Will and I just got back from a sweet 5-day jaunt to Grand Cayman, a great little break in the recent San Francisco "cold spell". It was a nice reward trip with a bunch of folks in sales at Will's company (Nuance). Read on for some pics, stories, and of course, food!
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!
After work, I did some mad packing so that we could make it to the first part of Ashley's big 3-OH celebration before we flew out. We met up with 15 of Ashley's closest buds for dinner at Cha Cha Cha in the Mission. We drank some yummy mojitos and ate some of my fave dishes, including: chicken paillard, fried calamari, fried platanos maduras, sauteed mushrooms, fried new potatoes, and Ceviche del Dia.
I was psyched that we could join for the brief time that we did, but I hear we missed some good times at the Make-Out Room...
At 8:30 pm, Will and I took off for the airport to catch our red-eye (eww!!). We were flying to Atlanta, where we would have a 4-hour layover prior to flying directly to Georgetown on Grand Cayman. Every time I take a red-eye, I remember why it's so awful. I pulled the rookie move of forgetting to pack my contact lense case and glasses in my carry-on, so I had to suffer the fly-with-dry-contact-eyes syndrome.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20
At the ATL airport, I tried to catch some zzz's, but it was so damn cold and loud. We caught our flight to Grand Cayman and arrived in the tropical paradise (humid! hot! too warm for jeans!) around 1 pm.
The view of Cuba from the airplane.
We were staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman, located right on 7-mile Beach just north of Georgetown.
Promo picture from the Ritz website.
When we got to the room, we had the immediate antsy itch of uncertainty of what to do. We were dead-tired from the red-eye, but we were in tropical paradise...you can't take a nap in tropical paradise! So we headed to the pool and ocean to relax in the sun. It was delicious to relax in the sun, thankfully there were a few random clouds in the sky to make it a little more bearable. By 4:30, Will and I were relaxed and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.
The first dinner was a welcome dinner on 7-mile Beach. Everyone was instructed to take off their shoes/flip flops and go barefoot in the sand. I couldn't get enough of the rum punch. The food was served buffet-style and consisted of three stations that had a variety of great salads, seafood, chicken, steak and pork. It was awesome and I was excited to be on vacation.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21
Will had to wake early for a mandatory Nuance breakfast meeting from 8-10 AM. I slept in and headed down to one of the Ritz restaurants, 7 Prime Cuts & Sunsets, for a leisurely brunch at 10 AM. There was a nice selection of brunch selections, including a nice eggs benny and lots of porkly meat to fill me up. The fruit was wonderfully ripe and it was great to see plantains everywhere.
Will and I grabbed two beach loungers and sweated it out for a little while. Thankfully, there were clouds in the sky, which calmed the searing heat of the sun. The water was the perfect temperature to provide some relief from the heat. There were beach activities ongoing, with a bunch of dudes playing beach volleyball. Will and I embarked a highly competitive game of horseshoes (he destroyed me in the first game and then I won the second with three ringers). Then, we stumbled on a frisbee that the son of one of the Nuancer's had brought. It was fun to throw the disc around and dive around the waves.
Around 3 pm, we left the beach area and headed over the the driving range at the Blue Tip golf course to hit the driving range. Will was a sweetheart and bought me a new set of Nike Slingshot irons for my birthday, and I was anxious to try out my new irons and get some shots in before we played the next day (primetime!).
The Blue Tip course is a 9-hole course designed by Greg Norman and is dubbed the "9-hole Caribbean monster". It's only been open for 2 months, as evident by the bare-bones driving range.
Walking back from the golf course through the hotel, it was gorgeous to walk by the second reseort pool as the sun was going down...
Two of the four restaurants (Blue and Periwinkle) in the Ritz have been created by famous Michelin 3-Star chef, Eric Ripert, of Le Bernardin. For dinner, we were joining some of Will's co-workers at Blue by Eric Ripert.
There was a 3-course menu especially for Nuance folks, with 9 appetizers, 10 entrees, and 6 desserts to choose from. Blue is known for its wonderful seafood cuisine, and the menu was promising.
We were treated with a lovely amuse bouche to start of smoked salmon and carmelized onions.
For his appetizer, Will chose the Crab Causa, a crab salad with layers of fresh crab, avocado, and potatoes spiced with red aji panca pepper sauce.
I chose the Tuna-Foie Gras, with layers of thinly pounded yellowfin tuna , foie gras and toasted baguette with shaved chives. This was pretty amazing, combining two of my favorite things to eat, raw fish and foie gras.
For dinner, I stuck with the tuna theme and had the Yellowfin Tuna with citrus-soy vinaigrette and sauteed bok choy with ginger oil. It was delicious and light, the vinaigrette was a perfect compliment.
Will had the Red Snapper, with spicy-sour Puerto Rican sancocho broth, sweet potato, plantain and avocado.
For dessert, I had the Warm Chocolate Cake spiced with candied squash and with vanilla ice cream. This was a pretty safe bet for a phenomenal dessert.
Will went for the "Mille Feuille" of crispy phyllo and banana creme brulee and salted peanut caramel. This was a new take on a creme brulee, which typically comes served in a ramekin. It was tasty, but not what Will expected.
I had asked our server if I could keep a copy of the menu from the evening and she graciously got the Chef de Cuisine, Richard Brower, to sign the menu for me. Richard Brower, formerly the sous chef at Le Bernadin, now oversees both Blue and Periwinkle. Our table requested a tour of the kitchen and they happily obliged...what a treat! The kitchen tour was fantastic, the facilities and food stations were spotless.
The ladies with Richard Brower after our kitchen tour at Blue by Eric Ripert.MONDAY, JANUARY 22
We woke up around 9:30 am and had some brunch to fuel our bodies in anticipation of the afternoon of golf. There was a shotgun start at 1 pm, where we joined to other Nuance folks, Clark and Brian, for the afternoon. We were playing the 9-hole course twice and thank goodness, we were accompanied by a caddie named David through the Ritz's Caddie-concierge program.
The course was pretty tough, as 8 of the 9 holes are littered with water hazards. The ground is also rock hard, as it is so new, so your ball bounces forever, and usually, into water. There was a distinct two-club wind (eg. hit a 160-yard club for a 120-yard shot).
I shot a 56 on the first nine and 46 on the back nine. I lost at least 8 balls to water and had a few mulligans.For dinner, we headed to a restaurant in Georgetown called The Wharf with Cindy, Halima and Nirmalya. In keeping with the trend of prix-fixe dinners, there was a 3-course menu to choose from, with lots of fresh seafood to choose from again.
For an appetizer, I started with Spicy Shrimp Salad with roast vegetable salad and scotch bonnet mayonnaise. The 5 large shrimp and the veggies were delicious and the mayonnaise was nice and light.
Will chose the Cayman conch chowder, which had a lovely seafood broth.
For dinner, I had the Mushroom and Blue Cheese Baked Sirloin Steak, with roasted red bliss potatoes and Cabernet jus. The steak was delicious and so were the veggies. I think the Alberta beef girl in me just had to have some meat.
Will chose the Jerk Spiced Corn Fed Chicken Breast with roasted potatoes and rum gravy. I had a little bite of delicious jerk chicken, which was spicy but not overwhelming.
For dessert, I had the Homemade Vanilla Cheese Cake garnished with macerated strawberries. The cheese cake was really light and tasty, the perfect texture and consistency.
Will opted for the Warm Banana Pudding (shocking!) served with caramel sauce and ice cream. This was the winner by far, in fact, it may have been the best part of the meal. Warm and wonderful goodness.
Every night at 9 pm, there's a a seaside show that involves a feeding of the tarpon fish that reside just off the deck (and just a few yards from where we were seated).
After dinner, Will, Nirmalya and I joined a few other folks for after-dinner brew at a local brewery in Georgetown called Hammerjacks. We tried one of their brews, the Mango Cream Ale, which was delicious and was remniscent of the good ol' Canadian Sleeman's Cream Ale.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23
The days were ripping by so quickly that it was almost surreal. It was our last full day of fun in the sun and of course, we started it off with a sweet brunch.
At 1 pm, we got on a bus that shuttled us to the harbor to Red Sail Sports, where we boarded the 65 foot "Spirit of Poseidon" catamaran. We powered out into the North Sound and toward the infamous Stingray City. Stingray City is a collection of natural sand bars where stingrays have gathered over the years (as fishermen would clean their catch of the day near the sandbars) and have become a tourist attraction. As a result, they are very people friendly and associate the sound of boats with food.
We anchored by a large sandbar and after a great nature lecture by our captain, we descended the ladder into the wonderfully blue water to snorkel and hang out with the stingrays. The water was chest deep, so you could stand pretty easily. We also had snorkel equipment so that we could check out what they looked like underwater.
The bottoms of the stingrays felt like wet portabello mushrooms. They'd swim right up to you to see if you had food. There was a bucket of squid hanging off the catamaran that you could feed to the stingrays. I was too chicken, but Will and a few others did, so I was the official photographer.
It was a pretty amazing experience, we hung out in the water for about 40 minutes before we were ushered back onto the catamaran for the sail home.
After the catamaran returned to harbor, we headed back to the hotel and to the beach! Last day in paradise meant we had to maximize sun time. Will sealed the deal as horseshoe champion of the trip by anhilating me 3 games to 1. Turns out he figured out how to throw ringers.
For the final evening, there was a black and white resort "elegant" dinner on the Great Lawn. We had a great view of the Great Lawn from our hotel room, so we could see everyone getting ready for the event.
The food was amazing, especially for such a large group. There was unbelievable seafood and I took full advantage.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
Last day came around, and we squeezed in one more brunch before we had to head to the airport to catch our flights home.
What an amazing trip, we should've stayed longer! Thankfully, we landed in Atlanta early, hustled through customs, and managed to get on the early flight to San Francisco. This helped us avoid the 4 hour layover and got home at 8:30 pm (instead of midnight!).
It was great meeting the gaggle of Will's coworkers and I'm dying to get back to the Caribbean...FUN!
