jaanchies

westpunt, curacao

link to tripadvisor

carlos, the resort's resident tour guide, took us on a fantastic tour of the west side of the island. gorgeous beaches and incredible coves to explore. the west side of the island requires a car, which means that the beaches are less crowded and tend to have more locals. one of the stops was jaanchies, a famous restaurant that serves the local island cuisine.

i ordered the fish. derek got the beef stew (again). as you can see, my fish was served with picked vegetables, rice and beans, and buttery shrimp. the seafood was incredibly fresh and everything was delicious, especially with the spicy onion sauce that they serve on the side. jaanchie's is an open air restaurant with a garden full of tiny birds along the front of the restaurant. it's a little disconcerting to be eating so close to the birds, but you get used to the chirping.

hemingway's

curacao

website

we were getting tired of just sitting on the beach at the resort and wanted to explore more of curacao, so jenny did some online research for us and suggested the curacao seaquarium. it was only about a mile south of us, so we decided to walk. along the way, we saw several other resorts and beautiful beach areas packed with tourists. one of these areas was seaquarium beach, which apparently has a cover charge (ridiculous), but if you look like you belong (which means, if you look like a tourist), you can just walk onto the beach without anyone asking you for money. there's a few shops with beachwear, scuba gear, and a couple of restaurants.

we stopped at one with seating on the beach, hemingway's. i decided it was a great opportunity to try some dutch snacks. curacao was formerly a dutch colony and the place is full of dutch tourists. pictured is my order of bitterballen, a deep fried beef snack. i don't know where these have been all of my life. i don't understand why this delicacy has only been discovered by the dutch. it's chopped bits of beef, mixed with potato, deep fried, and served with coleslaw. awesome.

iguana cafe

willemstad, curacao

link to tripadvisor

we chose curacao for our honeymoon because it's conveniently out of the hurricane paths and we happened to be traveling during the caribbean's hurricane season. found a fantastic luxury resort (which was also fantastically expensive, but you only get one honeymoon, right?). the resort was located about a mile and a half away from the capital city, willemstad. apparently it's not safe for tourists to walk that distance (said the resort staff), but we didn't find that out until our trip was nearly over. we walked during the day, did not run into any issues, and it was nice to explore the area.

iguana cafe is on an extremely touristy stretch of the capital. it's the perfect place to sit, eat a touristy meal, drink an appropriately tropical alcoholic beverage, and watch the "famous" floating bridge float back and forth to allow ships to pass through the channel. derek ordered the "local" beef stew, which was delicious. i ordered the very touristy chicken strips, which were fried to death but still delicious. a rum punch and a pina colada rounded out our excellent lunch.

jamaican dutchy cart

locations

website

i had a meeting in midtown near times square that thankfully ended just before lunchtime. i didn't need to be on the east side for another hour, so i thought it was the perfect time to meet up with a west side friend and try out one of the delicious carts that i always read about on midtown lunch, but that are too far away from my office. so i walked around, hoping to run into one of the recommended carts.

fortunately, i managed to find the jamaican dutchy pretty easily. and managed to get eric out of his times square office to join me. the cart is hard to miss - there's a huge flatscreen tv mounted on the cart playing reggae music videos. place your order at the front window and pay/pickup at the side window. we took our lunches to an outdoor seating area just east of the cart. stew chicken with rice and plaintains was amazing. jerk chicken was just okay - a little too spicy and dry for my tastes. next time i'll stick with the stew chicken. good price for great food - i'm really starting to catch on to this whole food cart thing.