By Billa
In early February, my husband Martin and I took a break from our grim New York weather and headed to the Caribbean island of Grenada for a six-day vacation.
Grenada is known as the "Island of Spice" due to its extensive production of nutmeg and mace (Mace is a spice that comes from the outer layer of the nutmeg seed.). In fact, 40 percent of all the world’s nutmeg comes from Grenada. Grenada is also considered to produce the best chocolate in the Caribbean and West Indies and is one of the few places in the world where chocolate is produced from bean to bar.
Our hotel fare included a sumptuous breakfast buffet. The first morning, I filled my plate with a cheese omelet, a smoked fish and onion hash, corn bread, dumplings, sweet pastry, yogurt, and watermelon.
My drink that morning was cocoa tea - not a tea at all, but rather a combination of roasted cacao, milk, and spices (nutmeg, being the primary one). It’s like hot chocolate but with a more robust and hearty deep chocolate flavor.
It was a delicious breakfast, but so filling. After that first morning, I decided I didn’t want to double my weight in six days. So, henceforth, my breakfast consisted of tropical fruit, fruit juice, and a slice of whole wheat toast with nutmeg jam. The jam is made from the fruit surrounding the nutmeg seed. It is delightfully nutty and slightly sweet.
The tropical juices varied from day to day and I sampled carambola juice, mango juice, passion fruit juice, and a slightly medicinal tasting lemonade. The waitress explained that their green lemons taste differently than the yellow ones we’re used to in the States.
The dining room at the hotel was mostly open-air and on the beach. While you were eating, you were likely to see dogs roaming about, a cat who’d sit by the table if you were having fish, and a contingent of black birds standing guard watching your table. Occasionally, one of those birds would feel brave, as one did when it swooped down and took a bite off Martin’s watermelon at breakfast.
As soon as we vacated the table, the birds swooped in and had their own breakfast.
On our second day on the island, we took a taxi to the Belmont Estate. This Estate started out in the 17th century as a slave plantation where sugar cane was grown. In the 40's, a Grenadian family bought it and converted it to an organic farm, restaurant, and chocolate factory. Their descendants still run the estate today. Martin and I took the chocolate tour and saw how cacao beans are converted into chocolate bars, and enjoyed some free samples, Then, we had lunch at the restaurant.
The view outside the restaurant's window showed the cacao beans drying on special racks below.
Lunch was a pumpkin soup followed by an excellent buffet of roasted chicken, grilled fish, herbal rice, and, for dessert, nutmeg ice cream. It was simple food, fresh and expertly prepared.
The next evening, we had our first dinner out at Beachside Bistro, a restaurant run by an Italian chef.
The meal started off well with a terrific homemade lemonade - carbonated, hardly sweet, not medicinal at all - pretty much perfect.
We sat outside on the porch. We both ordered amberjack bianco - it was supposed to be the fish of the day stir-fried with white wine sauce, oregano, capers, and side veggies.
It looked like they forgot the veggies and gave us rice instead. Not wanting to make a fuss, we dug right in. “This fish tastes like chicken,” I told Martin after my second bite. Which I thought was odd, because there was no chicken on the menu. “It is chicken,” said Martin. Again, not wanting to make a fuss, we ate it. It was curried chicken and actually quite good.
When the waitress came to pick up our plates, we told her that this was pretty good but it wasn’t what we ordered, which was fish. She sent the girl who delivered the food over to the table to apologize. We said it was fine, we liked the chicken. We asked her to bring us chocolate ice cream for dessert. Since Grenada is known for its chocolate, we decided to eat it whenever it was available. We also asked for the check as it was getting pretty late and the restaurant was about to close.
After a half hour of waiting, I went inside to find the girl who took the order (the same one who misdelivered our entrees). “Did you forget our desserts?” I asked. She gasped, “Oh no, I forgot, what did you order?” Ten minutes later, she came with the ice cream. As she served it, she told us that the people who ordered the chicken were served our stir-fried amberjack and ate the whole thing. Then the gentleman came into the restaurant and said he’s allergic to all fish and was very upset that he wasn’t served the chicken he special ordered.
I hope the gentleman didn’t have a reaction to the fish. I’d love to come back one day and re-order the stir-fried amberjack.
Our fourth day on the island, February 7, it was Grenada’s Independence Day (51st).
To celebrate, our hotel prepared oil down, the national dish of Grenada. It is a hearty stew of chicken, pig snouts, and pigtails steamed together with vegetables, dumplings, coconut milk and seasonings.The name comes from the layer of oil and meat juices that settles to the bottom of the pot. Unlike most stews, in which the ingredients get a thorough mixing during the cooking process, a pot of oil down is “packed" with breadfruit and meat on the bottom, most of the vegetables in the middle, and callaloo leaves and dumplings on top.
Martin and I opted for the vegan version - no pig’s tail or chicken, but there was callaloo (a leafy vegetable somewhat similar in taste to spinach), the same plant's root, known as dasheen, breadfruit, corn, carrots, dumplings, green banana, yam, and a lot of turmeric. It was very flavorful, a bit salty and spicy, and with a lovely combination of exotic tastes and textures.
On our last night in Grenada we went out to eat again and had my favorite meal of the trip. The French creole restaurant was called Coconut Beach and it was a 15 minute walk on the beach from our hotel.
Martin had pumpkin lasagna, while I had shrimp Caribbean with pumpkin and carrots. Martin is a fan of lasagna and he loved the addition of pumpkin. My entree had an especially nice citrusy sauce.
Dessert was a luscious chocolate mousse cake with vanilla ice cream. As before, the Grenadian chocolate was rich, smooth, and velvety - so good!
It was a sweet ending to a wonderful vacation.
A trip to Granada is not to be missed, for the lush tropical island, the beautiful scenery, perfect weather, friendly welcoming people, and, of course, the food, always fresh ingredients, expertly prepared, with Caribbean flare, in picture perfect settings.