Honeymoon food porn

Because who doesn't love a little Monday morning food porn? I had such an amazing weekend, I thought I should spread the smiles by reminiscing about our fare on the honeymoon in January. If there's one good thing about cruising, it's the endless amounts of amazing food at your fingertips 24 hours a day. You don't eat when you're hungry,  you eat when you're not full anymore from your last meal. There were 21 restaurants on the ship we were on, the Norwegian Epic. We didn't get to try them all but we sure did give it a good old college try!

 

I do have to share a little disappointing news with you. It's not like I didn't know this already but it sort of hit home that my 20's are gone-dy last week when I got a text from Main Man saying: "You're no longer a 20 something food blogger. Did you forget that you're 30?"  Jeeeeeeeeesh! So I suppose I have to change my banner/title, but am thinking I will give myself this week to enjoy it for a bit longer. Don't judge :)

 

I have a new blog I would like to share with you, it's not food related, but you can bet it's on my regular reading list. My good friend Leslie has started a new blog regarding her workout regimen, her struggles with it, and a new challenge she is undertaking for herself to hit her fitness goals. Main Man and I actually joined her at hot yoga this weekend (he was surprised at how hard it actually is, and promised to go back with me) so it's fun to read about her progress, and her outlook on life. She's a very talented writer and she is just as insightful in real life as she is in her writing, so you see why I love to hang out with her! If you would like to join me in following her, check her blog out HERE!!

 

Every morning we hit the breakfast buffet and they had an omelet station where someone would make your eggs however you desire them. I had an egg white omelet with everything in it each morning...some toast, turkey bacon, and a roasted tomato and I was good to go for the day!

The first place we docked the ship after 2 days at sea was St. Maarten. We had arranged to do an America's Cup regatta boat race, so we headed straight for that in the morning after getting off the ship. We were put to work on the Stars and Stripes, the actual boat that won the 1986 America's Cup race, and we raced a Canadian sailboat....and ended up winning! 'Merica!!

We worked up quite an appetite spinning the gears on the sailboat, so we went in search of the authentic Caribbean food. This was a jerk spiced conch dish that we got at an open air restaurant right on the beach in St Maarten. This is tied for my favorite meal of the entire trip (I didn't get a picture of the competitor, the salmon oscar I had the first night on the boat), I can't even explain the flavors in the spice profile...a tiny hint of sweetness followed by the heat...amazing! And so cool to gaze at the blue water and white sand beaches while nibbling on lunch and sipping on a beer...this meal was the epitome of vacation.

Main Man had a grilled fish sandwich that day on the beach, and it was just as amazing as my meal. The fish was so fresh and flaky with such a great seasoning on it. Mmmmmm, I need to live somewhere that's not landlocked at some point in my life...

This was at Taste, one of the free restaurants on the ship. We were super impressed with the free choices on board, as well as the specialty restaurants. You have to pay a small fee at the specialty places, and can order anything you want on the menu, two meals each if you have the room in your tummy. We got appetizers, salads, and were never hungry by time we got our meals at dinner each night...the food was better than I remember on past cruises. I had a black mussels and seafood pasta...

 

And Main Man was pumped to enjoy prime rib and a baked potato...he was impressed that the meat tasted as good as it does at home. If an Iowan says your prime is good, you know you're doing something right!

 

In St Thomas, we chose a ziplining excursion since neither of us had ever done it before. Main Man has an aversion to heights so I'm not sure how he did so much better than me at this, but we both really enjoyed it. There were 6 ziplines, each getting steadily longer and higher up as we went. The last one was so tall, that if there had been any other way down, I would've taken it. But I had to just shut my eyes and go.....wheeeeeeeee!

 

The view above is of the famous Megan's beach overlooking the area where all the celebrities homes are on the island...

 

 

We had lunch at a little place in the shopping district of St Thomas after we finished our ziplining tour...I was a little obsessed with the conch so I got it every place it was offered, although I never did get the conch salad I was looking for. This was conch and onion in a garlic sauce with macaroni and cheese and sweet potato mash with a salad. This was amazing as well but came in second in my conch meals for the trip...

 

 

Main Man had the jerk chicken with the same sides as my meal. He liked it so much he has requested it at home, so you will be seeing a jerk chicken recipe sometime soon on the blog.

 

The Norwegian Epic is the only ship that has a Cirque du Soleil show at sea...amazing doesn't even begin to describe the talent these people were showing with balance, strength, and poise (in the tiniest space, mind you) while the ship rocked from the waves so much that I walked myself into a wall on the way to the bathroom after only one glass of wine. I don't know how it's humanly possible to do what these people do...the show included dinner, and it was fabulous but we were not allowed to take photos once the show started so as not to disturb the performers. This was an unbelievable experience that we will never forget...

The last day of the trip, we docked in Nassau, Bahamas for the day. We embarked on an underwater submarine type trip that took up most of the day, so we didn't have much time for looking around. This was probably one of the neatest experiences of my life...it's so unnatural to feel like you're breathing underwater. I would recommend this to anyone who visits the Bahamas! We went to Atlantis the last time we were there, and spent the whole day racing each other up the steps to the slides having a blast like 10 year old kids, but we wanted to try something different this time. We've decided that we love Nassau so much, we want to take a trip just there sometime....

We stopped at a place called Sharkey's right on the beach as we were heading back to the boat, so we could grab some conch fritters to fill our craving...yummo! There's our honeymoon in a nutshell...I wish I would've made this post sooner, I am now longing for white sand beaches and piles of extravagant food at my beck and call. I hope you all enjoyed your Monday escape to the Caribbean...now get back to work!!

 

Hoshi Sushi Lounge

Things that make you go drooooollll for $100, Alex!  Don't tell me you're not salivating looking at that picture.  Sushi is one of prettier forms of food I've ever come across, it's literally an edible art form.

Justin and I took a sushi rolling class a couple years ago so we've had a few sushi parties at home to showcase our skillzzzz...but it's always nice to head out for the real deal with no fuss once in a while.  I wish it wasn't so expensive, I could mow on some sushi every week! 

We had a coupon for a sushi platter for 4 at Hoshi, and this was the result.  We had done this before with just Justin and I, and I was nervous that we didnt' get to choose the rolls we got, they just made us up a plate. I was not disappointed...we cleaned up! So when I saw the groupon again, of course I snatched it up. 

This time we went with Christina and Nate, and we actually met the owner (La) who was very friendly, informational, and accomodating during our 3 hour dinner in the Drake neighborhood.  He even let us try some escolar, which he explained to us we needed to limit to 6 oz portions per person so as to keep our pants clean after dinner (to put it nicely).  You can read about escolar HERE, it's actually pretty interesting and super de duper tasty...so rich and buttery.  He also gave us a pokie salad that had mango, tuna, veggies, and some sauce on it that was phenom.  He ALSO gave us a round of saki bombs on the house, which fit right into my weekday trying to fit in a bridesmaids dress diet (cough, cough). 

Needless to say, after the great food, wonderful service, awesome hospitality, and trendy ambiance...we may have found ourselves a new fave sushi joint! Go check it out!

Sborocco

I think I spelled it right this time, didn't I?  I can never remember which letters to double....

Well, I went there for my second time on Friday with the girls and a couple of guys, and again it was amazing.  I actually tried something besides the duck, which is a cardinal sin, but it was a wonderful meal anyway!  I've posted this before, but the duck is to die for there.  I think it's amazing, which is why I wanted to try something else....there has to be more amazing stuff on the menu, doesn't there?  In hindsight, I shouldve gotten the duck as I ate some of Bea's instead of finishing my meal...but I think I will try one more thing there next time I go, before I head straight back to the duck and never get anything else.  Christina will never order anything else but the duck so here is a picture of hers...Pan roasted Fox Hollow Farms duck breast/ duck confit/ shitake & tart cherry risotto/ duck demiglaze!

I tried the spicy duck wings for my appetizer and would highly recommend those as well.  I've had the scallops appetizer there and it's hard to beat but it's also pretty pricey at $13 for 2 scallops!  So I wanted to try something different and was glad I did...I actually had the waiter pick my appetizer for me and it turned out he brought me the one I wouldve ordered from the 3 I had him choose from.

For my meal, I had the skate wing, which is described as Sauteed skate wing/ seafood polenta/ saffron nage...and it was very, very good!  Skate wing is a stingray, and it was a little fishier than I had expected but the seafood polenta was amazing.  Not a great picture but here it is...I would probably not order it again but am glad I tried it, not everyone has had a chance to eat stingray!

Tony actually picked really well that night too, and he got something I wouldve considered boring normally.  He got the Pasta carbonara/ linguine/ sherry cream sauce/ peas/ crisp bacon....can I tell you that Ive never seen bacon this thick.  It was a very, very rich and bacon-y dish so if you don't like bacon, don't touch it but man, was it delish!!  It had peas in it, which I despise, and I still couldnt stop stealing bites!  We were in a dark basement...great for ambiance, not so great for food pics...so excuse the darkness of the photos.

And last but not least, we come to Brandy Sue.  She would highly recommend the candied walnut salad, as she doesn't really get off on food like the rest of us do and doesn't like to pay an arm and a leg for a meal that she doesn't love...she would probably pay more for spinach artichoke dip from Wallaby's than any duck, steak, or fish in the world!  But that's why we love her :)

I should mention that we also finished off 3 bottles of wine with dinner (and the boys were mostly drinking beer), which I wouldn't recommend.  They do have some decent deals on wine though, considering how expensive the food is there.  Nights like these are so fun to me...great food and wine, great friends, a nice long dinner to chit chat and hang out....can't really beat that in my book!

Rants.....and raves!

I have recently become very intrigued by the amount of good food and great restaurants that are available in the Des Moines area.  It seems that every time we go somewhere new, it gives us ideas of where else we want to try.  Lately, the reason we have been doing so well trying new establishments is due to my coupon clipping addiction, as mentioned in a previous post.  Its seriously becoming a problem.  You're not saving money if you are eating out for no other reason than to use a coupon.  This weekend was a great food weekend, I didnt cook once.  Granted, I wasnt feeling the best so it was a good weekend to take off from the kitchen but rarely do I go a full weekend without having to cook even the slightest thing.

First off with the rant...I went to Legends to meet some of the girlies after boot camp on Thursday night.  Legends is a large enough chain and has a detailed enough website that they should be able to make the effort to post their nutritional information online.  One of my biggest ways of tricking myself when going out to eat is perving on the menu a few hours before dinner when Im not hungry yet.  I know I just used the term "perving" in relation to food but thats the only real way I can describe it when Im walking as slow as humanly possible to my table when the hostess is seating us so I can get a mental picture and an internal slobber going by looking at what other people are eating on the way past their tables.  Justin has repeatedly scolded me for walking too slow and most likely creeping someone out from staring at their table too hard as I meander by.  In order to prevent this, I perv on the menu beforehand.  I will admit the staring at stranger's dinners doesnt embarrass me though so the main reason I perv on the menu beforehand is to be sure that I make a good decision health wise before I go out and am hungry enough to start chewing on my arm sitting at the table looking at the menu.  There are a few hard and fast rules that are pretty obvious to steer clear from if trying to keep calorie count down....a few of my rules are: nothing fried, no white/cream sauces, no full fat salad dressings or croutons on my salad, nothing stuffed with cheese, etc.  You would be surprised at how hard those are to follow sometimes, especially when french fries know my middle name and scream "Abby Lynn" at me the whole time Im looking at a menu usually!  Anyway, to bring this paragraph full circle, I perved on the Legends menu and found nothing on nutrition, I was so perturbed I thought about emailing them to ask for some.  The thing about restaurants is that if you dont know how the food is prepared, you can completely derail your day without even meaning to, which is a total pain in the arse.  If Im cheating on my diet, I would rather go with a chicken sandwich and french fries than thinking Im being good with a caesar salad that actually has more calories than what I wanted to eat.  So I went with a side salad with a grilled chicken breast on it at Legends, pretty blah (although it hit the spot after boot camp) but I didnt want to waste all the work I had just done sweating my tushy off in class.  One of the best chains to go to for nutrition information? Outback steakhouse.  They have an "under 500 calories" notation on their menu that tells you what to order.  I get steak, salad, shrimp, and veggies for under 500 calories because they leave the croutons off the salad, leave the butter off the veggies, shrimp, and steak...still tastes awesome, you leave stuffed, but you dont kill your diet.  Bueno.

I dont consider Legends a place to go unless its conveniant anyway, its pretty generic.  We went out to 2 great restaurants in Des Moines this weekend that were both new (to us) and both very, VERY good!  Friday night, Justin and I went to Sam & Gabe's on Hickman, its an Italian place that has an awesome ambiance and seemed pretty smug.  No hooded sweatshirts in there, boys.  They told us there would be a 45 minute wait but there was a pianist as well as a cellist playing live music in the bar area where we could relax and have some drinks while waiting for our table.  It didnt end up being 45 minutes, more like 20, and the staff was all overly friendly and accomodating.  In fact, before I go any farther, I want to rave a little about our server.  Her name was Rona and Im assuming she was in her late 30's (its not polite to ask something of that sort to post on your blog, haha).  She was very engaging, gave full eye contact, was knowledgeable on the menu as well as the specials and very helpful in guiding us through the dishes as newcomers to the establishment.  I had been told that veal was a specialty of theirs but had never had it.  I also looked it up before we went there and had read that veal is one of the leanest meats you could purchase.  Problem: they had 5 veal plates to choose from.  She helped me to choose which one I wanted and we placed our order. 

As I mentioned before, this place is sort of smug.  Justin wasn't all up on me taking pictures of our food in a fancy place like this so I am without photos to let you drool over.  To be honest, I would've been embarrassed to snap a shot in there too, so you lose this time, sorry peeps.  We ended up getting an appetizer that was the best part of the meal if you ask me; the italian sausage stuffed banana peppers.  In case you didnt know, the best way to Justin's heart consists of sausage and cheese....both of which were abundant in this dish.  I really need to learn how to make these skinnier because they were phenomenal, but were definitely not on the healthy list.  I got the veal saltimbocca which was described as "three sautéed scallopini of veal with prosciutto and provolone cheese and deglazed with madeira wine, and finished with our homemade veal demiglace".  Justin got one of the specials which was pepper crusted breast of duck with risotto.  I need to tell you that every time we order something, Justin jokes that he should order for the lady because I undoubtably like his better than mine.  I was pretty excited to try my veal though and really thought I was going to have the better dish this time.  I was not disappointed, Im glad I tried it, but it was not the best meal Ive ever had.  I pictured veal as more like steak, you know, since it is a cow.  It was more like pork, and bland pork at that.  Dont get me wrong I love a good pork chop, and it wasnt like I was gagging from this plate, it was just less tasty than I had anticipated.  Justin's duck on the other hand was great, and the risotto was amazing.  Duck is usually pretty greasy but this seemed like whiter meat than I had had from a duck before so Justin was gracious enough to share a couple pieces with me.  All in all, we enjoyed the experience there even though Sam got veal for dinner that night....our dog seriously eats better than most people. 

Saturday night I had plans to eat at Sborocco on Court Ave in the downtown area.  I had heard my friend Christina (who also a foodie) rave a million times about how good the duck is at this joint, so I finally got my chance to head there with her and Beatrice to give it a shot.  I will say that if comparing Sam and Gabe's to Sborocco, the latter beats the former hands down.  Its also more expensive so the old adage comes to mind, "you get what you pay for".  You would think it would be fancier than Sam and Gabe's but I think our Friday night pick wins on atmosphere.  Sborocco is a cute place but is very small, the 3 of us girls sat at the bar which was actually more comfortable than we would have been at one of the tables in my opinion. We've all been to places where they sit you so close to the next table that you feel as though you're eating with complete strangers, and its hard to have any sort of intimate conversation while in a situation like that.  The bar was perfect for us though, and despite my criticism of the seating, this was one of the best meals Ive had in Des Moines, ever. 

We all shared an appetizer, the pan seared New Bedford scallops/ cauliflower purée/ caramelized Maui onions/ watercress/ apple cider syrup.  There were 2 scallops for $11, so we split them 3 ways and I wouldve paid a very pretty penny to have that as my main course, they were worth it.  As I said earlier though, we came for the duck. We all ordered the exact same dish, which is usually against my better judgment, but I was told that it was so good that neither of them would give me a bite of theirs to try if I decided to order something else for variety.  So naturally I went with the duck which was described as "pan roasted Fox Hollow Farms duck breast/ duck confit/ shitake & tart cherry risotto/ duck demiglaze".  Whatever duck demiglaze is could be drizzled on anything I eat for the rest of my life and I would have no problem with it.  Someone actually contemplated licking their plate, but I wont name names, haha!  I have absolutely no estimations on calorie intake from this meal, and to be honest that was the last thing on my mind as I shoveled it into my mouth.  This is probably a cheat meal, with the creamy risotto and the dark meat duck, but I would consider this worth cheating for. My friends are less embarrassed than Justin of my food picture obsession so I did manage one photo of the duck before digging in (although the scallops were demolished before I even paid a thought to getting a snapshot).  I look forward to trying Sborocco again sometime soon, even if it is a special occasion priced place.