Where to get your Fishes!

I mostly eat fish when I go out, buying the occasional fillet at the market when the mood strikes. Because I don't buy fresh fish on a regular basis, I don't really know where to go--

Or I didn't, until I found Safe Harbor in Mayport.

Jacksonville tends to get a little compartmentalized, so not everybody is going to know about this place if they don't live in the area. If you live more than 20 minutes away, just grab a cooler to stick your fish in for the ride home.

Not only is it a great fish market, with shrimp right off the trawlers, they also have an informal restaurant that cooks up scallops, salmon, grouper, shrimp and all the essential underwater yummies in all kinds of preparations.

I'd say, if you haven't ever been over to Mayport, take a trip there this weekend. Go to Safe Harbor, enjoy the lunch and take home some fresh fish!

Safe Harbor Seafood Market. 4378 Ocean St Ste 3 Atlantic Beach, FL 32233


Market hours: Mon-Thu 9pm-5:30pm & Fri-Sat 9am-6pm

Marina Restaurant Mon-Sat 10am-8pm

Caribbean Food in Jax

There are more Caribbean Restaurants in the Jacksonville area than you'd think.
This week, I had to do a sidebar listing of as many Caribbean/Island eateries as I possibly could.

This was a tougher assignment than you might think.

First of all, half these places aren't even in the phone book. I know I missed some--like Rosetta's, because I didn't have time to drive out there and they never answered their phone.

Although I did travel around the city some, mostly I used the phone to gather info. I tell you, there's nothing like a thick Jamaican accent to aid in the art of miscommunication. That wasn't the only issue though--here I was, using my standard procedure, saying "Can you fax me a menu?" and the answer I get is "Our fax machine is down right now." After about the fifth one, I realized that most of these tiny places probably didn't even have fax machines. I just thought it was funny that each person on the phone at different restaurants decided that it was better not to admit that they didn't own one.

Anyway, Da Real Ting has the best jerk chicken. Too bad they're not open during normal business hours. The place is more like a club, opening at 9 pm- 3 am on Fridays & Saturdays and from 7 pm- 11 pm on Sundays. The crowd there can seem a little shady, but the chicken's worth it, damn it! Also, it's not the cleanest place I've ever been. It's still worth it.

But, if you're out and about during the day, Caribbean Sunrise Bakery is a great place to eat genuine Caribbean. Most people get their stuff to-go but the place is fairly clean and well run. Lots of kids get their beef patties there after school. The jerk chicken is very good and the oxtail is properly cooked. You might have had really tough oxtail in the past, but that isn't the case here. When cooked correctly, for a long period of time in wet heat (braised or stewed) oxtail can have an incredible flavor.

There are some downsides, like the neighborhood is a bit rundown and you're likely, as we were, to be approached by a panhandler with a well-rehearsed tale of woe, in which he needs just a few dollars to get home/eat food/fix his car. The guy that talked to us needed $16. I guess he was adjusting for inflation.

Autobots, Transform!

So, this new Transformers movie...I was waiting for it to come out with a mixed sense of anticipation and dread.

Anticipation because movie tech is able to do the 'bots justice and dread because movie scripts and plotlines suck ass these days. What if they did it badly? Would the pain be too much to bear?

Actually, the movie rocks. I think there are some fanbois out there that will disappointed in some of the changes and tweaks made to the 'bots, but by and large, those fanbois will be happy that they even made this...even if they hated it.
I had a few Transformer toys as a kid, but my nostalgia was sorta fuzzy. Unlike the guy that sat next to us at the preview performance, I do not have a tattoo of the Autobots logo and I can't name all the Decepticons.

But the movie jogged my memory and I even got a few "in-jokes."

The flick's weakest point is something it couldn't have done without-- Optimus Prime moralizing in a very deep voice, mostly about how humanity has a lot to learn but we have good in us, yada-yada...That's Prime alright...I'd forgotten how he tended to do that in the old series. No wonder Megatron always wanted to off him.

But I digress. My point here is that the film is worth seeing on the big screen, if only for the bad-ass robot fights.

Even if you know nothing about Transformers, you'll like the movie. (In fact, it might help.) The script is funny, the action movies swiftly and the perspective is human.
Read my official review from EU here: http://www.eujacksonville.com/pages/07-05-07/transformers.htm

Chocolate Mousse, without Lactose

I've got a friend who's lactose intolerant, so I've been trying to come up with rich-tasting, French style desserts...

The easiest thing I've made so far is a coconut milk chocolate mousse.

You'll need:
1 can coconut milk (Thai brand is pretty good)
1 tablespoon pure cocoa (no powdered milk or sugar added)
2 tablespoons white sugar

Take a can of coconut milk, unshaken and open. There should be a creamy layer on the top of the unmixed milk. Scoop the majority of it off into a bowl (you'll get a little over a cup of coconut cream).

Next mix the cocoa and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the contents over the bowl of coconut cream and stir the contents well.

It can be served right away.

If you put the contents in the fridge, it will become more solid, but you can serve a dollop of this simple dessert with fresh strawberries in a small martini glass or on a plate, right away. The thickened mixture can be used like an icing. If you want to refridgerate it but want a looser texture, you can add a little of the coconut milk remaining in the can.

It doesn't take long to make, and it's very tasty and creamy! Most people won't know it's made with coconut milk.

Sunday in Downtown Jacksonville

Since my husband wasn’t going to be working on Sunday, I asked him to come with me on a trip Downtown. Because it was Sunday, I knew that not much would be open in the morning hours, so I settled on going to the newly renamed MOCA.

When we arrived, four employees were clustered around the main desk. They asked how they could help, and then explained that the gallery walls were bare as they were between exhibits. The new exhibition would be opening on the 26th.
Sean hadn’t seen the museum’s fascinating shop, so we started browsing. Quite a few items left over from Christmas were on sale. He found a ring he liked in the extensive jewelry case and I marked several items in my mind as future gifts for some of our harder to shop for relatives.
We stepped out onto the street fairly clueless as to where we should walk from there. Finally, we settled on walking to the Landing. Even if nothing was open, we knew we could count on a pleasant view of the river.

On Laura Street we stopped in front of a vacant building, sad because the architecture was majestic and beautiful. There are buildings all over the downtown area like this, and I hope to one day see them all filled and restored. As we stood there, looking up like tourists, a man, probably homeless, stopped alongside us to share in the wonder and mumble about the beauty of the building. He was difficult to understand because he had as many teeth as the building had unbroken windows, but his appreciation was clear. We hurried on, apprehensive that the conversation was a prelude to asking us for money, but later I wondered what he had been saying, and if it would have cost us so much to stay and listen to him.

My friend Siobhan, who’s from New York, says my mistake is that I make eye contact with street folk, but I’m Southern, and I have a difficult time treating people as though they don’t exist. One day I made the mistake of crossing Hemming Plaza and no less than three people of raggedy attire tried to strike up a conversation. I didn’t ignore them, but if I had, they wouldn’t have disappeared. I have given the homeless money because they’ve told me tales so outlandish that I felt they had earned the money simply for entertaining me. I’m certain that God has written “gullible mark” all over my face, in the sort of ink that only panhandlers can see.

Once at the Landing, it was apparent that everything was closed until the afternoon. Still, there were people out, enjoying the balmy weather and walking their dogs. I noticed the Downtown Ferry docked, and a few people boarding it. I had never taken the ferry over to the South Bank and so, of course, was filled with a deep desire to do so. It cost us $10 cash for two round trip tickets. We pooled what little cash we had (my husband reluctantly gave me his last dollar) and boarded the ferry. The dock at South Bank is just adjacent to the River City Brewing Company, the MOSH, the Maritime Museum and a spectacular fountain. We got a voucher from the captain for our return trip and headed to the River City Brewing Company for brunch. It was a steep $21 brunch, but the Snow crab legs, carving station and omelet station made it worthwhile. There’s just nothing like putting a freshly made waffle on a plate next to crab legs and shrimp, if only for the novelty of the thing.

As we left Downtown, we threw our remaining change to man playing a sax on sidewalk.

How to really, really enjoy chocolate

1) Close your eyes. Scientific studies have proven that the sense of taste is heightened in a dark room, so make it really dark and close your eyes once you’ve placed some heaven-sent chocolate in your mouth.
2) Don’t just chew and swallow. Chocolate only comes into its full flavor when it melts a little, so eat small bites and let it melt in your mouth before you swallow it. Some chocolate connoisseurs even keep a special warming pad to heat their chocolate to just the tasting right temperature, without being sticky. I’m not so hi-tech, though I do love it so.
3) Start with a clean palate. If you’ve eaten something sweet just before tasting your chocolate, your taste buds will be overloaded with the sweet taste and the chocolate will taste bitter. Coffee with chocolate may seem like a great choice, but you won’t get the full richness of your chocolate if you take strongly flavored coffee with it.

(The sweet confections above are from Claude's Chocolate's in St. Augustine)

gastronomic meanderings

Once a month, when I’m at the grocery store, I try to pick up some ingredient I’ve never used before. It gives my culinary wanderings a sense of adventure. Sometimes I even search for a specific item (like last year’s hunt for blue potato) just to see what it’s like.

Generally I’ll find the simplest preparation of the item so I can get a sense of what the ingredient is like, without having it get lost in other flavors.

I’ll tell you, blue potatoes did not change my life the way I thought they would. They’re really really starchy, so they would hold up well in a potato salad, but then you lose the pretty blue presentation. They’re also good pan-fried but, again, if you sear the outside you lose what makes them nifty—that weird-ass color. I think what made them so much fun was that it took me a little while to find them. I finally got them at Jacksonville’s Blue Buddha, which sadly is now catering only to their restaurant clients.

Now since I brought home a batch of dandelion greens, I’ve been really thoughtful. My husband hated, and I mean HATED, the dandelion greens that I stir fried with a bit of garlic, some oil and a little lemon juice. They are pretty bitter, but I was already imagining them in a heavy cream sauce with other ingredients. I’ve been thinking about slipping them in some recipe that they would be amazing in, despite their bitterness. I can’t resist the challenge of wowing my husband with some recipe that includes them.