November 30, 2014 Lunch La Perla at San Pancho (San Francisco Beach) Dinner Fish Stew

November 30, 2014  Lunch  La Perla at San Pancho (San Francisco Beach)  Dinner Fish Stew

I ate fresh pineapple and banana with yogurt for breakfast.  I walked to the juice lady at the bridge and bought two fresh squeezed orange juices for 25 pesos each and brought them home, Suzette make a banana, pineapple and orange juice smoothie.

Then we walked to town to the Sunday Arts and Craft sale.  We selected two Oaxacan tablecloths, one round 50%cotton/50% Dacron one for the TV room for 260 pesos and a larger 80 inch by 100 inch all cotton tablecloth for 750  pesos, but Suzette negotiated a total price of 750 pesos.  After we purchased our tablecloths, I asked the lady who owned the stand about her vanilla and she showed me the prices.  When I said I had lots of vanilla, she said she had vanilla beans for sale and she had her companion pull out a bag of vanilla beans from under the table.  There were ten vanilla beans and she sold them to me for 100 pesos.  She then thought better of that and said she thought they should sell for more, but then when I handed her a 100 peso bill she took it and agreed on that price because she could not recall what she had paid for them.

We had decided to eat the fish soup for dinner so we then we walked up hill through the Flea Market to the Le Gourmet and bought a fresh baguette for 25 pesos.  We wanted to decorate the house with holiday flags like the Mexicans do so we then walked to the paper shop and bought two six meter lengths of banners for 55 pesos each.   
   

It was about noon. So we walked back to the condo and deposited our purchases and drove the car to San Francisco beach by way of Las Lomas where we bought a 3 kilo bag of salt for 30 pesos.  Mavi Graf had told us that the best oysters I the area could be found at San Pancho.  When we got to the end of the main street at the beach we went into the restaurant named La Perla and asked the chef if there were fresh oysters and he said yes.  We first took a table in the patio just outside the restaurant but then the chef said the restaurant owned al the tables all the way to water’s edge, so we moved out to at table at the end of the covered palapa on the beach.  We ordered fried oysters and asked for a bucket with ice, which the waiter brought.  Suzette would not drink the Austrian wine, which was bitter, perhaps because it was capped and not corked and ordered a margarita.  I kept drinking the Austrian wine to my later regret, as it was not good and it gave me a light headedness.

We loved the oysters and asked for crema and catsup and made a lighter sauce than the red sauce they were served with.  Suzette particularly like taking the oysters out of their batter shell and eating them with the sauce on the toasted bread they were served with.  I ordered a side order of beans, or which I was not charged.  In Mexico all prices for each meat item om a menu are usually inclusive of all the side items such as crema, rice, beans and tomatoes, etc. that usually accompany them main dish.

After lunch we walked around San Pancho and were unimpressed with the town.  For whatever reason, it has not achieved the commercial success of Sayulita.  I think it is because it has a steep beach with a strong undertow and is not suitable for swimming and water sports like Sayulita, but Suzette disagrees.  At least it has wonderful seafood restaurants.

After lunch we drove back to Sayulita and took a nap.

Around 6:00 we started making dinner.  We heated the fish stock and then I micro cubed about 2 Tbsp. of smoked tuna, the remaining seven or eight shrimp and other red snapper filet that had frozen.  I then minced the two remaining potatoes, and the three squashes and two carrots and Suzette cooked them in the fish stock.  Devon Chapman, who is Terry’s partner and arrived last night, came by to chat and we invited her and Terry for dinner. So when everything was heated, we toasted about 2/3 of the baguette in the toaster oven and made a cup of rice and opened the bottle of Sancerre and called out to Devon and Terry who live next to our unit that we were ready for dinner and to bring soup bowls.  When they arrived, Suzette filled the bowls with rice and then the fish stew and I poured wine and cut up the baguette and we carried our bowls to the palapa on the veranda near the beach and had a quiet dinner with pleasant conversation getting to know them as we ate and drank wine.

Bon Appetit

Bon Appétit