Friday, December 08, 2006

Cruising the Caribbean: Day One


(Sat. 25 Nov. 06)
As part of Holt's semicentennial celebration (see Birthday Dinner, below), I gave him a cruise vacation, which is one of the cleverest gift ideas I've ever had, since I got to go along too. He chose the Seabourn line for its small ships and excellent reputation for food, wine, and service - and boy, did it live up to the hype. We were greeted with champagne and fruit in our cabin, had some more after the lifeboat drill, and this continued for a full week. If you got hungry after breakfast, you could have brunch; then lunch; then fruit and smoothies on deck; tea and cakes at 4, hors d'oeuvres at 5, dinner in either the elegant large Restaurant or the bistro-like Veranda Café, and of course dessert; and someone would bring you more of pretty much any of these, or malossol caviar and champagne, anywhere, anytime.

So here's the dinner we sat down to as we set off from Bridgetown, Barbados.
First course: jumbo shrimp with cilantro, lime, and a hint of chile; crab cakes with a roasted red pepper coulis.
Soup: tomato and white bean, with crostini floating on top.
Salad: frisée with duck confit, with sherry shallot dressing.
Main course: scallops with bacon and braised cabbage in a juniper reduction.
Dessert: chocolate terrine with hazelnut parfait
Cheese: Caciotta al tartufo with a honey-apple syrup.

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