June 2, 2021 Albuq. to Linda and T.R.’s Baliville in Sayulita

 June 2, 2021 Albuq. to Linda and T.R.’s Baliville in Sayulita 

We awakened at 4:00 although I had awakened at 3:00 to go to the Airport to take a 5:30 flight to Denver and then an 8:55 flight to Puerto Vallarta.

When we arrived at 1:10 in Puerto Vallarta we made our way through, immigration and customs and presented our reservation at the Budget rental car kiosk at the airport.  The attendant helped us carry our suitcases to the shuttle to the rental office where we picked up our small Nissan March.

Our first stop was the Lloyd office where we exchanged dollars for pesos.

We then drove north from PV to the big La Comer store at Rivera Nayarit about ten miles north of the airport.  It has the most extensive selection of food and beverages I have seen in the area.  We did not wish to spend a long time but we bought four bottles of wine, a Mexican El Cetto Chenin Blanc, a Sauvignon Blanc, and two French dry roses, one of which was a Cotes du Provence.  We also bought soy sauce, a couple of avocados, limes, eggs, sliced Turkey ham, integral bolillos, milk, two types of cookies, sliced provolone cheese, a six pack of Negra Modelo, mushrooms, an eggplant, a Hershey chocolate bar and a red onion. It totaled about $100.00 in pesos.

When we returned to the car I ate the chocolate bar to regain my strength and then drove us through the jungle to Linda and T.R.’s house at Baliville just south of Sayulita. What they have done is transport several antique teak houses from Bali to land they own in Mexico.  They sold all of them except the one they live in several months of the year with another smaller house they have made into a casita.

We are staying in the casita. Both houses are sited on a jungle hillside with beautiful jungle views about 1/4 mile from the ocean.  Since Sayulita was  discovered several years ago by the international tourist set, we find it far more peaceful to stay outside the crowded, noisy tourist center of Sayulita. 

When we arrived Linda served snacks of pistachio nuts, corn chips, and salsa with Negra Modelos.

We then returned to the casita and napped until 7:30, when we showered and dressed and joined them at the outdoor dining table on the patio in front of their house.

Soon Linda brought a salad of shredded carrots, jicama, lettuce, and avocado with a mayo dressing and a bowl of large boiled shrimp.  We had brought a bottle of horseradish, so Suzette made a cocktail sauce with horseradish, lime, and catsup and we ate salad with a shrimp cocktail.

The menu was grilled tuna steaks with sautéed spinach, red bell pepper, and mushrooms. I had brought wasabi sauces so I decided to make an avocado, wasabi, and soy sauce of the type that Noda made when she had her restaurant in Rio Rancho over 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, the avocados were so firm that I could not mash them. Linda suggested pureeing them in the electric mixer, which partially worked.

Bob’s wasabi Avocado sauce

I blended 1 medium avocado with 1 T. of soy sauce, 1 T. of wasabi sauce, 1 T. of Mayonnaise, and 1/2 tsp. salt. I bought the wasabi sauce at Talin. Here is a photo of the wasabi sauce and the soy sauce.

While I was playing with the sauce Linda diced some red bell pepper and several portobello mushrooms and sautéed them in olive oil with the spinach.  

I asked her to toast a bolillo. So she quartered one and toasted it.

Then she grilled the fresh tuna steaks she had marinated in Trader Joe’s Soytaki on the grill and we were ready to eat.

T.R. drank Martens Belgium beer (T.R. prefers beer) and we drank La Cetto Chenin Blanc, which was a lovely wine. The Mexican and South American wine makers have achieved parity with their European and American winemaking brethren in my opinion.  I learned this when we toured a winery in Romania’s Danube Delta several years ago. The winery was using the most modern technology and German wine making equipment, including operating its own nitrogen generating plant to prevent any contact of grape juice with air after the crush; a thoroughly modern wine producing operation, and the wine tasted fresh and delicious and true to type of grape.

This is the sense I had when I tasted the La Cetto Chenin Blanc tonight, and the bottle cost about $6.75 in pesos.

Linda served dinner family style with the seven or eight grilled tuna steaks and toasted bolillo quarters on one platter, a bowl with the sautéed vegetables and the bowl of avocado wasabi sauce.

We ate and talked. After dinner as the sky darkened to night around 9:00 Linda out a bottle of Cerro Negro whiskey, a locally produced whiskey that had a rather strong Caramelized flavor and taste.

At 10:30 we went to bed under the mosquito netting in the teak wood casita.  I can not tell you how cool it feels to be walking on the rough hewn teak boards worn smooth by years of Balinese feet in the casita.

What T.R. has done so expertly has been to add a modern kitchen, and bathroom to the side of a these traditional Balinese houses, so they retain all of their traditional characteristics and charm and also contain all the amenities we demand in our modern lives.

Bon Appetit