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| The colorful “flavors”: strawberry (reddish-pink), blueberry (blue), pistachio (green), passion fruit (orange), and coconut (white). The coconut probably did taste like coconut. |
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| The ice is shaved, by hand with a flourish and a little icy spray right before your very eyes. |
Shave Ice
Colorfully repurposed gallon-plus water jugs caught our eye aside the ferry dock bus depot queue. We suspect all the colors — errr, flavors — pretty much taste the same. Sugary. Chalky. Wayne ordered “strawberry” which I thought tasted more like bubblegum. Then again, I don’t expect the average Caribbean local’s tasted a good, fresh, ripe strawberry.
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| A swirl of sweetened condensed milk provides the final, finishing touch. Literally, this is eye candy. |
It was refreshing and sweet and pretty… St. Kitts in a cup, $5 EC (about $1.75 USD). Not anything I’d crave, and not nearly as good as Kauai, Hawaiian shave ice.
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| Manned and unmanned (never saw women grilling) we saw these BBQs all over St. Kitts. |
As usual, I was hungry. Smoky BBQs teased my nostrils and tickled my tastebuds with their savory scent. My mouth watered. Ribs, pork, chicken… for a couple of bucks I satisfied my craving for BBQ chicken. It was good. Moist, no fancy sauces, just plain smoky hands-on-need-a-napkin-and-a-wash-too BBQ goodness. The guy we bought it from, on the river outlet near the ferry dock said, “You’ll be back!” He asked, as had many other locals, “You gonna be here for Carnivale? We start up our celebrations after Boxing day.” We were tempted, but did not hang around St. Kitts for Carnivale. If we return to St. Kitts, we will be back for his BBQ. I’ll bet he’ll be in that very same spot, serving with a smile, one of the many genuinely friendly folks we met in St. Kitts.
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| This beautiful sunrise bade us sweetly goodbye the morning we left St. Kitts. |
We’re now in St. Martin, where we also walked past mouth-watering street BBQs. “You can buy a BBQ here if you want, now that we’re in St. Martin,” Wayne said, when we agreed we both are instantly hungry whenever we smell a BBQ. They’re not cheap, and we just spent a bundle finishing our standing rigging repairs. What’s the ROI I wonder, on how many BBQs out I could save, knowing, we only occasionally indulge. Hot chicken cooked outside the galley in hot weather, though, that is very tempting.
I missed that when we went to St. Kitts a few years back. Well, I probably missed a lot since I stayed most of our stay in our hotel room because it was too hot when we went there. I couldn't stand the heat so I just basically vacationed inside the hotel.
Tyrese
Bummer you did not get to get out and enjoy St Kitts more when you were there. I hope you managed to have a good time anyway.
We've met a lot of great folks in our Caribbean travels, though thus far, St. Kitts stands out as the friendliest of all. Not the "I'm trying to sell you something" 'friendly' just really, "I love this place! How can I help you enjoy it too?" kind of friendly.
We did not hang out for their Carnivale but heard it's pretty spectacular. The wind and destinations north called….