July | 2008 | Food City Bytes

Monthly Archives: July 2008

July 16, 2008 · 3:13 pm

Puerto Rico – Vacation Food

Food City Bytes recently took a trip to Puerto Rico. Having never gone before, I was pretty excited. Planning to put my dogs up in the sun, go snorkeling and see what there was to see in Puerto Rico. We stayed at this fabulous resort that was something of a cross between the settings for Dirty Dancing and The Pirates of the Caribbean. Half the resort was under “construction” which really meant – since its a down economy – that half the place was under wraps – including the more kid friendly multiple water slides pool complex – until such time as there were more guests. The under wraps part – with its chain link fence enclosing the pool area and another set of buildings – was the Pirates of the Caribbean part! We got a room with a balcony, mini kitchen and huge tv overlooking the interior courtyard-esque area that contained two hot tubs, ping pong tables, a volleyball court and a huge angular pool with a water basketball setup. It was (gaudy-trashy yet) fantastic! Like Dirty Dancing!

We went three times we went to San Juan. Having rented a car near the airport, getting around was very simple (aside from the death defying roads!). This street art piece was on a door in San Juan:

IMG_9789, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Unclear whether the “Draco” posting was realted to the graphic?

We stoppped at a little cafe in Old San Juan and ordered a couple sandwiches. After I had a large mocha. The whole time this older motorcycle guy was talking to us about what sites to see, where to go driving and about how much he loves Puerto Rico. We got his whole life story. Uber-friendly & equally uber-tourist-positive. He used to work in a hotel in New York somewhere. He had studied hospitality management. But several years back “Puerto Rico was calling (him) back” and he had to return. He’s been there since and went on and on about how much he loves to ride his Harley all over PR. The best part was when he tried to get us to agree with him that you always have to buy women things to keep them happy!

Mocha in Puerto Rico, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

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July 14, 2008 · 12:00 pm

Sweetwater Tavern & Project Runway: Sweet Food & Random Events!

We made it to Sweetwater Tavern for brunch this past Sunday after a couple missteps and an accidental side trip to Ikea, Red Hook. I’ve been wanting to go to Sweetwater since I read about it over a year ago. Initially, we thought it’d be closer to the Diner on E. Broadway than it turned out to be.

Sweetwater has: an outdoor area, plethora of hipsters milling over morning drinks and discussing their new ongoing band gigs, and lot of good food on the menu. Here’s the raspberry scone:

IMG_0579, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

The old faux fine china plates were a nice touch.

It was very dry (this is good) except for the top layer where the raspberries were and then the brown sugar on top. It was unclear whether they were mad ein house or delivered earlier in the morning. Aong with the other treats (they were out of the croissonts – chocolate filled and otherwise $1 ea. by the time we arrived – c. 2:45pm), they were up front under a bell jar.

Condiments and completeness were out the window: scone arrived but without butter or jam; coffee arrived but without sugar, milk or a spoon and then it only arrived after a coke(?) that no one ordered arrived first and an order of “iced coffee” (that no one ordered) was cancelled. At the end, $3 was charged instead of $2 for the coffee althogh the waitress assured us that regular coffee was $3. It wasn’t; cafe, espresso, latte… those were $3 as presumeably the iced coffee would have been.

Here’s the eggs benedict with Salmon, home fries and salad that I ordered:

IMG_0585, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Surprisingly, there were fried tomatoes under the salmon (which was delicious). The english muffins were an interesting brand too but unfortunately, were a little tough. The eggs too… were not poached so much as actually just completely cooked through. The hollandaise sauce was a win though.

Aimee got the Eggs Supreme which is two poached eggs and ham on grilled bread with avocado and smoked tomato salsa. Aimee said that grilled bread was a nice touch and added flavor but the eggs again weren’t really poached so much as totally cooked through. She said it tasted fine in spite of that and they really did put in a lot of tasty avocado under that piece of lettuce.

IMG_0587, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

Here’s the side view where you can see the avocado poking out. The theory on the eggs is that the wait staff seemed all a little flustered and kept buzzing at one another about how electricity was not working well in certain sections. However, the lights, espresso maker, music etc. were all on and fully functioning up where we were in the front of the restaurant.

IMG_0588, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

IMG_0584, originally uploaded by Brockenbrough Photos.

The ambience in Sweetwater really is nice… there is still the early 20th century tile flooring (highlight as the wallpaper on their website), a long wooden bar, decorations of old rustic equipment and photographs. There were also a number of people, who knew the owner, speaking in Italian.

Plus, added bonus…. on the walk over there, we saw this guy: