Food, Mail and 30 SPF

A Belizean Lizard....

We're in Miami today. Every Miami day, we got to our post office box hoping that our forwarded mail will be there. So far - NO MAIL! It's driving us crazy. The Ellsworth post office claims they've forwarded our mail but its either lost or stuck in some hellh hole. We know we can get mail because we've gotten other stuff....please pray for our mail.

Also I received many e-mails and comments about the level of my tanness/redness. I have to say that photo is not indictive of what I look like. I mean I'm a little tan but I wear my 30 spf everyday! Here's another photo that shows I'm not so red..


I didn't proofread this next installment so forgive my typos or grammar flubs.

What Are You Eating?

I haven't really talked about food. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm frequently concerned with what I'm going to eat. This isn't because I like to eat a lot but because my stomach gets pretty easily upset so I need to know that there's going to be stuff I can consume. Okay, maybe I like to eat too or I should say I like to eat well. So far, so good.

On the ship, we mostly eat at the Garden Cafe. The Garden Cafe (GC) is your basic buffet style restaurant. They have a good breakfast and a pretty good dinner. We eat there a lot because it's convenient and free.

There are 13 restaurants on board - GC, The Blue Lagoon, Mambo's, Summer Palace, Indigo, La Cucina, Le Bistro, Cagney's, Lotus Garden, Shabu Shabu, Sushi, and Teppanyaki. The first six are all free and the last six have cover charges ranging from 12.50 to 20 buck.

We've been to six of the restaurants. Here are my views on the restaurants:

GC: Covered it above. This place is like my kitchen on board. Anytime I'm hungry during the day, I hit the GC. They also have a cappucino machine which is great.

Blue Lagoon: This is a 24 hour place. We mostly go here after shows. They give you very small plates - like a snack - so it's perfect when you want to eat something but you don't want to get a whole dinner. I recommend the wonton soup, the fried rice and the fish & chips.

Mambo's: By far my favorite, they serve mexican food. The faijtas are delicious.

Summer Palace: This is a very pretty restaurant. It's on the deck 7 aft and it has two story windows that look out the back of the ship. The decor is all Russian Tsar's palace. Very pretty and the food is good. They always have a dessert souffle....they are terrible and by that I mean wonderful! Last week I had a Grand Marnier souffle with chocolate sauce.

La Cucina: Italian. Not my favorite but very nice. It's located on deck 12 aft and it have nice views out the side windows....

Lotus Garden: Asian fusion. Great! Really great. This is a pay place but it's worth it.

Sushi: There's a charge for sushi but again it's worth it. They have this incredible roll - sweet shrimp, avocado, mango and carmelized cashews - wow! It's so good. Sometimes when you're there the sushi chef will give you little tastes of other rolls but basically its an all you can eat sushi place. I wish I could eat more. Come on, stomach!

I'm looking forward to trying Shabu Shabu, Mongolian Hot Pot, and Le Bistro, French food. There's a real renoir in Le Bistro (there's also a real Van Gogh behind the reception desk in the Crystal Atrium)

For me, eating is an easy and basic way to partake of a culture. So we've tried a few local dishes as we've traveled these exotic lands. But today we had a special experience....

We were in Cozumel today. One of the crew members, Ana Paníc, with whom we've become friendly recommended that we try Dracula International. Dracula is a Romanian restaurant. It's off the beaten path a bit....I think we're in someone house. It was kind of like being at a Romanian BBQ. We entered and we were in the living. There were bedrooms on either side of the living room. No one greeted us and in fact several people stared at us. Undaunted, we walked through the "living room" and went to the backyard. There were several tables there. Many of them were filled with Romanians but there was one empty one so we took it. On this adventure was: Andel, Michael, Larrance and myself. We found out that the drinks were self service. You could have whatever was in the cooler. This included sodas, water and lemonade but it also included beer, malted beverages and large bottles of tequila. After a little bit we got some plates and stuff then the first course arrived. There was no menu- it was prix fix - so the first course was this eggplant dish (sort of like babaganoush) and a potato carrot salad that had chicken in it. This was all served with rolls.

After that he brought a selection of grilled meats and a really good soup.....all around us were Romanians drinking huge bottles of tequila and getting quite drunk. We weren't able to take advantage of the huge bottles of tequila because we had a tech and two shows. The whole thing - drinks included - cost $20.

After we left the restaurant, we decided to walk back to the ship. We were about five blocks from the main road. As we were walking, a young guy stopped us to ask if we were lost. We told him we were most definitely not lost. I guess they don't see many tourists back that way.

It was great. So next time you're in Cozumel, go snorkeling and then go get Romanian food.

~ Jen