the bottle is a very different taste. allowing it to aerate opens it up. i thought it was pretty good. a light beer, just my style.

the main course. 6 shrimp, 2 lobster tails, 1 whole king crab. plus the veges and baked potato. i don't think this was alaskan king crab flash frozen and shipped down. this was supposed to be local.

sorry, i didn't realize it was slightly over-exposed. that's the pile of shrimp. very tasty, and probably the bet job at de-veining shrimp i've had in a log time. good job gio's!

1 of the lobster tails. the other was buried under the crab. they had actually pulled the meat out of the shells for us, which was nice. i should say that on everything was a buttery-garlic sauce.

the lobster was tender and tasty, and i ate all of mine.

then the crab. there was a whole crab on the plates, but stacked up it was a little hard to see. that's a good shot of the butter-garlic-cilantro (?) sauce they poured over everything. but i must admit the crab was my least favorite. i tried some from that large claw as well as from the smaller legs, and to me it just had a funny taste. matt gobbled up some of what i didn't want so i'm sure it was just me. alaskan king crab it wasn't. so capt's sig, keith, jonathan and phil's family, you can rest easy knowing i really appreciate what y'all do every year!

 matt pounding away at some of the crab. and here we thought it'd be an easy dinner with them already pulling the meat of the lobster out for us. but i guess that'd be too easy. have to make the tourists work for their food.

all in all it was a very enjoyable dinner. i recommend it to anyone who visits the island and can make their way to french harbour. don't aske me for directions though, after heading east from the airport you make a right turn at the signpost (for french harbour) but after that i'm lost. -hey, it was dark afterall so i couldn't really see much).

1 thing that did concern me. no that's not quite the right word. CoCoView said tax and tip were included in the bill but when the bill came there was 1. no gratuity showing and 2. no place to add a tip on the 'sign here' bill.  so either it really isn't and CoCoView needs to update their info, or they pegged us as forengy and included it along with putting in a note that "tip was not included" so they could get double. ah those easy marks. we erred on the side of 'ettiquette' and left a tip. good for them if that's what they planned, it worked.

will we go again next thursday? not sure. if we do i'm going to order the lobster with parmesian sauce.
http://www.roatanisland.net/gio.htm