Tomaz and Lili, neighboring cruisers (in Rodney Bay St. Lucia, on their 47′ Beneteau sailboat, Heron) and fabulous friends introduced us to refreshingly affordable French Lordson’s gin ($28.50 EC or ~$12 USD for 750 ml or about a fifth) lime and tonic, garlic aioli dip (mayo with enough fresh garlic added to be genuinely appealing) with French mussels and generous slabs of a locally baked fruit bread. While Lili claims to be lazy in the galley, back home in Slovenia, she and Tomaz made their own fresh butter, cheese and ricotta. The fresh milk they used hailed from less then 500 meters from their house.
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| Wayne at work in the galley, caught on camera! |
Despite this, Galley Wench shamelessly foisted upon them American Cuisine, shocked that they’d never experienced our most frequent passage-making meal, peanut butter and jelly (aka PBJ). They liked it, and even better, our tropical but also classic alternate rendition of it, peanut butter and banana (aka PBB).
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| PBB, a Wayne favorite, and not just in the Caribbean. |
As if that déclassé wasn’t enough, I regaled them with one of my favorites even “Tater Tots” Wayne considers too lowbrow, canned spritz cheese (albeit cheddar flavored rather than American – even I’m not that lowbrow).
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| Ahhh… all done! |
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| Wayne calls this Cheese Whiz but it is not! Cheese Whiz tastes plastic, like wet Velveeta. |
Marvelously good sports, Lili and Tomaz took it in stride. After all, Tomaz was even eventually willing to not write off Mexican food, after recovering from his first underwhelming exposure to it in the U.S. via Taco Bell. We all agree, though, it’s fine if years go by before revisiting one of the biggest bastions of American cuisine, McDonald’s.
Alas, Lili and Tomaz are Northbound sooner than us, to meet friends in Guadeloupe. We look forward to sharing new culinary discoveries when we meet again. More than that, we’ve enjoyed learning about their adventures, and more about living in Slovenia ….. Its economic roller coaster after Tito’s death, the choking bureaucracy that makes direct access to local food almost impossible and the protection of private voting rights, among other things. Meanwhile, we’ll miss their warm and witty company.
Lili writes a well-crafted blog and is especially clever at capturing historical irony and natural wonder. Check it out at http://heronsailing.blogspot.com.
