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Antigua
Cuisine
You
could spend your entire vacation in Antigua lounging like
a seal on the sand. Or, you could get up occasionally and
eat. Known for its 365 beaches -- one for every day of the
year -- Antigua is equally blessed with cuisine. From fancy
French food to delectable native dishes, this Caribbean island
will help you meet your own inner epicure.
Dine
with any well-traveled gourmand and he or she will inevitably
rave about "the local fare." To initiate your palate
to the subtleties of Antiguan delicacies, head for Warri Pier
restaurant at the Rex Halcyon Cove Resort. Take in the view
-- and ask for a pepper pot, a succulent stew of beef, pork,
dumplings, spices and vegetables such as okra. The dish often
comes with "fungii" (fun-JEE), a mixture of cornmeal
and okra, with a consistency somewhat like grits.
For
another island favorite, try the tasty pumpkin soup at The
Admiral's Inn located at historic Nelson's Dockyard. As one
forward-thinking diner told us, "This is marvelous. I
wish you had smell-a-vision."
There's
also goat stew, grilled lobster and plenty of beautiful fish
-- porgy, snapper, parrot fish, French angler fish.... Julian
Waterer, proprietor of Julian's restaurant, uses a variety
of fish and some modern sauces to create his Caribbean medley
of fish under a pastry cage.
"What
we really do is try to use local ingredients with a modern
touch and a continental flair as well," explains Waterer.
On
the southern coast of Antigua, you'll find Curtain Bluff,
arguably one of the finest resorts on the island and also
home to some of the best cuisine, thanks to the talents of
Chef Ruedi Portmann.
Portmann
has been the restaurant's executive chef for 32 years. He
says they do a little bit of everything here, rattling through
a quick show-and-tell:"This is pork tenderloin ... fungii
... fried plantains ... local zucchini ... and papaya and
tomato comfit."
To
complement the cuisine, Curtain Bluff's owner, Howard Hulford,
built the only wine cellar in Antigua. "There are 400
wines and 400 bins," says Hulford.
At
Chez Paschal, you can savor the flavors of fine French cuisine.
Start with an appetizer of sea scallops on a bed of leeks.
Then try the lobster flambÉed with cognac and baked in white
sauce of flour, butter, milk and French mustard.
And
don't feel guilty about eating the chocolate mousse cake with
strawberry sauce. After dinner, you can walk into the sunset,
burn some calories, and contemplate the day's end.
Getting
there: Antigua sits about 300 miles southeast of Puerto Rico
and 1300 miles southeast of Miami. V.C. Bird International
Airport, on the northeast edge of the island, serves as the
point of entry for air travelers. St. John's Harbour and Heritage
Quay offer port for cruise ships.
Based
on a report from CNN Correspondent Linda Ciampa.
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