Around the world. Part 1 - Caribbean

I thought it would be good to let you all know where I am in the world and what culinary delights each place has to offer. I will do my best to update it each month and also load up some photos.

For the past 3 months I have been based in Antigua. We did a whirlwind tour of the entire Caribbean chain of Islands with the guests in 2 weeks but didn't really stay anywhere very long. We managed to pick up a couple of huge lobsters as you can see in the photos. I served these with a coconut curry sauce and rice and peas.

Whilst on the dock in Antigua I had a guy coming round to the boat with huge bags of clams, carrying them on his head like a huge Rasta hat. His call was " Come get some Cockle for your Wockle!" I made a classic Italian style clam linguine with these.

I managed to get over to Antigua's Sister Island Barbuda for a surfing camping weekend. On the fire we baked a whole pumpkin with a herb butter and some Plantain stuffed with Chocolate and Rum. On another trip to the beach, our friends rocked up with some freshly caught slipper lobsters, marinated in herbs, garlic and spices! A fantastic Sunday lunch followed by an afternoon of Beach cricket! England beat Australia that day too!

Meg and I went over to St.Martin for a few days to do a wine course. (Meg got a Credit Pass in the final exam!) We cooked a Beer Can Jerk Chicken for our friends there. Check out the photos of how we did it! Lots of fun! I have posted a piece on how to do it so you can have a go this summer if you like.

We are now cruising around the San Blas Islands near Panama. These Islands are populated by the Kuna Indians who try to live in harmony with nature.

They are amazing people. They row up to the boat in dug out canoes and sell me fresh tuna and lobster and Mangoes. I made some colourful Sushi with the Tuna and Mangoes. I got the inspiration from the Molas that the Kuna women make and sell to us. These are layered pieces of embroidered cloth depicting the Sea and life around them.



We also caught a huge Mahi Mahi on the way here. It weighed just over 6 kilos! Adam our engineer put his back out reeling it in! I coated this fish with a garlic, lemon and herb rub and simply grilled it.


We will be heading through the Panama Canal in a couple of weeks and into the Pacific. I look forward to writing the next post. Take care everyone! Bon Appetit! Jono