Writing With My Mouth Full

The Corn Islands, Nicaragua

We’ve seen the old city. We’ve seen the new city. We’ve hiked several volcanoes. It was time to go to the beach and spend our remaining days in Nicaragua on Little Corn Island. After a quick flight from Managua to Big Corn via Bluefields, we waited for a couple of hours for the boat that took us to Little Corn. At the docks, one of the locals asked us and a Canadian couple to follow him after he heard that we all wanted to stay at Derek’s Place–this small paradise on the island with only a short description in our guide books. (We didn’t know then that you could go to the dive shop at the docks and ask for availability. They can radio almost anyone on the island to save you from trekking through the forest yourself.) With our backpacks on and the humidity like Times Square in July, the trek to Derek’s Place was tiring. When we finally got there, we found out that there was only one hut available. They only have four huts on their property and you basically have to wait and see. We introduced ourselves to the Canadian couple and shared the hut for the first night. The next day, we lucked out when another hut was vacated–we felt more at home the next two nights.

Derek’s Place is nice; there’s no other word to describe it. Derek first came to the island when he was young and returned when he decided to leave California. He met his Catalunyan wife, Anna, a bit later and she followed him to the island. They have two young kids and they’ve since made their living by welcoming travelers from all over the world to their huts. I’ve stayed in plenty of huts the last six years, but none were as beautifully built for $25 a night. Colored bottles emit glow when the moonlight hits them at night. The shared bathroom has a giant wok for a sink and the shared shower room reminded me of Caves Branch in Belize from a trip a few years ago. Derek likes to cook so we had very good dinners for three nights. During the day, we would eat the same usual fare: fried chicken and fried fish with plantains bought from the small shacks by the docks. But for dinner, Derek served us everything from conch and shrimp salads, to pasta with shiitake mushrooms, to fish broth to curry to smoked snapper and jack. The Dr. and I also drank the coldest beers on the island because of their windmill and solar power. We even finished a bottle of wine and rum in two days just by sitting around the fire at night. During the day, when we weren’t reading our books or sleeping on the hammocks, we walked to and from the docks to look for food, rented bikes to circle the island, swam and sunbathe on different beaches. Little Corn may be little, but it had so much to offer big city dwellers like us.

You can imagine how difficult it was to leave. On our way back to catch our flight to New York, we decided to stay on Big Corn Island instead of Managua. There was an unmistakable feeling that, once upon a time, Big Corn Island was the center of it all. Walking around the island felt eery. Somehow, I kept thinking of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s words and imagining the ghosts of the island’s past. As we walked around and witnessed empty lobster traps strewed on the side of the road, buildings left in ruins, and a dry swamp with mangroves clinging to dear life, Big Corn Island instantly became a ghost town; a place that was once full of life. We stayed at Anastasia’s on the Sea, a sound recommendation from the dive shop on Little Corn. It was a long way, but a pretty drive especially when the road started to hug the sea. Coconut trees leaned and followed the warm wind, while anchored boats floated in the water. Our room at Anastasia’s came with two beds, satellite TV, and private bathroom for the same price as our hut at Derek’s. Our door opened up to a porch with small steps to the shallow water. Anchovies swayed with the waves like blades of grass. The view was incredible: infinite turquoise waters and a wooden bridge which connected the hotel to their bar and restaurant on stilts. But after closer inspection, Anastasia, with the rest of the island, became antiquated before our eyes and just became eery. (And I was sober.) The cheesy fish and shell decor in the hallway was a much better choice than bustling Managua, but something was amiss. It was time to go home.

Where to stay in Little Corn Island, Nicaragua: Derek’s Place
Where we stayed in Big Corn Island, Nicaragua: Anastasia’s on the Sea

Pan-Fried Brook and Rainbow Trout

It felt like spring, so imagine how perplexed I was when I saw that there were only a few tents set up in the farmers’ market. I suppose if the market was crowded, I would have missed the group of men gathered around a small table. Men? Shopping? I squeezed myself in just as the last smoked trout was bought, but saw that there were still some fresh fish inside the giant coolers. Dave Harris of Max Creek Hatchery told me that his fish were still swimming until 7pm the previous night. He introduced me to the rainbow trout which had some purple tints on its scales, and to the brook trout which had some yellow polka-dots. He told me he prefers the brook trout, but both were very pretty that I ended up buying them to cook and compare during dinner.

Ooh, pretty, was the Dr.’s reaction when I told him over the phone that I bought trout from the market. He loves to fish and he loves eating them even more, and trout was what he was pining for when we were driving past the river in Oregon. When he came over, he brought with him a bottle of a 2006 Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Australian wine. We drank while he got to work: he put a sliver of butter inside each of the fish with some garlic cloves. He lightly coated them with flour and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. He fried them in hot oil until they were both golden brown and crispy. With some of the leftover frying oil, he sautÃ©ed some mushrooms in a skillet and tossed them with arugula and rice wine vinegar dressing. I was surprised that the brook trout tasted like salmon. Its meat was orange and sweet. The rainbow trout was like any fried white fish–a little less exciting but would have been great with green mango salad.

Ingredients:
1 fresh brook trout, cleaned
1 fresh rainbow trout, cleaned
half a stick of butter, thinly sliced
1 cup of flour
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt, pepper, frying oil

1. Insert garlic and butter in trout’s cavity. Season the inside of the fish with salt and pepper. Combine flour, salt and pepper and coat trout.
2. In a skillet, heat oil and fry trout until golden brown on one side. Use tongs to gently turn and cook the other side until golden brown, too. Do not cover. Remove each each fish to a plate lined with paper towel when cooked.

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Union Square Greenmarket

Pear and Mushroom Pizzetta

I like assembling my own pizza at home. I say assemble rather than bake because I buy my pizzettas from Sullivan Street Bakery. I’ve tried their ciabatta bread and their focaccia with rosemary, but my favorite would be their light pizza bianca. A pizza square good for three people costs about $2. I used some ingredients I already had in my fridge. For olive oil, I used the shiso oil I made. Instead of goat cheese, I finished the sheep’s milk cheese I picked up with my lamb earlier in the week. Of course, you can put anything and everything on your own pizzetta.

Ingredients:
1 square of pizza bianca or focaccia bread
4 slivers of pancetta
fresh arugula, rinsed, pat dry
1 small pear, sliced thinly
a handful of bella mushrooms, wiped clean, sliced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
sheep’s milk cheese or goat cheese
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil

1. Preheat oven at 350Âº. In the meantime, heat some oil in a skillet, sautÃ© onions and mushrooms with the balsamic vinegar. Cook for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.
2. Prepare pizzetta on a baking sheet wrapped in aluminum foil. On the bread, lay the arugula and top with pancetta, pears and mushrooms. Drizzle some olive oil.
3. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, enough to cook the pancetta and toast the bread.

Devin’s Fish and Chips

747 Saint Nicholas Avenue between 146th and 147th Streets
212/491.5518
$12 for two fish and chips, take-away
♥

Harlem is far away from England, but Devin’s fish and chips come close to a good snack on a lazy and gloomy weekend afternoon. For $6, you can eat or take away three pieces of lightly breaded fish, red snapper or whiting, with a handful of fries. They don’t have malt vinegar but there’s tartar and Tabasco sauce. We bought two and sat down on the stools in the narrow space inside while people stood in line to wait for their turn to order. The other customers were ordering everything from broiled whole fish to calamari to crab claws. While we waited, we discovered that the store across the street had some of the best beer selections in West Harlem. We bought two bottles of Smithwick’s and drank them wrapped in paper while we ate our fish and chips. Sometimes, the neighborhood pulls through.

Sachiko’s on Clinton

25 Clinton Street between Houston and Stanton
212/253.2900
$180 for four people with three carafes of sake and two beers, without tip
♥ ♥

I didn’t expect to save money during Japanese Restaurant Week. Every restaurant week promo I’ve managed to attend always sounded better than what I actually ended up experiencing. The discounted menus during restaurant week are usually subpar, with the least expensive ingredients being offered. I’ve been content with some of the prix fixes I’ve ordered, but what to drink with them? My bill just always adds up in the end. I booked a table at Sachiko’s to take advantage of the week-long event, but not once was I reminded by the restaurant’s staff. On my way out, I saw printed menus on the bar with a 10% coupon attached to them. Even if they told me about Japanese Restaurant Week, my discount would have been, at most, $18. I doubt I ordered anything that was eligible for the discount anyway.

For $20, you can get at least three slivers of seven types of fish–that’s a whole lot of fish! It was the better choice because nothing in the a la carte menu was different. The eel wrapped in rice paper was a bit boring, and the kushiage, breaded and deep-fried meat and seafood assortment, although lighter, was similar to anything I’ve eaten before that’s been breaded and deep-fried. My favorite was the soy and egg “soup” with uni, a delicate concoction of soft tofu, egg and sea urchin. Scooping up the tofu and having the uni softly collapse in my mouth were most pleasurable. At Sachiko’s, the sashimi was pretty good, the sake choices even better.