A Trip to St. Thomas

~  Menu  ~

Tuna & Sweet Potato Salad in Chilli Lime Mayo

Amstel Light 

(but I really wanted white wine)

My Real Man likes, in these climes, a tuna sarnie for his lunch but, unfortunately, I recently bought a few cans of The Wrong Type; chunky white albacore, I’m afraid.  I am, therefore, trying to use them up like the good girl I am.

Luckily I had the end of a sweet potato in the fridge plus a few fingerlings so I cooked them a couple of hours before lunch (sweet potatoes cook quicker than normal so I added them after the fingerlings had been simmering a few minutes), drained them and immediately tossed them in some mayonnaise flavoured up with a little hot sauce and some grated lime zest and juice.  It is best to dress potatoes salads when warm as they absorb the flavour and fluff up a bit – a lot of people know that!

I’ll be frank with you – I’d have preferred this salad if it had been just sweet potatoes; the fingerlings didn’t seem to be right in it.  For a finishing crunchy touch I sprinkled over the crumbs in the bottom of a packet of Ritz Toasted Chips which I have just discovered and which I hope are available in the UK.  Let me know if you know!

On Thursday last I went to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a girly day out with my friends.  We went to a fabulous place at Havensight called The Barefoot Buddha where I drank a delicious Cubano coffee and ate the vast piece of Cinnamon, Pumpkin, and Enormous Chocolate Chip Cake pictured below.

Lovely place including a shop section full of excellent clothes and jewelry.  If you are in St. Thomas give it a go – I recommend it.

Later in the day my friend Mrs. Gweenie (which is not her name but I call her it anyway – just to confuse her) ate a delicious Feta and all sorts of Mediterranean Stuff Pizza and a fruity, nutty salad for lunch at Calico Jack’s in Charlotte Amalie.

St. Thomas is very different from Tortola, much busier, much more American (which I suppose it would be), not such a small Caribbean community type of place.  It’s great and useful (K-Mart etc.) to visit but I’m glad we spend our time in the BVI.  Some of waterfront Charlotte Amalie is pretty, however, and easy to see its Danish history in the narrow lanes and architecture.

Oh, and the ferry ride over's good too. 

Sudden Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash

~  Menu  ~

Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash

Amstel Light

At first I was a bit discombobulated lunch-wise today but luckily I found a bit of cold sweet potato lurking in the cool box and I was sorted.

I was already cooking bacon (yes, the yummy American kind) and red onions for my darling’s burger (he’s a Real Man) so I cooked a little extra for me.  

I then fried the sweet potato in the bacon fat, mashing it a bit, added the onions and crispy bacon and a little hot sauce.  I was a little dubious about it (see picture - not terribly prepossessing) but in fact it was a fine combination of tastes and textures; soft, chewy, crunchy, sweet, salt, hot, caramelised etc.  Another winner for Suzy Bowler – yay, woohoo and so on and so forth.

The day before yesterday’s lunch menu …

~  Another Menu  ~

Feta, Blackberry & Salty Nut Salad

Raspberry Dressing

Vodka, Cranberry Juice and Soda

Wednesday was hard work (for someone accustomed to laying in the sun reading) but pleasant.  I went to town with a couple of friends, shopping.  The main town (romantically named Road Town) here is not quite the image one has of going to town and the shopping was in any case, food and drink, mainly stocking up my friends quirky bar and eating place; Dove Love.

Dove Love - quirky!

Of course I’m not so feak and weeble that shopping is too much for me but the poor girl has to lug everything up a small hill and a flight of stairs and even with the three of us it took 5 trips. 

Once everything was sorted she fixed us lunch – mixed salad leaves, including spinach and rocket (which is, of course, called arugula here after the American influence), tossed with salted almonds, pecans and macadamias, blackberries and crumbled feta and then a raspberry dressing.  An unlikely but delicious combination and one that I intend using in the autumn when the lanes of Cornwall are overrun with blackberries.   We washed it down with a lovely vodka, cranberry soda and felt reasonably virtuous about the whole meal. 

I’m really going to miss my friends in the B.V.I. (although looking forward to seeing the ones in the UK) – you know who you are.  Still almost 3 weeks to go so no time to get maudlin yet.