Our best meal may have been breakfast today. I diced a slice of ham, two pieces of Swiss cheese, and three mushrooms and Suzette combined those ingredients with three whipped eggs to make an omelet. Suzette also made coffees with steamed milk and I toasted ½ bollia and spread cherry preserves on it.
We ate at the table on the veranda and the swam. Perhaps I should say Suzette swam and I did geriatric aerobics, but we felt better.
At 10:15 we drove to T.R. and Linda’s house in Bali Village. We picked them up and then drove to the carratera Coral beach which is the north side of Punta Mita. We walked about one mile looking for shells. I actually found a juvenile form of Robertsi that was battered and broken by sea action. It made the tip a success for me. We returned to the car and drove to the Si Senor Restaurant in Punts Mita for lunch.
Everything in Punta Mira seems to be modernized and commercialized in the last year or two. There is lots of activity, obviously, thanks to the tourists if the prices at Si Senor are any indication. There was nothing on h menu for less than 220 pesos or about US$20.00. It was one of those restaurants where you ordered what you wanted and forgot about the price because you are on vacation in Mexico. I finally decided on a whole red snapper cooked in the Sarandeado style, which is a new style of cooking using a mixture of spices, but no strong chili such as Serrano of jalapeño, but perhaps guajillo chili. It is obviously directed at the tourists. I also noticed that the pico de Gallo lacked much jalapeño chili. La Laguna yesterday offered a more authentic rendering of what I consider authentic Mexican food. So what does Si Senor offer that makes it worth paying 50% to 100% more for the food. Three things come to mind; location, decoration, and service. It is the same location at the edge of the bay between the fishing fleet and the ponga departure area for whale watching and tours to the Marietta Islands, so it is prime real estate in Punta Mita. But what has happened to increase prices most I think is its proximity to all the expensive homes being built across the road and the Four Seasons resort next door. If you wanted something different or your cook was off, you could go to the romantic restaurant on the beach nearby with its colorful canopies above each table made from bed covers, with indirect lighting on each palm tree and sit in comfortable chairs
with faux leather cushions and be served like in a fancy restaurant with a good chef and reliable food. Our meal started with each of us being handed a cool wet washcloth with tongs to clean our hands. Then we were brought our napkin, again served with tongs rather than a hand and a complimentary appetizer of a slice of cucumber filled with a pile of fruits and vegetables finely diced in the brunoise method. Here is a link to a website that describes the illustrates the different French knife techniques, https://skillet.lifehacker.com/a-visual-reference-for-six-basic-knife-cuts-170214957
Here is a picture of the appetizer.
We were first served platters and then the boned cooked red snapper was served on another platter. Suzette and I were served one-half and I took the head because I think the meat in the head and throat is the most tender on a red snapper. One of the things I like the best in Mexico is that once you have ordered you can order more of anything that goes with the meal. Today was a great example. We were brought one bowl of vegetables, so I immediately ordered another bowl. We were also served a basket with a couple each of toasted flour and small taco sized blue corn tortillas, so I ordered another basket of blue corn tortillas because Suzette and I love co make small tacos with the meat, rice, beans, and salsa. We quickly exhausted the small bowl of creamy delicious refried beans and ordered another bowl. Soon a larger bowl of the same lovely beans was brought.
My red snapper
The girls ordered margaritas and TR and I ordered beers.
We all enjoyed our meals and I gladly paid for our half for $65.00 imagining that I was just like the zillionaires who live across the highway in the gated community in $2,000,000 homes overlooking the long crescent white sand and coral caracoral beach, which I think is still one of the most beautiful in Mexico.
I asked to take the rest of the food and asked the waiter for a plastic box, but the waiter said, “I will take everything to the chef and he will prepare it”. Soon two beautifully packed plastic boxes filled with small ramekins containing all the food arrived, like we were receiving take out from the Four Seasons in New York. I was more impressed with this than any other part of the meal. It elevated and updated my opinion of cuisine in Sayulita to a whole new level. The same sense of great French dining ; that we will take care of everything concerning the meal from start to finish, has reached Punta Mita. I remembered going to eat at a great Parisian Michelin three star restaurant and being asked to go upstairs to obtain a jacket for dining, so I would be dressed appropriately. After trying on several, the young lady said, “This one suits you the best.. It looks like it was made for you.”
We had five or six waiters for that Parisian meal just like today.
After dinner we were each served small brightly colored wooden bowls containing a small slice of “chocolate mousse”, except it was more like a dense chocolate ice box pie than French mousse au chocolate. It was rich and I loved it and could have eaten ten slices of it instead of the meal, so a nice way to end the meal.
After lunch, ”It was siesta time”, as Linda said, so we drove back to Villa Bali and dropped off TR and Linda and drove back to the condo and napped until 6:00 when the sun was setting.
We could not decide on what to make for dinner, because we were still full from lunch, but we did decide to watch an episode of “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. We decided to make a ham and cheese sandwich for me and a ham and cheese wrap in Boston butter lettuce for Suzette, who is again officially “Off BREAD”.
We shared a Noche Buena and nibbled our snacks and chocolate filled wafer cookie sandwiches as we watched the show for a lovely quiet evening.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment