12/05/04

The Food

Cooking on the high seas can be challenging at times - it takes 3 or 4 times as long to do anything in the galley when your whole world is moving all over the place constantly.  We still like to eat well, even when we don't necessarily feel like cooking.  It's important while underway to stay healthy and well-nourished.  For the passage, we've prepared all sorts of easy to finish dishes, including home canned Indian curries, and stews from Provence, Vietnam, Mexico, and Morocco.  All fine to eat on their own with rice, noodles, or potatoes, and able to be easily dressed up with fresh vegis and/or herbs when conditions allow.  We've also made a number of condiments, from preserved lemons, herbs, and sauces, to pickled cauliflower and carrots.  A reserve of french sausages, all sorts of cheeses, pates, and hopefully plenty of olives and other tapas. Fresh fruits and vegis in various stages of ripeness include tomatoes, pineapples, bananas, eggplants, lemons, limes, lettuce, spinach, shallots, squash, carrots, and probably a few other things lurking in the vegetable section of the icebox. We have 6 dozen eggs, 66 liters of milk (I don't how we could live without that), bottled water, orange juice, grapefruit juice, lots of tea, and plenty of ginger and lemon syrups to add to the much loved fizzy water, as well a good supply of lavazza for our morning, afternoon, and night-watch iced latte fixes. I suppose we'll fire up the espresso machine again when we arrive in the cooler northern climate.  Unfortunately I lost the frozen puff pastry when the fridge compressor imploded, but we've premade many bags of muffin mix, and bread mix, made scads of biscotti and a large batch of Verve ginger molasses cookies to compensate.  A large stash of power bars also lurks in the icebox, just in case we need a burst of real energy.

From earlier in the trip:

Lots of Lobster, Doris's Fresh Food in Bequia (best provisioning we have found in the islands), Freshly landed snapper and hind, Grapefruit Salads, Mark's Pickled Christophene, curries, vietnamese inspirations, duck confit, french pates, and even the occasional pancake with real vermont maple syrup.

Ersters, Stew of Wild Boar with Juniper, Vietnamese Pho with Gingered Chicken, Lobster Tom Yum, Fermented Black Beans with Braised Beef and Cabbage, all sorts of Frittatas, Antipasti, and fresh breads.  Arugula micro-greens, broccoli sprouts, and just-picked vegis.  Mango Tatin, Anise Biscotti, and David's soft-centered chocolate cakes. And coffees - who could forget the coffees.

Some Food Finds along the way

Pearl's in Nantucket, Joppa Fine Foods in Newburyport, Woodman's Market in the Solomon Islands.

Further south - Doris's Fresh Food in Bequia along with a whole host other finds in Guadeloupe and Martinique (I'll have to catalogue them for you later.

And finally, at last a great pizza in the Caribbean... Cap Fort between Falmouth and English Harbors in Antigua.  The only negative is that the enormous brick oven is virtually in the dinning room and it's not exactly cool in this part of the world at this time of year.