What's for dinner?

[crankcall]

Thought for the travellers, cevechi is one of my favorite things, and your very safe with resort food. If your buying market fish from the guy on the side of the road be careful if they are smaller reef caught fish. They feed on the 'moss' and fungus that grows on the reef, it doesn't bother the locals, since they have eaten it forever, but can make you pretty sick. Even cooked the fish can be a problem. Larger fish caught away from the reef, feed away.

 

[jc100]

No offence but I’m done with AI. All the hotels have to work to a particular budget, even the upper level ones and none of them can give me the room and space I get if I’m renting a villa or house somewhere. For years all I stayed in were AI hotels of all different ratings. The best were adults only and quite small. The food there was great too but that didn’t make up for the shortcomings. I rented my first place, a condo in Costa Rica, about 10 years ago now and it was a revelation. We ate in the best restaurants around when we weren’t cooking so didn’t miss out on food at all. Never looked back since and the cost was about the same as staying in 4 and 5* resorts. It takes more effort to book a trip like this as you need to do things separately but you end up with way more flexibility...taking a 5 or 9 day vacation isn’t an issue whereas with AI packages you’re generally stuck with 7 days and my wife doesn’t have to just choose the relatively few vegetarian options available at AI hotels. I usually have a car booked too and it’s parked right outside so we can go wherever we want when we want.

The really big advantage is the places you can stay in if you travel with friends. I helped my neighbours book an entire farmhouse in Tuscany for their trip and they loved it. To be clear..this is with VRBO who deal with vacation rentals and not uncle Joe's bachelor pad on the 28th floor of a run down tower block that you may get with some AIRBnB places.

 

[jc100]

Thought for the travellers, cevechi is one of my favorite things, and your very safe with resort food. If your buying market fish from the guy on the side of the road be careful if they are smaller reef caught fish. They feed on the 'moss' and fungus that grows on the reef, it doesn't bother the locals, since they have eaten it forever, but can make you pretty sick. Even cooked the fish can be a problem. Larger fish caught away from the reef, feed away.

Even resorts can have issues...a long time ago when Honduras was just opening up to travellers on the mainland (not the Islands or Roatan etc) we booked a 4* resort that was the first AI on the mainland open for business. Long story short....they ended up helicoptering medics in to treat vacationers there and we were eventually evacuated back to Canada on a specially chartered flight. I got ill on the flight but my wife was in a bad way before then. We had everything totally refunded even the kennel fees for my dog at the time. Fun times.

 

[kwtoxman]

Cranckall appears to be talking about Mexico resorts and it makes sense.

Being the first of anything is often not a good thing. The first AI resort a long time ago in an entire country, a third world country, for me would be a big flag to be very careful and you still never know . Mexico resorts tend to acquit themselves well, as well as resorts in any other first world Caribbean country.





Back to more great dinner meals and pictures! The tortilla chips with guacamole and pico de gallo is also excellent and fresh! Cool presentation. Big resolution and lots of detail in the zoom. The amount of great food available is crazy :agave:.

Cheers!

 

[jc100]

Totally agree....but I wanted to see what Honduras was like at the time and the hotel was part of a massive Spanish chain that had an excellent reputation. Did the same in El Salvador when they opened up for tourism and that went very well with excellent food and no problems. Mexico is excellent for food but pick up a Mexican cookbook and look at the traditional recipes and you’ll see what you’re missing out on by being limited to what the hotel has deemed popular with gringo tourists.

 

[jc100]

Thought for the travellers, cevechi is one of my favorite things, and your very safe with resort food. If your buying market fish from the guy on the side of the road be careful if they are smaller reef caught fish. They feed on the 'moss' and fungus that grows on the reef, it doesn't bother the locals, since they have eaten it forever, but can make you pretty sick. Even cooked the fish can be a problem. Larger fish caught away from the reef, feed away.

I have no clue how to prepare fish, I usually get whoever is selling it to me to fillet it etc. Squid, shrimp and shellfish are ok but cleaning a fish isn’t a skill I have. What you’re talking about, is that an issue with contamination of stomach contents or something else?

 

[crankcall]

It gets into the actual meat, there is no gauranteed way to clean it. But its only the smaller reef fish, so when you see a couple kids jigging near the reef and selling fish on the beach, you might not want those. Its a big problem in the south pacific, less in the carribean. Has been linked to the reef near cancun and the reefs south near panama. supposedly baja side is fine.

cleaning a fish is a life skill everybody should learn, then just let the guy selling it to you do it since its slimy and stinky.

If your eating mexican at an AI, your eating nice food, but I've always found it to be mexican american. But at least its no Taco Bell.

I'll be in mexico in a week, I'll file a dinner report

 

[jc100]

It gets into the actual meat, there is no gauranteed way to clean it. But its only the smaller reef fish, so when you see a couple kids jigging near the reef and selling fish on the beach, you might not want those. Its a big problem in the south pacific, less in the carribean. Has been linked to the reef near cancun and the reefs south near panama. supposedly baja side is fine.

cleaning a fish is a life skill everybody should learn, then just let the guy selling it to you do it since its slimy and stinky.

If your eating mexican at an AI, your eating nice food, but I've always found it to be mexican american. But at least its no Taco Bell.

I'll be in mexico in a week, I'll file a dinner report

I'm no expert but the fish I eat seems to be kind of mainstream tilapia/ snapper or sea bass maybe? I get it from the main market or even grocery stores so it’s not from kids on the beach. Good info to know thanks. I definitely need to learn how to clean and filet a fish though.

 

[nobbie48]

Paging @shanekingsley

Sent from the purple GTAMotorcycle.com mobile app

Had a visit with Shane Saturday. The who's who of plants and how to eat them. Brilliant mind and willing to share.

 

[kwtoxman]

Totally agree....but I wanted to see what Honduras was like at the time and the hotel was part of a massive Spanish chain that had an excellent reputation. Did the same in El Salvador when they opened up for tourism and that went very well with excellent food and no problems. Mexico is excellent for food but pick up a Mexican cookbook and look at the traditional recipes and you’ll see what you’re missing out on by being limited to what the hotel has deemed popular with gringo tourists.

I love exploring new too. But for AI the most risk I've taken so far is not much. I booked a new AO AI resort in Samana (DR) a year ago (for 60 days in, operationally speaking), and it was from a newer AI chain as well. The area also includes a few existing and successful AIs.... which have been operational for years now. Not a huge leap so I felt the risk was worth it and it was. All resorts have opening issues but in my trip I missed most issues reported earlier and had a great trip at an amazing price. Samana in the DR is amazing. Red red soil, and mountainous (a unique mountainous area in DR). More of a tropical wet jungle environment than the drier semi-arid jungle areas I have previously visited. And not a lot of development yet at all; the first airport in that province had just opened up 6 months earlier. I highly recommend a Samana visit to those who enjoy going a bit off the beaten path. Wow.

If your eating mexican at an AI, your eating nice food, but I've always found it to be mexican american. But at least its no Taco Bell.

I'll be in mexico in a week, I'll file a dinner report

The higher end resorts and RPDC do a pretty good job of offering some mexican meals, and more mexican than mexican american. Plus my recent off-menu ordering has been even more successful for traditional dishes. I've posting pictures to let the results speak for themselves. I hope y'all enjoy them. I've been crossposting on other sites and the feedback is immensely positive. The service is incredible at RPDC and in my experience they know what they are doing and are happy to offer local fare. And the price is reasonable enough at the resort that I typically go for some meals off resort and the budget is still excellent.

Check out this Playa del Carmen restaurant that is slightly off the beaten path, well liked by the locals and known for excellent ceviche. The aguachiles were recommended, awesome, and very spicy! (I can handle spice )
http://everythingplayadelcarmen.com/el-doctorcito-seafood-and-ceviche-restaurant-review/
http://mariscoseldoctorcito.com/en/home/

Cheers!

 

[kwtoxman]

Back to some more great meals and food! I'll circle back here to a few more pictures of excellent fresh grilled squid/calamari from The Royal Playa del Carmen resort and off-menu at Rincon. It was awesome! High resolution again so zoom in! More variety in plating and presentation from meal to meal! :agave:

Cheers!

 

[jc100]

There’s other mountainous areas in the DR. Parts of the original Jurassic Park movie were filmed near Santo Domingo on a jungle covered mountain that has a cable car to the summit that’s really worth the visit. Samana is popular with kite surfers apparently. There was a deal last week for $250 return from Montreal to Samana all taxes included. I was sorely tempted as I quite like the DR. Some really good beaches there but I prefer the Central American mainland for food and culture. Talking of food....if you like trying new things try El Salvadoran pupusas. Stuffed corn fritters basically. Served with a vinegar based coleslaw usually and hot sauce if you want it spiced up. They are delicious snacks.

 

[kwtoxman]

Sorry, mis-stated the mountainous details and fixed it. I'd love to do CA, great to hear about others experience. As a foodie who reads and watches a lot, I've had the pleasure of being exposed to pupusas, and agree! Crazy but true story, I can get pupusas easier locally than ceviche.

Cheers!

 

[kwtoxman]

More food pictures from my resort trip to Mexico! Sorry about the delay. It's taken a lot of work to put them all together. Lots of big pictures coming!

Again, amazing food at The Royal Playa del Carmen. Definitely a resort for foodies. Here are some high resolution pictures of various restaurant dishes from a Jan 2018 visit. There's lots of detail so zoom in a scroll around to see everything in all its glory! Enjoy!


Marie Marie's restaurant dishes! All were :agave::agave::agave:.

Nicoise salad - with fresh seared tuna

Triple tartar - tuna, beef and fish

Tournedo Rossini - USDA choice filet mignon served with fois gras and port wine reduction, as well as baked potato, mixed mushrooms and caramelized pearl onion.

Lamb chops - served with dijon mustard, bell peppers and vegetable souffle

Onion soup au gratin

Salmon with grape marmalade, served over a bed of wild rice

Caesar salad (with real anchovy)

Escargot (triple order)

Duo creme brulee

Grand marnier souffle

Chocolate macadamia cake (which is a chocolate mousse in this dish, and a bite taken to show it off)

Here's the menu for Marie Marie's.
Marie Marie's (dinner)

 

[kwtoxman]

The Rincon (Mexican) restaurant dishes were posted earlier; the octopus, calamari/squid, ceviche, etc. This is where I parked myself for most of my lunches. :agave:

Here is the Rincon restaurant menu.

Cheers!

 

[kwtoxman]

Chef's plate restaurant dishes! (Tuesday menu) . This is the most high-end restaurant at The Royal Playa del Carmen. $80 US per couple up charge for everyone except the ocean front room guests. Very impressive fine dining, fixed six course meals. The dishes and meals change every day over the course of a week, so it's a different menu each day, but the same week day to week day.

Great meal :agave::agave:.


Watermelon amuse bouche

Fresh breads with various herb butters

Salmon carpaccio

Asparagus cream soup

Tuna fillet au lime (the pink is a garlic paste)

Exotic fruit parfait

Amaretto truffle (dipped in white chocolate)

Here's the Chef's Plate Tuesday courses (dinner) menu explaining those food pictures in detail. And a peek of the up-charge wine list.

Cheers and enjoy!

 

[kwtoxman]

Pelicanos restaurant dishes! Pelicanos is oceanfront so I enjoyed coming here for the food as well as the ocean and beach views. High resolution pictures again (click and zoom).

Tasty! :agave:

Breakfast
Painters Pallete

Fruits brochette

Season fruits

Cold ricotta cream and strawberries

Eggs molito style

I generally tried to eat lighter meals at breakfast and save my bigger meals for lunch and dinner. I really enjoyed eating all the fresh fruit as well.


Lunch
Cuban sandwich - look at this cubano (click on it to see a bigger picture)! It was an excellent premium version of the sandwich, and RPDC has great fries!

Pelicanos menus

Pelicanos breakfast

Pelicanos lunch

Pelicanos dinner

The food is obviously high quality and made to high standards. I have never had any issues with raw ingredients or the water. I drink the supplied glasses of ice water in glasses (they use filtered water), eat lots of fresh produce, vegetables and fruit, and even enjoy dishes with raw meats, seafood and fish. No food illness in any of my experience at high end AI resorts in MX.

You can see a pattern of food excellence developing. Lots of indulgent and great meals; and there's more to post.


Cheers and enjoy!

 

[kwtoxman]

All these pictures are dishes I selected and ate during my recent trip to The Royal Playa del Carmen. It shows my own personal tastes and preferences, plus what a typical guest receives. And I repetitively chose some of the same meals during my trip (which is why you see some meals with more than one picture).

El Mediterraneo restaurant dishes! :agave:

Mediterranean salad

Italian salad

Duck breast with plum sauce au sherry

Vada voom dessert - small biscuit cake tower including tangerine sweet cream and black cherries.

Here are the El Mediterraneo restaurant menus.

El Mediterraneo lunch

El Mediterraneo dinner

Cheers!

 

[kwtoxman]

Asiana restaurant dishes! :agave:
Veggie salad (in rice rolls)

Sashimi

Wonton soup

Fish fillet au coconut

Shrimp au coconut vinegar

Sarika duck - duck slices with vegetables and peanuts in soft soy sauce

Pudding sasi (tapioca)

Here's the Asiana lunch/dinner menu.

Cheers!

 

[kwtoxman]

Coffee bar snacks and treats :agaveclick on them and zoom in and around!). They had all type of coffees and teas; hot and cold brews as well as sweet coffees.

Lots and lots of very tasty and high quality sweets!

Il Pescatore restaurant (next door at Panama Jacks, with free access)

Black sea (mixed seafood) risotto with squid ink

Here is the Il Pescatore dinner menu (next door at Panama Jack's, included)