Spinach with Sweet corn and peanuts

That sounds like an unlikely combination. But no, together with rice cooked in stock, bay leaf and herbes de Provence it tasted really good.

I checked the local tourist supermarket for fresh veggies, but the offer is small and quite pricy. I found a package of Dutch baby spinach and decided to have a vegetarian lunch.  Nothing of the meat that was offered spoke to me. I had shopped a small can of sweet corn earlier last week in a Mini Market somewhere in the east of the island and opted for putting it into the spinach and not mix it with the cooking rice.

When I had everything in the pan and the rice was done, I checked the seasoning and had to adjust it a bit, a bag with some leftover Teriyaki peanuts caught my eye.
Some crunch in a dish is always good, so a handfull went into the spinach too.

recipe:
200 g baby spinach
1/4 red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small can of sweet corn
1 handfull toasted flavooured peanuts
chili, salt, pepper, celery seed
1 cube veg stock
1/2 cup of rice
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp herbes de Provence

Okras or Yamas with pasta

I was on my last tour today and had to gas up my rental car to give it back tomorrow morning. Since you have to pay first at the cashir and then pump the gas, I filled the car up too much.  I decided against going strait back to the apartment and instead drove down to Punda instead.

I had a meager breakfast this morning and a nice coffie shop was my stop there.
A slice of Zebra cake and a good cappucchino later, I went back towards the Jan Thiel beach.

For todays lunch I wanted some veggies to go with my spaghetti and I went into the Lunapark Maximarket on my way back.
Most of the veggies were boring and a minute later I found one sole package of yamas or okras as I know them. They looked quite fresh and they went into my shopping basket.

I cut off the head and the tip and they went into boiling salted water for 5 minutes to give up some of their slime.

Then I made a tomato sauce with white wine and beef stock and onion and garlic and enough chili powder for a good kick. When the sauce had reduced enough, I cut up the okras into 1/2 inch pieces and dropped them in the tomato sauce to cook out some more of the slime and get softer.

A bunch of fresh coiander and the fresh cooked pasta went in and made a fine dish.

Dutch Breakfast in Otrabanda, Willemstad

I went down to the Renaissance Mall and Rif Fort to stroll around.

3 big cruise ships were anchored in the harbour and people swarmed the area. I was downtown at 9:20 AM, so the shops were just opening and the masses have not arrived.
Inside the very holiday festive mall are restaurants and cafés, and lots of souvenir and t-shirt shops.

I took a table at Douwe Egberts Breakfast & Lunch and ordered the Dutch breakfast special and a cappucchino.
It came with orange juice, hard boiled egg, ham, cheese, jam and chocolate spread and some garnish. A couple of slices of baguette to eat with it.

Breakfast was good and with 25 Naf  (Antillen Guilders), about $12 at a reasonable price.

While I waited for my food to arrive, the masses started to swarm the mall and in a short time all tables were occupied. But the main fare was cappucchino. They all eat well on the cruise ships.

Lunch at Kokos Beach

Today is Sunday and I was a bit lazy to cook lunch. I drove around the eastern part of the island in the morning, bought a couple of light things to give to my friends at a local superstore. I did not find anything at all that was made on the island of Curacao. They import at least 80 % of all their goods from other countries. More than half of it comes directly from the Netherlands. It does not make sense to give this as gifts to my friends, I opted for some stuff from Venezuela.

When I came back it was time to look for lunch. I went to the KOKOS Beach near by. You can rent day beds there and get your drinks or ice cream served there.
They have a very small lunch menu.

I went for chicken with rice noodles and peanuts. It came in a high paper container with chop sticks.

Crushed peanuts mixed with breadcrumbs and some dried chili flakes on top.
Chicken in small pieces, fried and coated in the crushed mix.
Some green and red peppers, whole peanuts, red onion and white onion half rings, spring onion, celery stick and some kind of cubed root vegetable- may be manioc, potatoes will work too.
The rice noodles were cut into 1 inch pieces, cooked and then stir fried.
The sauce was the typical Indonesian Ketjap manis.

I will definitely make that at home, with a good amount of more chicken.

Bay Leaf and Ham Spaghetti

When you have a limited choice of herbs to cook, think outside the box and try something new.

I often use bay leaves in all kinds of stocks, soups and slow cooked meats and bolognese sauces.

I haven´t used it in a light spaghetti sauce yet. I had some ham cubes in the fridge, a bit of cream cheese and some basil leaves. That should go well with a plate full of spaghetti.

The bay leaf was just an idea that popped into my head when I checked the dried spices I brought over with me. It worked perfectly well.

recipe:
100 g spaghetti
1 chicken stock cube
1/4 red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 bay leaf
50 g cubed ham
2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tsbsp butter
2 tbsp white wine
salt and pepper
1 tbsp basil leaves

Cook the spaghetti in chicken stock, drain and keep some of the stock.
Peel and chop onion and garlic and saute in butter until tender, add the bay leaf during that.
Add the ham cubes and cook for two more minutes.
Add wine and 2 tbsp of chicken stock and bring to a boil again.
Season and add the cream cheese and let it melt into the sauce.
Put the spaghetti in and finish  with basil.

Giant Avocados are sold here

I was at Punda´s Floating Market to check out what was offered there.
6 boats were mooring at the quay and they all sold fish.

They had most of their fish cut into wedges and stored on wooden boards, showing it to the buyers that way. With some cardboard or a bit of a swish they tried to get the big black flies away.
Just one boat had its fish on ice.

The sun was shining on the fish and outside temperature was 31 C. I did not buy any fish and did not go into a Restaurant to eat some fish - no thank you.

The market goes on with a lot of fruit and veggies sold at many stores erected on the side walk.
These do better in hot climate and I stopped at one stall who sold huge green things. I had seen them the day before in a grocery shop off the tourist routes and had no idea what they were.

The market stall owner saw me checking the green things and came over to talk to me. He told me that these huge green veggies are avocados. They grow them this big in Venezuela.
In Germany you will get the dark brown Hass avocados, which are on the small side and in season the shiny green ones from Spain. But they are just a little bigger than the Hass ones.

The one I bough on the market had about 1 kilo.

This morning I ate half of it for breakfast. The flesh has a bit firmer texture even when the avocado is ripe. The pith in the middle is huge. I stored the other half in the fridge to eat tomorrow.
 

I visited an Eco Farm and bought unkown fruit

In the far east of the island of Curacao I trundled with my car on the way to one of the many beaches when I saw a wooden sign, nailed to a tree.
Mimi' s Eco Farm. I took a turn and drove up a gravel stretch of road and found myself in the middle of nowhere.
After I went through a wooden gate, I was greeted by some geese. The sign on top of the fence said:
Security Team, we bite  :D!

Some blue basins and containers came next a woman watering them. Then I met the owner and asked if they sold some fruit or veggies. A tiny chicken was running over my feet and I asked for eggs, which are rare in many supermarkets here.

I was not lucky to get some eggs. 42 hens were murdered last week by local half wild dogs.

The only thing she sold was some fruit, she called them "Golden Apples".
I have never seen these before.

In Spanish they are called Manzanas d´Oro. There origin is here in the Caribbean.
When they are unripe, they can be used for salads. When they are turning dark gold, they are ripe, but they have a lot of blemishes, that takes away the luster of the gold.

On the roadside on the way back I picked some yellow passion fruits up at a fruit stand. They looked a bit rough, but were filled with lots of gooey liquid and seeds.

At home I peeled the one that was a bit softer then the others. You have to cut around a middle kernel, you can´t cut through it.
The ripe part tasted a bit like pear mixed with pineapple, the unripe part less like fruit but more like Philadelphia cheese.

I stored the others in the fridge, they should be ripe in a couple of days.

I mixed one of the passion fruit seeds with banana yogurt and enjoyed my treat.