cabarete cuisine

one of the benefits to living on a tropical island is all the fresh fruit that we get to eat. pineapple, papaya, and bananas are staples of our diet here, as well as mangos when they are in season. there's nothing better than a fresh fruit salad made up of those fruits or just some yogurt and one of those fruits.

lately i have been enjoying a cookbook that i got during our Tortola trip that is perfect for here because of its many recipes including these fruits. it's called A Taste of the Caribbean Cookbook and i highly recommend it. it may even be better than Thrill of the Grill but that's tough to say since it was sometimes tough to get the ingredients for those recipes when i used that cookbook in Boston.

i've been making great tropical salsas from some of the recipes in there. i've also started to cook with a lot of spices that are a bit new to me - curry, cumin, coriander, turmeric, etc., that are called for within this recipe book. without an oven, we either have to BBQ or do things on the stovetop. in this heat, you really don't want to put on an oven anyway. the new cookbook is great because it does not contain a lot of recipes where you have to use an oven.

some new dishes we've made that have been great are Curried Pork Chops on the BBQ with Pineapple/Papaya Tropical Salsa, Curried Egg Salad in Tomatoes, a few chicken stews using either coconut milk, curry, and rum among other ingredients. i want to try out a Grilled Pineapple, Avocado, and Red Onion salad next - that one sounds tasty.

i've also been into making hummus lately. not very islandy, i know, but you cannot buy that pre-made in the store and it's something i really was missing. it turns out to be a really easy thing to make.

with such a small set of restaurants to choose from here, it is almost a necessity to come up with new recipes at home to please the taste buds. i'm a bit biased, but most of the time, i think we have much tastier meals at home than out, but that may also be in part because we're just kind of tired of most of the restaurants here, having been frequenting them for 2+ years now. on that note though, we do hope to try out a new restaurant soon. it's actually located at someone's home - Onno's - in Pro Cab. they only serve on Thursday nights, unless you reserve for a group on another night. it's prix fixe with 3 courses. reviews of the food have been good and the setting looks fantastic - similar to Bliss. check out this link to see some pics of the restaurant:
http://cabaretewinds.com/news/121/ARTICLE/1458/2007-07-20.html