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Vacation Desserts |
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What
I ate on vacation
Question: What do ocean breezes, white sandy
beaches, romantic sunsets, hospitable Spanish speaking people, iguanas and
in-room Jacuzzi's have to do with desserts and baking? Answer: I'll
admit not much, but my husband won a trip to a fabulous all-inclusive resort that
served lots of
desserts.
My husband works for Alliant Foodservice selling food to
restaurants. One of Alliant's purveyors, Kraft, was giving away a
trip to the Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico to the person who sold the most
pumpkin cheesecakes. I've always known that my husband was a good
salesman, but winning this promotion proved it. If you're from the United
States, you'll really appreciate what I mean about being a good salesman.
He sold these pumpkin cheesecakes in March and April. (For those of you
not in the U.S., we traditionally only eat pumpkin in the months of October,
November and December.) Ahhhh, the Moon
Palace in Cancun, Mexico. It is a lovely resort located at the south end
of Cancun, directly on the Gulf of Mexico. The Moon Palace has two huge
pools. One of them is the largest in Cancun, with eleven bridges going
over it. We spent a good amount of time swimming from one swim-up bar to
the next. All the rooms have an ocean view, and indoor Jacuzzis. Our
favorite feature of the room was the marble floor. Oh, after a long day
of sightseeing, walking barefoot on the floor was heavenly. The other
thing we enjoyed was not actually in our room, but just outside our
building. Each time we went to or from our room we were greeted by a
family of iguanas. They didn't actually come up to us. They were
more like thick sticks in the grass, but interesting never the less.
The
Moon Palace is an all-inclusive resort, which means all of your beverages and food is included. The
food was wonderful. We arrived at the hotel just in time for lunch. Our first meal was eaten out by the pool, which,
of course, was right next to the ocean. I'll never forget the fabulous aroma of huge shrimp
and lobster-sized prawns being cooked on the grill. In fact, that was the
beginning of several meals that included shrimp, prawns and lobster. One
day, we even ate Seafood Paella sitting on the stools at one of the swim-up bars.
Another seafood favorite was the Seviche,
an appetizer made with the very fresh ingredients of raw fish, tomatoes and cilantro
marinated in lime juice. Besides the seafood, the other non-dessert I just
fell-in-love with was a drink called Electric Lemonade. I
have never had a
drink made with Midori (a melon flavored liqueur). It has a
refreshing taste, but it can be "deadly".
I have to admit that by the time it came to dessert, I was fairly full.
They always had plenty of pretty little cakes and pies. The fresh fruit
was plentiful. I especially enjoyed the papaya and the pineapple. I
can get both of those in my local grocery store, but they just don't taste as
good. The one dessert item that stood out was the Sautéed
Plantains. I had them twice, once served over French toast. The other time was over
ice cream. Plantains taste similar to un-ripened bananas, and they are
firm, too.
