when i was living in ghana we would often take weekend trips to this amazing little beach about forty minutes outside of accra, called kokrobite. at this beach there was this amazing guest house run by a british woman and her ghanaian husband called big milly's backyard. it is the standard to which i have held all guest houses in foreign countries at which i have stayed. you had your choice of accommodations from free standing cottages, to rooms in a block, to spaces to lay your sleeping bag and a trunk to lock your stuff in. all bathrooms were shared, there was no running water, and unpredictable electricity. everything was situated around a open-air bar and the ocean was only yards away. everything you ate and drank was put on a tab, so you had to be careful not to have too good of a time or you may not have enough money come pay time. they cooked three meals a day there and you elected to partake in each of the meals. since there was very few other options in kokrobite at that time, most meals were eaten at big milly's, with a giant star beer to wash down the super fresh fish, and lots of young foreigners to trade travel stories with.
there was one other dinner option. an italian man named franco had decided to ride his motorcycle through west africa. when he landed at kokrobite he decided to stay and open and italian restaurant. he was just opening it the year i was living in ghana and each meal i ate there was progressively more refined. he set up a small kitchen hut and built tables under palm frond umbrellas. the first couple times i ate there he was both cook and waiter. but as both big milly's and his place became more popular he hired kids from the village to work with him.
my favorite dish was spaghetti al tonno. a simple dish of onions, garlic, tomatoes and tuna, it was just so delicious. franco used the locally canned starkist tuna in oil as a substitute for italian tuna in olive oil. the ghanaian version is heavy and fishy and gave the dish as strong and rich flavor.
i think about this pasta dish and those amazing weekends at kokrobite. through the internet i have been able to see how this small fishing village has grown and attracted more and more tourists. the good news is that there are just not that many tourists in ghana. i crave the taste of that dish and wish for it to take me back to those moments when i was 20 years old and living in such a foreign land as a foreigner.
about a month ago we went to dinner at paciarino and they had spaghetti al tonno on the menu. i ordered immediately thinking i was going to indulge in franco's pasta dish. in no was this rendition bad. the fresh homemade pasta had a great texture and bite and the sauce was tasty. but i could barley taste, see, or feel the tuna in the sauce. i just ended feeling like i had a great marinara sauce. and it left this place in my heart and stomach just aching for the real deal.
so recently, as i was perusing my father-in-law's cookbooks and i found a recipe for spaghetti al tonno in cucina ebraica, flavors of the italian jewish kitchen, i knew i had to make it. the final product this evening was exactly the soul satisfying dish i had been longing for. the hardest part of the whole thing is waiting for the water to boil. so try it out some night soon for an easy and delicious meal.
spaghetti al tonno
1 pound long pasta
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 2 cups)
12 salt-packed anchovies, filleted, rinsed and very finely chopped, or 24 olive oil-packed fillets (about one 3-ounce jar), drained and very finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
6 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 can (6 ounces) olive oil-packed tuna, preferably italian, drained and broken up
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped
1 to 2 cups chopped canned plum tomatoes (according to the recipe this is optional but according to my memory totally necessary and i just used one 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes)
grated zest of 1 lemon (again optional in the recipe and i omitted it)
freshly ground black peeper to taste.
bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the pasta, stir well, and cook until al dente.
meanwhile, warm the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. add the onion and saute until tender and translucent, 5 to 6 minutes. add the anchovies, garlic, and parsley and cook for 1 minute. and the tuna and capers and the tomatoes and lemon zest, and cook until warm, about 2 minutes.
drain the pasta and add to the sauce in the pan. toss well to coat, then stir for a minute or two to flavor the pasta with the sauce. sprinkle with pepper and serve immediately.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
cape cod travel series, part 1
i have been spending a lot of time on line recently doing wedding stuff and it leaves me with little energy to blog. one thing i have been doing is putting together my wedding website with lots of cape cod tips for all the guests from out of town. i figure since i pay for the website and i will soon stop paying for it and lose all that hard work that i would transfer the info over here so that its accessible in perpetuity.
seth grew up on cape cod and we spend a lot of time out there. i started visiting about a year into our relationship, so nine years ago, and i just fell in love. as a california girl i really only had limited exposure to the east coast and virtually no exposure to new england, even though my mom grew up in south eastern massachusetts. i remember being initially struck by the sizes of people's yard and the fact that there was a lot of grass and no fences. i love cape cod like a second home and i am so excited to share it with all of my family and friends for our wedding.
so here is what i will call the first entry of my cape cod travel series. i plan on adding a bunch of info about great places to eat and i will post that here too, if i get around to it.
As the cape is surrounded on all sides by water its no surprise that going to the beach is what most people do when on the cape. In addition to ocean beaches and bay beaches there are also dozens of ponds if you are more into fresh water. Follow the OnCape Beaches website to all of your beach info needs.
Out on the Water
There are lost of different opportunities to get out on the water on Cape Cod. I've never done it in all the time I have been visiting the cape but i can only imagine its a lot of fun! The Lobster Roll Cruises goes out of Sesuit Harbor in East Dennis. Think sunset cruise with a lobster roll! Hyannis Whale Watchers Cruises and Provincetown Whale Watch are good if you want to see those big mammals!
Shopping
There is a lot to buy on cape cod! If you are into antiques this will be a dream come true for you as you cannot throw a stick without hitting a antique shop. A drive along route 6A would be a perfect shopping outing! Eden Hand Arts has beautiful jewelry and is the original home to the cape cod ball bracelet and have quite a cult following. They don't actually have a website but the link I included has some pictures of their lovely jewelry. Seth grew up going to the Brewster General Store. And while it used to be a little more functional and a little less touristy, it is still fun to get a bag of penny candy and relax on the benches out front. Lemon Tree is just a nice collection of shops, including great chocolates, beautiful pottery, and a great kitchen shop.
Hiking and Biking
Okay, so Cape Cod is virtually flat so their won't be too much strenuous hiking but there are lots of places to take beautiful walks and nice mellow bike rides. And don't think bike rides are out of the question just because you don't have your bike. You can rent bikes right at the Rail Trail in Brewster at Rail Trail Bike Shop. Nickerson State Park is right in Brewster and also has lovely ponds for swimming and fishing. The OnCape website has hiking and biking cape wide.
seth grew up on cape cod and we spend a lot of time out there. i started visiting about a year into our relationship, so nine years ago, and i just fell in love. as a california girl i really only had limited exposure to the east coast and virtually no exposure to new england, even though my mom grew up in south eastern massachusetts. i remember being initially struck by the sizes of people's yard and the fact that there was a lot of grass and no fences. i love cape cod like a second home and i am so excited to share it with all of my family and friends for our wedding.
so here is what i will call the first entry of my cape cod travel series. i plan on adding a bunch of info about great places to eat and i will post that here too, if i get around to it.
To the Beach!
As the cape is surrounded on all sides by water its no surprise that going to the beach is what most people do when on the cape. In addition to ocean beaches and bay beaches there are also dozens of ponds if you are more into fresh water. Follow the OnCape Beaches website to all of your beach info needs.
Out on the Water
There are lost of different opportunities to get out on the water on Cape Cod. I've never done it in all the time I have been visiting the cape but i can only imagine its a lot of fun! The Lobster Roll Cruises goes out of Sesuit Harbor in East Dennis. Think sunset cruise with a lobster roll! Hyannis Whale Watchers Cruises and Provincetown Whale Watch are good if you want to see those big mammals!
Shopping
There is a lot to buy on cape cod! If you are into antiques this will be a dream come true for you as you cannot throw a stick without hitting a antique shop. A drive along route 6A would be a perfect shopping outing! Eden Hand Arts has beautiful jewelry and is the original home to the cape cod ball bracelet and have quite a cult following. They don't actually have a website but the link I included has some pictures of their lovely jewelry. Seth grew up going to the Brewster General Store. And while it used to be a little more functional and a little less touristy, it is still fun to get a bag of penny candy and relax on the benches out front. Lemon Tree is just a nice collection of shops, including great chocolates, beautiful pottery, and a great kitchen shop.
Hiking and Biking
Okay, so Cape Cod is virtually flat so their won't be too much strenuous hiking but there are lots of places to take beautiful walks and nice mellow bike rides. And don't think bike rides are out of the question just because you don't have your bike. You can rent bikes right at the Rail Trail in Brewster at Rail Trail Bike Shop. Nickerson State Park is right in Brewster and also has lovely ponds for swimming and fishing. The OnCape website has hiking and biking cape wide.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
stimulating the economy with a staycation
i have had this fantasy for a long time about secretly planning a trip to some tropical island and surprising seth with it. its a fantasy i can't make a reality yet but i did try to come close.
back in early february i was checking out the weekly email from travelzoo about great travel deals, when i noticed a special at the inn by the sea in cape elizabeth. this small hotel sits right on crescent beach state park, one of my favorite beaches, and the deal was really great! i thought, i can book this hotel for seth's birthday on march 6th and surprise him with it. so that's what i did, and i almost made it all the way to his birthday without telling him. i thought he needed something to look forward to so a week before his birthday i told him about the surprise.
let me just talk about how amazing this deal really was. the price for a fireplace room for one night was $129. i know this is a splurge but this room is $300 to $400 in the summer. and it was truly a beautiful room. the whole place was redone in june 2008 and it is comfortably luxurious. the bathroom was obscenely huge with a glassed-in shower the size of my whole bathroom at home. we had a view of the ocean from our room, a plush king size bed, a comfortable sitting area, and a huge flat screen tv.
when i was making the reservations i check out the hotel restaurant, sea glass. the menu looked great but it was a little spendy so i figured i would find some place nearby to dine. around the same time i was checking out the list of restaurants participating in maine restaurant week, which just happened to coincide with seth's birthday weekend. and there it was: sea glass was participating in restaurant week. for $30.09 per person we could get a three course meal! so i made reservations.
the dining rooms is quite small, which creates an intimate feeling with the warm furniture and over sized chairs. we were presented with both the restaurant week menu and the regular menu, which allowed us to see what a deal we were really getting. most of the entrees at the sea glass are around $25 so to get a 3 course meal for $30 is really amazing.
for our first course i choose the beet and spinach salad and seth picked the lobster bisque. my salad was delicious with both red and gold beets and what the menu termed a "snow" of goat cheese and smoked bacon. seth really liked his lobster bisque but felt that by the bottom of the bowl the tarragon oil overpowered the other flavors.
for our main courses i choose the grilled gaucho steak frites with chimichurri sauce and seth had the maine seafood paelle. i think the cut of steak was a new york strip grilled to a perfect medium rare. i love when i can get a steak that has a little char on the outside but still manages to be pink and juicy on the inside. the frites were amazing and quite reminiscent of duck fat fries in the flavor but not shape. i'm a big fan of chimichurri sauce, but i did think this one could have used a little more brightness. though i'm not sure i am one to comment as the chef is argentinian (once grilling season starts i will share my recipe for chimichurri). the paelle was slightly modified from the regular menu with the omission of lobster, but seth love it just the same. it contained all native seafood with maine shrimp, wild mussels, local clams, and calamari. seth could not stop raving about the smokiness the chorizo added.
for dessert i got the flourless chocolate souffle cake and i talked seth into getting something different in the vanilla creme caramel. the chocolate cake was absolutely decadent and dense. i like the creme caramel which was basically a flan served with this amazing passion fruit sorbet, but seth didn't care for it.
they have a full bar at the sea glass but seth went with a couple of local beers and i had a glass of wine. they don't serve beer on tap but they do have a good selection of beers in bottles. their wines by the glass selection was decent and well priced. our server was great -- efficient and helpful and never left us wanting for anything. all in all it was a great meal and i would recommend that people go out of their way to dine at this unassuming hotel restaurant in cape elizabeth. a couple of weeks ago i did notice they were doing a weeknight special of three courses for $25 but i don't see it on the website now.
after dinner we headed back up to our room to do what seth most wanted to do on his birthday night: watch the celtics play the cavaliers on that big screen tv. the next morning we lounged around our room for a couple of hours, drinking the coffee by design coffee supplied with the coffee maker in our room. seth said it was his best birthday ever.
i made the statement to seth that we were stimulating the economy with this little indulgence. and that got me thinking that spending money right now is kind of a charitable act. so if you have a little extra money, go spend it on yourself and feel good about it! and even if you don't have extra money right now keep you eyes open for specials at the inn by the sea in coming winters as it is surely worth the splurge.
back in early february i was checking out the weekly email from travelzoo about great travel deals, when i noticed a special at the inn by the sea in cape elizabeth. this small hotel sits right on crescent beach state park, one of my favorite beaches, and the deal was really great! i thought, i can book this hotel for seth's birthday on march 6th and surprise him with it. so that's what i did, and i almost made it all the way to his birthday without telling him. i thought he needed something to look forward to so a week before his birthday i told him about the surprise.
let me just talk about how amazing this deal really was. the price for a fireplace room for one night was $129. i know this is a splurge but this room is $300 to $400 in the summer. and it was truly a beautiful room. the whole place was redone in june 2008 and it is comfortably luxurious. the bathroom was obscenely huge with a glassed-in shower the size of my whole bathroom at home. we had a view of the ocean from our room, a plush king size bed, a comfortable sitting area, and a huge flat screen tv.
when i was making the reservations i check out the hotel restaurant, sea glass. the menu looked great but it was a little spendy so i figured i would find some place nearby to dine. around the same time i was checking out the list of restaurants participating in maine restaurant week, which just happened to coincide with seth's birthday weekend. and there it was: sea glass was participating in restaurant week. for $30.09 per person we could get a three course meal! so i made reservations.
the dining rooms is quite small, which creates an intimate feeling with the warm furniture and over sized chairs. we were presented with both the restaurant week menu and the regular menu, which allowed us to see what a deal we were really getting. most of the entrees at the sea glass are around $25 so to get a 3 course meal for $30 is really amazing.
for our first course i choose the beet and spinach salad and seth picked the lobster bisque. my salad was delicious with both red and gold beets and what the menu termed a "snow" of goat cheese and smoked bacon. seth really liked his lobster bisque but felt that by the bottom of the bowl the tarragon oil overpowered the other flavors.
for our main courses i choose the grilled gaucho steak frites with chimichurri sauce and seth had the maine seafood paelle. i think the cut of steak was a new york strip grilled to a perfect medium rare. i love when i can get a steak that has a little char on the outside but still manages to be pink and juicy on the inside. the frites were amazing and quite reminiscent of duck fat fries in the flavor but not shape. i'm a big fan of chimichurri sauce, but i did think this one could have used a little more brightness. though i'm not sure i am one to comment as the chef is argentinian (once grilling season starts i will share my recipe for chimichurri). the paelle was slightly modified from the regular menu with the omission of lobster, but seth love it just the same. it contained all native seafood with maine shrimp, wild mussels, local clams, and calamari. seth could not stop raving about the smokiness the chorizo added.
for dessert i got the flourless chocolate souffle cake and i talked seth into getting something different in the vanilla creme caramel. the chocolate cake was absolutely decadent and dense. i like the creme caramel which was basically a flan served with this amazing passion fruit sorbet, but seth didn't care for it.
they have a full bar at the sea glass but seth went with a couple of local beers and i had a glass of wine. they don't serve beer on tap but they do have a good selection of beers in bottles. their wines by the glass selection was decent and well priced. our server was great -- efficient and helpful and never left us wanting for anything. all in all it was a great meal and i would recommend that people go out of their way to dine at this unassuming hotel restaurant in cape elizabeth. a couple of weeks ago i did notice they were doing a weeknight special of three courses for $25 but i don't see it on the website now.
after dinner we headed back up to our room to do what seth most wanted to do on his birthday night: watch the celtics play the cavaliers on that big screen tv. the next morning we lounged around our room for a couple of hours, drinking the coffee by design coffee supplied with the coffee maker in our room. seth said it was his best birthday ever.
i made the statement to seth that we were stimulating the economy with this little indulgence. and that got me thinking that spending money right now is kind of a charitable act. so if you have a little extra money, go spend it on yourself and feel good about it! and even if you don't have extra money right now keep you eyes open for specials at the inn by the sea in coming winters as it is surely worth the splurge.
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