One's got to eat

The only "must" in our everyday life is deciding what to eat. And it is indeed an adventure. Castara is a small fishing village, and it is not us who decide what to eat, it is what the Castarans will offer you. First, to give you some insight of what is definately always available: Hence, breakfast is always a done deal and simply delicious. (And it does not taste like the fruit you get at home in the supermarket...) Though, coffee can be a challenge. We have discovered that it is simply impossible to get good coffee here. There are a few local varieties, and after a few trial and errors I can guarantee you that coffee with coconut flavor will NOT be purchased again - it tastes like someone dropped their sunscreen into your coffee. Fresh milk is not available, they sell condensed milk, and it kind of adds a twist to your morning tea, if you take it white.

Lunch, we always eat out. Here are a couple of restaurants in the village:

They do not do menues here, you simply get a choice of fish, chicken or vegetarian, or sometimes goat and shrimp. On a rare occasion pork. You cannot find beef (last beef meal was McDonalds Miami Airport...we do not miss it!). With this you get what the chef has chosen for the day, usually two or three different condiments like rice with beans or lentils, sweet potato/cassava stew, perhaps some fried banana/eggplant. They always serve you peppersauce, which is a hot yellow chilisauce, to add yourself according to taste and guts (noe to self: should preferably not be placed next to mango sauce to avoid confusion). The national dish is called Roti, and is a flour tortilla filled with some of the above condiments and your choice of proteins. Delicious. Saltfish is another choice - and we have found out they cook it the icelandic way, and then add olive oil, sweet peppers, onion and garlic, preferably eaten together with coconut bake (bread). Yummy (insert Bjarni's smiling face here).

Dinner - we cook ourselves. We decide from day to day and shop on our way home from the beach. If there is fish, we get it here:

Or rather - if they want to sell you fish. Getting some of the day's catch can take you about an hour trying to find the right person, the right fish and the right price. Bjarni is getting good at it - helps being "yo" with the fishermen and helping them (as shown in the previous post). Or you may leave empty handed. Then, you may try to get something else in one of the the local supermarkets:

As you can see - they do not live up to their name. Hence, the recommendation to go to Scarborough to stock up from time to time. But, we find it quite amusing to see what they have in these supermarkets (the size of your average scandinavian bathroom) and we do not really miss anything.

And you always have Oswald, or Benji (his nickname) who will sell you veggies and fruit from his house.

To drink - what other than Carib beer or Stag, "the mans beer" (because of the 0,5% higher alcohol content than Carib...). Or tap water - it is perfectly safe to drink - though accompanied by a slight taste of chlorine.

And after consuming all this marvellous food - it is not hard to understand why we look this happy: