Shortly after I returned to Grenada from visiting the grandkids, the swell in Prickly Bay had become untenable, so Andrew and I decided to move to a more protected bay around the corner. Secret Harbor in Mt. Hartman Bay is tricky to get into but once you negotiate the rocks and reefs, it is amazingly protected from the swell. We were surprised to find so few boats here with the strong breeze and no rocking… it really must be a secret!
With a few weeks to go before we plan to head to Trinidad, Andrew continued to trouble shoot a fuel leak and an underperforming water maker. In between picking oil rags out of the bilge and running water tests, we rented a car for running errands and squeezing in our own self guided (for the most part) foodie tour of the island.
I guess you could say it started on Mother’s Day when we signed up for the Sunday Brunch at Secret Harbor Marina. For $150 EC per person (about $50 US), we treated ourselves to spicy hot Bloody Mary’s, chicken suzette crepes, tuna curry, fresh vege (as they call the combination of island vegetables usually including carrots, greens, potato, squash, etc.) and dessert.
The next evening, we had reservations at a highly rated place called Dexter’s. We drove by it during the day (to make sure we could find our way at night) and found a small, unremarkable sign on an overgrown patch of land off the main road, which led up a cement road to a plain looking place that looked like a private home. The tidy, but small kitchen on the ground floor at the end of the drive, looked like it was formerly a garage.
Not sure what to expect, that night we arrived to find the two second floor porches lit up with party lights and a buzz of happy customers coming from the building. Dexter, a local that was trained as a chef, worked on cruise ships for years before opening his own place. He provides a menu of five courses (3 appetizers and a choice of main meal and a dessert) and comes to each and every table to describe the evenings courses in mouthwatering detail. Our appetizers included a cheesy risotto, the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had and seared tuna on a plantain fritter. They were all to die for! As if that weren’t enough, Andrew chose steak and I chose duck for a main course but for some reason, they served us both duck. It was not a disappointment as it was perfectly prepared and served on a roasted potato that soaked up the spectacular flavor. For dessert, the double chocolate cake and salted caramel ice cream was an easy pick and lived up to my expectations. Overall, we were very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience (so much so that I neglected to get pictures of the food) and highly recommend Dexter’s for special occasions.
A few days later, we were looking for another highly rated place called La Plywood that was supposed to have a beautiful view and great food. We found a run down looking shack by that name right on the beach, serving burgers and bar food, but it didn’t look as appetizing as the place up the hill called Brisa Mar. There we found the beautiful view and enjoyed some colorful drinks along with a salad for me and fish & chips for Andrew.
It is currently Chocolate Festival Week in Grenada, so when I learned about a chocolate themed foodie tour, we had to sign up! The morning of the tour, we met our bus in the mall and drove to a park off Grande Anse Beach. There we had a typical Grenadian breakfast of coconut bread, salted fish cakes, eggs & salad and we learned about all the different healthy products that can be made from sea moss (including chocolate drinks)! After that we drove to the rainforest where we learned how cocoa is grown and roasted into chocolate tea (a much better version of hot chocolate than Nestle’s).
For lunch, we drove to the beach, where we experienced an oil down; the national dish of Grenada which is a stew made in coconut broth with chicken, pork or fish, carrots, callaloo (spinach like green stuff), tubers, and bread fruit (a white starchy potato like vege). We had a really interesting, international group on the bus, which included two film makers from England, an ambassador to the Commonwealth, a few Grenadian locals and two travel consultants from Trinidad. As a result, there was some dissension on board between the local’s and the Trinidadian's that disputed whose oil down is truly the best, so we’ll have to try it again when we get to Trinidad.
After lunch, we visited a chocolate maker and sampled his products made with mango, ginger, nuts and other ingredients, mixed into bars of 60 - 90% cocoa (as opposed to the 4-6% we get in ‘chocolate’ bars in the U.S.).
Just in case we hadn’t had enough chocolate, we stopped by a roadside stand on the way back to town for some home made chocolate ice cream, served up by this lovely lady who gave everyone a hug after she gave them their dessert. Including Andrew after he refused her motion for a fist pump.
On the last day of our car rental, Andrew fine tuned his left hand side driving skills and kept us out of the ditches and on the road as we drove cliff side to the town of Gouyave near the Concord waterfall. To cap off our self guided foodie tour, we had lunch at Kelly’s Hot Spot, where we got a typical local meal of chicken or pork served with rice, plantains, pumpkin, carrots, green stuff and white stuff, but something this cook does with the spices takes it to another level. It was one the best local fare we’ve had yet!
So, that concluded our self guided foodie tour and next week we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled boat projects and preparing in earnest for our voyage to Trinidad at the end of the month.
