I really liked St. Kitts. We had a rental car, freedom to come and go as we pleased, and it seemed like an island of normal people living normal lives, not like a Conde Nast vacation photo spread. It appears quite poor, with small houses and non-descript store fronts separated by narrow streets with cars driving on the wrong side of the road (British style). Independence Square in Basseterre, the capital of the country of St. Kitts and Nevis, is a square block of mostly tattered grass with some trees and tattered monuments. A small Catholic Cathedral is across the street on the east side.
It just seemed real. About lunch time we were outside Basseterre and we could not find anything that looked like a restaurant until we passed a blank-looking building with what looked like a store front for a candy store, or something similar. A small sign said "King Snack."
I ordered fish chop suey which came with fairly large chunks of breaded and fried fish and large pieces of cabbage, broccoli, bell pepper, carrot and squash. The fish was a dark meat fish and some pieces were quite bony. It also came with a massive extra container of dark rice. The flavor was quite bland, but made better with West Indian Hot Flambeau Sauce that really packed some heat. We also enjoyed some Schweppes Grapefruit drink, I don't think it had any actual grapefruit in it, which was pretty good.
Nothing fancy, nothing particularly great, but it felt adventurous.
It just seemed real. About lunch time we were outside Basseterre and we could not find anything that looked like a restaurant until we passed a blank-looking building with what looked like a store front for a candy store, or something similar. A small sign said "King Snack."
We parked and walked inside and found that it was a Chinese style restaurant with a fairly large menu, the only facility resembling a restaurant we'd seen since leaving Basseterre. The woman proprietor appeared to be of Vietnamese descent instead of Chinese.
I ordered fish chop suey which came with fairly large chunks of breaded and fried fish and large pieces of cabbage, broccoli, bell pepper, carrot and squash. The fish was a dark meat fish and some pieces were quite bony. It also came with a massive extra container of dark rice. The flavor was quite bland, but made better with West Indian Hot Flambeau Sauce that really packed some heat. We also enjoyed some Schweppes Grapefruit drink, I don't think it had any actual grapefruit in it, which was pretty good.
Judy ordered shrimp and garlic which came with lots of onion, broccoli and some tomato and a pretty good bunch of brown rice.
Neither dish was particularly great, but it was quite different from what we would get for a similar dish at home, particularly the copious amount of very large brown rice.
Nothing fancy, nothing particularly great, but it felt adventurous.
It made me wonder if the locals ever eat out--or if when they do, they just want something that's not their usual cuisine, hence the Chinese restaurant. The only other places we could have eaten were convenience stores.
ReplyDeleteIt really was amazing to find NO choices in local cuisine in this location. It's kind of a shock to travel so far for mediocre Chinese, but I was hungry enough to enjoy it.
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