A few cocktails in the bar and then dinner in the French Restaurant Chez Isabelle.

Cocktail of the day -  Caribe Esmeralda – Curazao Liqueur, White Rum, Gin, Peach Liqueur, Banana Liqueur and coconut cream.

And a Margareta Up – Tequila, Triple sec, Orange Liqueur and Lime Juice.

A Pina Coloda and a simple Bloody Mary

An amuse bouche of Escargot (Snail) – very tender and lovely. I think first or second time I have tried snails.

A starter of Seared Tune and Steak Tar Tar and a duck pate.

Pam had and Duck – the duck had a chinese flavour which I think did not suit a French restaurant.

Seared Mahi Mahi with Rice and Prawns – and Pam finished with a Crème brûlée.

Have I mentioned that I love this all inclusive deal – amazing.

Cost of tonight $0.00

I had seen on some brochures and the hotel TV that they do cooking lessons and tours of the hotel kitchens. I looked around and ended up calling the concierge and he said there was one today but i could not find any details about it so I went to the hotel reception and spoke to the concierge there (different person) who looked up and said there was nothing until Friday/Saturday and we check out on Friday.

He said he would see if he could arrange the chef to do a special tour in the time before we leave.

Later in the afternoon the concierge rang to say that the chef was able to do the tour tonight at 5:30pm for Pam & I.

Wow – we were to meet in the Martini Bar at 5:30 so we arrived early and had a few Margaritas while we waited.

Chef Ernisto who said the tour will take 15-20 minutes

In order for us to do the tour we needed to dress up in Chefs Whites as it is a real kitchen. Pam had to have a hair net as well as the hat.

As part of the tour we venture into a lot of the kitchens that the restaurant has and seen the prep areas and people setting up for tonight's service.

There was someone dealing with Avocados who had hundreds to scoop out the flesh to make guacamole.

As part of our tour we got to cook our own dish in the real kitchen while the staff had to do the real cooking for customers.

Pam did Prawns with a Mango Sauce and I did a fillet steak.

Pam plating her disk

The chef and us with our dishes.

The finished masterpiece's – and they were lovely to eat.

The tour that was supposed to take 15-20 minutes ended up being 1.5 hours. We had a great time and appreciated the executive chef spending 1.5 hours of his day with us - amazing

The hotel has 9 restaurants and 11 bars – and none of them have a cash register!

You just order what you want and that is it – maybe a tip at the end of the night!

WOW

After numerous cocktails we needed food – we decided on the Tapas restaurant.

8 Restaurants + 10 bars to go…

I forgot to mention – the mini bar has some beers and soft drinks and water and is also free. Everything is free!

We saw on Facebook a post from Cayman Good Taste about an all you can eat Lobster on Wednesdays nights at the Marriott which is about 100 meters from our condo. It was Wednesday and we would have had to have gone out to buy something for dinner so we decided to book in. The cost was $65 Cayman Dollars + 15% tip (included in the bill automatically in the Caymans) and it included a glass of bubbles.

We did not know what sort of menu it would be and thought that it was a buffet or something with lots of salads but it was all al a carte.

We arrived at 7:30 and found the restaurant was outside which was nice – it was still warm – probably 25 or 26c but there were large overhead fans going. We arrived and were offered a table and the lady said that one by the balcony was going to come free in a few minutes so we can setup at the other table and then move.

They gave us water and the menu to look at and then cleaned up the other table and moved us across.

We were told the wine as 1 glass per person included in the menu price but that they like to keep people happy so there is no limit to the bubbles. The bubbles was an Italian Prosecco.

To start with the waiter who was from Italy bought us the chefs little amuse bouche to start with – lobster with a mango salsa – a sign of good things to come.

To start with Pam ordered a Caribbean Lobster Bisque and I ordered the green salad with chardonnay poached lobster medallions – both lovely – photos do not do justice.

For main we both ordered the Caribbean grilled Lobster with creole sauce.

After the grilled Lobster we ordered a Lobster Thermidor each, Pam’s with vegetables and mine without.

Pam then was getting full and ordered a desert – I being a man who likes Lobster ordered another grilled Lobster (without vegetables)

For desert we each had a sticky toffee pudding.

So we had about 4 glasses of bubbles each – lots of food and a great time. The waiter was super helpful and you could tell he enjoyed his work.

His name was I believe Mikael.

The garden area at the Marriot.

We went for a walk to day to the local shops about 500 meters and went to Chicken Chicken to get a wood fired Chicken. The cost for a whole bird was $14.65 CI which is quite a bit for a chicken. But that is OK as I am sure they had to import them like most other products.

To me it looked and sounded like Gas fired with some wood on for show. The Chicken was overcooked and did not really taste of wood flavouring so a bit of a pity – still nice though.

We assume some sort of Jerk Rub was used on it.

http://chicken2.com/

After walking for a lot of blocks about 30 up to Times Square and back down towards our hotel were going to go to a place to have BBQ next 35th and 6th Avenue. We found the place but they had a wait of 20 minutes so we cancelled that and ended up going back to 7th Avenue – 6th was looking a bit dodgy.

The place was called Mustang Harrys and it was a bar + restaurant. The place was quite busy but we got a seat very easily with most people watching the game on the screens all around the bar.

We ordered a spinach and onion and cheese dip with corn chips for a starter and shared that and also a full rack of ribs to share.

The dip came out hot and was very nice, we could have probably settled it there but then the ribs came out with a dressed potato and a huge amount of coleslaw.

The ribs were very tasty and dropped off the bone with a simple flick of the fork (probably a bit overdone).

Overall very nice food. We ordered a couple of beers from their huge menu of beers – no indication of cost.

Mine was nice but later found out $10 per glass and Pam’s was $8 per glass.

All up about 75$ including Tax (not tip) – the beers were $28 + Tax for 3 glasses.

New York Cream Cheese Bagel, all of the bagels in this place are hand rolled and fresh. It is called Best Bagel & Coffee on 225 West 35th Street.

Pam had a Raisin and Walnut with plan cream cheese, I has an Onion+Salt + Garlic bagel with cream cheese and vegetables (Red + Green peppers).

The American hotdog – these range from $1 to $2 for the same thing.

We went Japanese tonight for Dinner (in fact we did last night as well at the same place)

The place is called KobeYaki and it is really good. Last night we dined in and tonight Pam picked up some takeaways and bought them back to the hotel after shopping.

The burger which was great is a Kobe Beef Burger with Kobe Beef, Teriyaki onions, Teriyaki ketchup and carrots + cabbage on a brioche bun. ($8.97 + Tax)

The salad was a pepper crusted seared tuna, avocado, edamame, romaine lettuce, kaiware, cabbage, cucumber, carrots, crispy noodles, creamy ginger dressing ($9.66 + Tax)

Overall a great dish and great burger and great dinner.

We went out about 7pm to see the action in Bourbon Street. And action is what was there, it was dark now, and there were 1000’s of people walking the streets – heaps of people really drunk. There were lots of 3 for 1 happy hours along the street so we checked out one.

We got 3 Heineken beers (brewed in Holland) for $6.75 so indeed 3 for 1.

This large piece of art was on the wall and I liked it so I took a photo. There was a band and DJ setting up – the music was quite good the DJ was playing with some lady rapping words over it.

Bourbon Street is very busy and most of the music at night is not Jazz.

We were going to go to an Oyster restaurant called Acme Oyster House but there were queues waiting to get in down the street. So we went to another one across the street called Felix’s about 10 people waiting. We shared a dozen raw oysters (they can be very large) and then a 1/2 dozen char grilled which were lovely.  We also got a Jambalaya dish which was OK but no where near as good as the oysters.

After arriving in LA we transferred to our hotel the Baymont Inn and then Pam went out to checkout the area. She came back about an hour or so later having found a shop that basically sells everything for 99 cents. It sells fruit and vegetables and groceries and other things all 99c.

When we went out for dinner we walked past so I went to have a look as well – quite strange everything 99c – there is washing powder, main killers, drinks, beer, plasters, tooth paste, just everything at 99 cents.

Later we went to a little Mexican restaurant and had a great meal.

To start with we  were bought fresh corn chips and a bowl of limes and chilli. This was great and was probably enough but we ordered a main as well.

We each ordered a Mexican beer – I ordered a Pacifico and Pam ordered a Modelo. Mine has more flavour.

Each main was $10 + tax, the beer’s were $3.79 each

Later I ordered a margarita which was very nice and cheap at $3.50

Overall about $32 + $4 tip

We felt very full after this and woddled back to the hotel.