sushi, cooking, semana santa

we went to ali's surf camp last night to try out the sushi. it was excellent! i have to say that it was a treat to have this. the only place i have had sushi here in the DR was at bobo's in santo domingo. sushi is only available at ali's on saturday nights. they have a guy who comes in to the restaurant to do this. i did not catch his name, but he sounded australian. clearly he knew what he was doing, as the sushi was very good.

speaking of food, if you like to cook and have not discovered http://www.epicurious.com, you need to! i love this site, especially since all of our cookbooks are in a box back in boston in a storage unit. those didn't make the cut for the move here. epicurious.com provides thousands of recipes from gourmet, bon appetit, and many other magaziness. one of the best features is that people can review the recipes and add their comments on how they liked it, how they would doctor it up, etc. i also like the recipe book feature, which allows you build up a recipe book of the recipes that you like on the site. just pop the laptop in the kitchen with you and you are ready to follow a recipe. i'm cooking a chicken cacciatore using an epicurious recipe right now!

i do still miss my "thrill of the grill" recipe book. and on that note, i miss the east coast grill back in cambridge too. next trip to boston will need to include a few oysters and margaritas there!

we spent some time out at the pool at our complex this weekend. we had not done that for a while. the temperature seems to be rising here now, so a dip in the pool is quite enjoyable.

the locals are gearing up for semana santa...look out! the country basically starts celebrating easter on thursday and does not stop until sunday. according to DR1, 3 million people will be on the move within the country for the holiday weekend. there's about 8.9 million people living in the entire country. that is a crazy percentage of people going somewhere other than their home to celebrate!

cabarete becomes completely packed with locals. there are several events planned for the weekend. there is going to be a 36 hour long electronica music party with 10 different DJs on cabarete beach. the music starts on friday at 12 noon and literally will not stop until sunday morning. i'm psyched to check that out.

at the windsurf hotel, brahma (a local beer company) is going to be throwing a 12 hour long party with bands etc. we won't need to go too far to hear that!

at the extreme hotel on saturday, it is an all day party with reggae bands. i'm looking forward to that too!

i'm just wondering how loud it is going to be in cabarete. i mean these people are loud to begin with, but this is their biggest celebration of the year. when they are happy, they are not afraid to show it in whatever form they feel like expressing it - plastic horn blowing, blasting of car stereos, cheering, screaming, honking, moto racing, etc.! it's all coming our way this week. oh yeah, and it is a religious holiday - go figure!