June 3, 2021 Lunch - Pesci Restaurant at the Marina in La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico Dinner - 12 oysters with no tick but lots of land crabs
We started the day around 9:00 with breakfast. Linda toasted a bolillo and Suzette fried an egg with a slice of provolone that she folded onto one 1/2 of the toasted bolillo and I spread strawberry jam on the other half and Linda made me a cup of black tea with milk and sugar.
We then walked to the beach which was dominated just below the high tide line with thousands of holes made by small purple backed land crabs.
Even though we had driven the car to the bottom of the property to the main road it was about a 3/4 mile walk to the beach. I was wearing sandals so it was slow going. I took a sugar pill when we started and a total of three pills during the entire walk. Also when we arrived at the beach Suzette helped me change into my surf wading shoes that tightly fit my feet and provided far better traction on the return walk. In fact I noticed that I was lifting my feet and pushing off my steps up the trail from the beach on my toes using my lower calf muscles for the first time in several years. A very hopeful sign. I made it back to the car in good shape and even a bit invigorated.
When we returned to the house we rested and bathed and changes and then at 12:40 we all got into the Nissan and drive to La Cruz by way of Punta Mita. We arrived at 1:30 and immediately drove to the big fish market where TR bought 2 Sierras, which are Spanish Mackerel, and 2 Bata which had heavy teeth and TR said was a delicious fish because it’s main diet is oysters. While T R waited for the fishmonger to clean and fillet the fish we walked to the Esmerelda area wand bought a kilo of fresh caught wild shrimp and a bag with a dozen oysters and an avocado.
We regrouped and Suzette drove us to the marina where the Pesci Restaurant was located on the third floor overlooking the Marina.
Here are photos of the view.
The menu was predictable, mostly fried dishes with a sauce such as passion fruit or some other exotic fruit. I saw a large fried red fish being eaten at the next table that looked good, so ordered that, it was served with three sauces, a thousand island sauce, a blue cheese sauce, and a red chili Buffalo sauce with a side plate of fried rice and blanched and sautéed mixed baby vegetables. Suzette ordered Fried Octopus, which was lightly battered and deep fried. Linda ordered the fish of the day, which was the Mexican halibut, sautéed each a small cup of the fried rice and mixed Vegetables. T.R. ordered a hamburger with French fries.
We all enjoyed our dishes. My fish was crispy on the outside and juice tender in the inside. Suzette’s was not as boingy as would have thought and Linda’s was really a lovely dish. When in doubt order the fish of 5e day as Linda did. T R’s hamburger appeared to be an inch thick and probably was nearly a lb. of ground beef.
The food was good but not memorable, but the view was definitely memorable.
We then drove home and rested until 7:30. When we grabbed a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and joined Linda at the table on the patio we discovered that TR gotten sick from the egg he ate at breakfast and was in bed recovering. Linda was the perfect hostess, serving us Topo Chico water with ice, Beer, and ice for the wine.
None of us was hungry after the huge lunch until almost 9:00 when we discovered that neither TR nor Linda would eat the oysters. Suzette and I decided to eat the dozen oysters as a light dinner. Suzette and Linda went to the kitchen and placed a dab of cocktail sauce on a saltine cracker and then topped it with an oyster. We ate several and then Linda suggested adding some of the wasabi avocado sauce and fetched it. I put a dab on the remaining six oysters and it changed the flavor profile from horseradish. and citrus to a more unified and complex sauce that was neither influenced by the cocktail sauce nor the wasabi and soy. We had achieved a very interesting combination of flavors that had no distinct flavor but was delicious with the oyster. Perhaps a new sauce. It reminded me of the scallop with two sauces we ate at Stars in San Francisco many years ago.
Suzette and I thought the oysters were not as good as fresh shucked but they provided a perfect dinner with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc wine.
We talked and showed Linda pictures of our trip back East and our families until 10:30 when we said good night and went to bed.
The most interesting nature part of the evening was the invasion of land crabs that were every where. They are following their instinctive drive to return to the ocean to spawn, but the house and concrete walks and walls surrounding it presented obstacles, so they were all around us. I definitely felt like we were in their habitat.
Bon Appetit
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