Fooding Around With The Kilted Cook: Better Late Than...

...break my habit of a weekly post. There will be some food stuff here, I promise.

Sally and I spent our Birthday Adventure in the Florida Keys again this year. Some folks think it's tropical here on the southwest Gulf Coast; but the Keys are TROPICAL with a twist.

It was HOT this year. Well, maybe not so hot -- 92 or 94, but the humidity was 94-100 percent, and simply stepping outside was enough to make you sweat buckets. But we had fun!

On the way down, we stopped in the Everglades at Shark Valley, and took the two hour tram ride guided tour. We saw (but didn't get any pix of) two Limpkin -- one of the rarer marsh birds. The Limpkin has a unique crying call. It's not legal to hunt them anymore, as they were so tasty that, back in the 1800s they were almost shot into extinction. Not, I am not sharing my recipe for Roast Limpkin!

Also saw a number of gators in borrow ponds -- ponds created when the barely underlaying limestone was borrowed (mined) for road bed material. The Glades are in a drought state this year. Hundreds of square miles of high-and-dry sawgrass. Bad grass fires, and a lot of the wildlife is hiding out on the various hammocks or shrub/tree islands where some water can be found.

Stayed two nights in Tavernier, south of Key Largo. We went kayaking in the mangroves at Robbie's in Islamorada; the same place we fed the tarpon last year. It's a great place for a variety of water adventures. BTW it's pronounced Iss-la-more-ada, not Aisle-a-more-ada. Kayaking is a great way to experience 'backcountry' Florida. Even if you're less than a mile from a major highway, you are isolated and remote, and can see all sorts of wildlife up close including sharks, rays, manatee, all sorts of herons and egrets, kites, frigate birds and other critters.

We ate (see I told you I'd write about food) at two great restaurants, Hogfish Grill, which we visited last year) and the newly re-opened Smuggler's Cove. The Cove had THE BEST Yuca Fries we've ever had. Yuca is a long 'arm sized' starchy tuber from the Caribbean which can be treated much like a potato. Yucca is a spikey leaved desert plant of the Southwest).

Yuca, also called Cassava and Manioc.

Unlike the picture below, these Yuca Fries we had were lightly dusted with a seasoned flour (Evergladestm seasoning, I think). Lightly deep fried in HOT oil (so the fries don't soak up much oil). Lightly and fluffy, these are what the very best French Fries of Pomme Frits want to be when they grow up!

Hogfish is one of our favorite eating fish -- white, mild (not fishy at all), slightly sweet, and oh so tasty. We order it pretty much whenever we can. Around Fort Myers it's often listed on menus, but seldom served -- Hogfish are individually line-caught, not netted, so commercial fishermen seldom harvest them. For whatever reason, this year in the Keys, there was a LOT of hogfish available, and we indulged ourselves, first at the aptly named Hogfish Grill in Islamorada. Fish is healthy eating, right....

Ugly, but tasty, the Hogfish is a type of wrasse, and pretty large, as you can see. The long snout is used for rooting around in sand for it's favorite crustaceans to eat. The snout and this behavior are what gave the fish its name.

From Tavernier, we drove down to Key West and spent another two days siteseeing things we missed last year. Thing like the daily Sunset Festival at Mallory Square -- a long standing Key West tradition involving street performers, food vendors, booze and the sunset. One of the performers we saw, The Crazy Cat Man, Sally remembered seeing there nearly 30 years ago. He must be on his third or fourth generation of feline performers! The Man is absolutely bonkers/bizarre,/nutty, but his cats are obviously well loved and cared for, and very talented performers. A MUST SEE if you go to KW. We had a wonderful seafood dinner at the Westin Bistro restaurant at Mallory Square and watched the sun sink in the West.

Gotta mention a couple other great eateries. Sandy's Cafe is a sort of breakfast and lunch counter attached to a laundromat. Open 24/7. Great Cafe con Leche, and their Heuvos con Chorizo with beans and rice was a fabulous breakfast. Cuban/Spanish/Latin chorizo is a dry-salami type sausage sliced for sandwiches, chopped to add to eggs and stews, etc. Mexican chorizo is almost a condiment -- much spicier, and it falls apart the minute you start to cook it, adding flavor but hardly and substance to dishes. I bought some Cuban Chorizo at a little market in Tavernier for sandwiches. Wish I could find it here.

Another place we liked a lot was the French bistro called Banana Cafe, on Duval street. Fabulous crepes and other French fare. Our second night, after snorkeling, we had dinner at a new place called Red Fish, Blue Fish. More of a bar restaurant they had a good selection of seafood dishes on their menu (as does every restaurant in KW except Five Guys Burger & Fries!!).

If you go to Key West be sure to get all the "coupon books" you can find and pay attention to them. We had recommendations from our hostess to visit the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservancy, as well as Fury Water Adventures, for snorkling.

Sally the Coupon Queen and birthday girl, found a BOGO coupon for the Butterfly place, and we really enjoyed this "voted #1 attraction" with butterflies, birds and more. Upon leaving, Sally suggested we walk over a block to see how many people were gathered around the Mile Zero Marker. So we turned right from the Conservancy, and right there was a kiosk advertising "Free Trip on your Birthday" with Fury Water Adventures!!!

So we took the Sunset Snorkel and Rum Punch cruise that evening. We went out about 6 miles, drinking icewater to stay hydrated, and tied to an anchor ball. Snorkeled for about an hour. Then up anchor and out with the rum punch! Highly recommend this trip if you get down the KW.