The middle of orient (Near Pedro's) is still missing. Both ends are there, but the Club O end is smaller than in years past. Cupecoy was mostly gone and what little there was at the NW end was moist.<br><br>Friday (11 Jan) lunch at Le Saint Germain on the Marigot Marina was<br>quite pleasant despite the on again/off again rain and clouds.<br>http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/marigot/saintgermain Patrick Le<br>Black from Martinique by way of Paris and New York is quite the charmer.<br>He speaks four languages (one of them being English) so you should<br>have no trouble talking to him and the lovely girls that he hires. Check<br>the website for a photo. The monkfish (lotte) in a mushroom (featuring<br>girolles) sauce with rice was a great lunch for about $14. Euros<br>are now the official currency, so the price is approximate. They have<br>crêpes and French toast in addition to the usual breakfast suspects. Lunch<br>includes pizza and burgers plus specials and a large menu featuring fish and<br>French cuisine. At dinner they drop the pizza and burgers.<br><br>It's all Patrick's fault that we weren't very hungry when we<br>arrived at Citrus for dinner. They have remodeled the old Bistro Gourmand<br>property quite smartly and have assembled a small but changing and always<br>very interesting menu. There is a Market next door and there will be<br>four rooms above. The menu featured seven aps. I passed on the foie gras<br>on pan seared ahi tuna and had a plate of sushi rolls with mango,<br>avocado, salmon, and spring onion. There were only eight main courses but it<br>was still hard to choose. We had a very tasty, rather large, cornish<br>game hen with foie gras sauce and a veal chop with girolles (are you<br>noticing a theme) mushrooms. The veal chop was not of gargantuan<br>proportions, but the cost of the mushrooms must have equaled the cost of the chop.<br>In any event, the sauce and the mushrooms made it a great meal. A<br>Givry 1er cru (the favorite wine of King Henri 4th) was sublime. Desserts<br>were interesting, but impossible. Citrus is not cheap, as they add 15%<br>to the prices shown, and we ended up spending $140 for one ap, two<br>dinners, and one bottle of wine.<br><br>Sunday night was a gala opening of an art show at the Nanette<br>Bearden Gallery in Philipsburg. Normally, Romare Bearden's work graces the<br>walls, but at the moment works by Ruby Bute and Jill Alexander were on<br>display. We hoped to have more to say, but the local Democratic Party was<br>having a party at Kimsha Beach and we moved a few hundred yards from the<br>airport to the ruins of Sambuca in a half hour. At that rate, we<br>would have made it to Philipsburg by February. The show will be up for a<br>while and we did make it to Philipsburg later.<br><br>Monday night was dinner at La Gondola<br>http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/sandyground/gondola. We met David<br>Fioni years ago as he was giving away samples of his pasta in the Food<br>Center supermarket. At the time, he made pasta and sold it to restaurants<br>and supermarkets. Since then he started to sell it for takeout at La<br>Raviolina in Sandy Ground, added pizza ovens, and then opened La<br>Gondola next door, a small, but lovely, Italian restaurant. We started with<br>the salmon carpaccio and moved on to an involtini (rolled proscuitto<br>ham and cheese) and a veal parmigianna. I chose spicy spaghetti (comes in<br>mild or spicy) as a side and Martha had vegetables, which turned out to<br>be an elaborate spinach timbale. A Tommasi Valpolicella was only $22. The<br>whole dinner was only $72 as most entrees are less than $15. Parking is<br>sparse, but the food is worth the trip, and more than worth the price.<br><br>Tuesday night (15 Jan) found us at Mario's Bistro in Sandy Ground,<br>one of the hottest tickets on the island. We had made reservations<br>shortly after we arrived a month ago. Even in a slow tourist season it's<br>tough to get waterside seating here. Mario got rave reviews several years<br>ago at Rainbow Café and started out on his own with David and Fleur's<br>(Rainbow's owners) best wishes. Mario and Martine (his wife) chose<br>a strange location, outside of Marigot in Sandy Ground. They are on<br>the water, but it is merely the canal that enters the lagoon on the<br>French side. Nonetheless, there is a nice view and the interior is nicely<br>appointed. Mario adds many asian flavors and influences to French<br>cuisine. We started with a shrimp tempura that rivaled those I have<br>had in Japan. The shrimp pad thai (shrimp in a sauce that is flavored<br>with coconut milk and hot peppers) wraps sweet and spicy flavors around<br>the tenderest shrimp. The tuna with bleu cheese sounds weird but tastes<br>great. Have Drouhin's 96 Pommard with it (about $50) and you'll<br>have a great anniversary or whatever.<br><br>On Wednesday night (karaoke night at Sapphire - a good reason to go<br>out) we wandered over to Atlantis Casino to try the new gourmet Indian<br>restaurant: Sitar. It's a cut above many of the Indian restaurants<br>with a beautifully decorated dining room, tablecloths, chairs that are<br>so solid they can hardly be moved, etc. The owner has brought in a<br>chef from a five star hotel in Bombay and has told him to make the best<br>food he can. There is no scrimping on ingredients. The prices reflect<br>this, but still leave a lot of change from your $20 bill when you<br>purchase an entree. Dinner started with a lagniappe (yes, I am mixing my<br>nationalities here) of indian bread with three sauces: red and<br>spicy, green with coriander, and yellow with mango and a<br>sweet, spicy taste. For the real meal, we choose a garlic bread, two<br>vegetable dishes (chana masala, chick pea in a spicy red sauce and aloo<br>palak, potato and spinach flavored with coriander and mint),<br>and a lamb masala. Several lamb dishes are available under a Goat<br>Meat heading. We think it was goat, but whatever it was, it was quite<br>tasty. All the sauces were thick, flavorful, and distinct. The total bill<br>was under $50 with enough beer to keep the spicy flavors contained.<br>Website: http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/lowlands/sitar<br><br>On Thursday some guests arrived. We always park across the street<br>from the arrivals hall at Lal's Indian Cuisine and Yummie Terrace<br>Chinese and Créole restaurant and have a Belgian Leffe beer while we wait. I<br>consider this part of my diversity training as it puts me in a<br>diverse mood to be surrounded by such an ethnic blend. However, the Leffe,<br>at 6.5% alcohol, will put me in a stupor, if the plane is late.<br>Luckily, the plane was early and after a short shopping trip to US<br>Import/Export on the French side we were drinking a bottle of mercurey, eating<br>crusty baguettes and fine cheese, while staring at the carib and<br>discussing dinner.<br><br>We decided on Bistrot Caraïbes http://www.BistrotCaraibes.com,<br>one of our favorites in Grand Case http://www.GrandCase.com. The<br>interior has been redecorated and the website has just been revised to match it.<br>The smoked salmon is the best I have ever had. They smoke it themselves<br>and serve it simply with onions, capers, a half of lemon, and toast<br>points. The salmon is tender and flavorful, only needing the addition of a<br>full bodied dry white Burgundy to be perfect. Luckily enough, there are<br>several to choose from. We started with the Pouilly-Fuissé and<br>moved on to the Rully with dinner, as everyone had a fish dish: French sea<br>bass with tender young asparagus spears wrapped in bacon, sautéed royal<br>shrimp in a spicy sauce, grilled sea scallops and bacon on a bed of<br>mashed potatoes, and a braised red snapper with vegetables in a<br>creamy mussel sauce with saffron (a house specialty). They buy great fish<br>and then do wonderful things with it. Service by Thibault and Amaury<br>was superb, and Sophie merely has to stand still to make me happy, but<br>don't tell her boyfriend back in the kitchen. Only one hot chocolate<br>cake with hazelnut ice cream and coffee sauce was required for dessert,<br>but it was great.<br><br>Friday night found us back at Le Petite Auberge des Iles in the<br>Marigot Marina. It is hard to beat a $21 three course meal. The ap can be<br>either a large salad or a plate of marinated salmon. Dinners can usually<br>be mahi-mahi or chicken, but also whatever special dinners are noted<br>on the blackboard. We got to choose from tuna, mussels, a roast beef, and<br>more. The dinner specials alone were about $12. The third course can be<br>many things, but the crepes with ice cream, sauce, and whipped cream are<br>the way to go. The portions aren't huge, but everything is prepared<br>well and service is fine and friendly.<br><br>On Saturday a shopping trip took us to Philipsburg for lunch at<br>Everyt'ing Cool, billed as the coolest place on the planet.<br>http://www.Philipsburg-Info.com/everytingcool. It's a beach bar<br>that usually has live music and always has the greatest pulled pork<br>sandwiches with crispy french fries. There is always a beer of the<br>day and as Andy and Laura, the owners, are Canadians, it is usually<br>LaBatts.<br><br>Saturday night found us at Le Cottage<br>http://www.restaurantlecottage.com in Grand Case<br>http://www.Grandcase.com again. As always, the food was<br>inventive, very tasty, and a delight to the eye. Bruno, the owner, runs the<br>front of the house, making sure that everyone is delighted and Stephane,<br>the wine steward, pours more wines by the glass than anyone in St<br>Martin. I could go on about the food, but having sampled almost everything on<br>the menu, I can say that I have found no duds. Choose anything that<br>interests you from the menu and Stephane will match it with a<br>wonderful wine.<br><br>Sunday was a cloudy and intermittently rainy day, so a trip to<br>Orient Beach was postponed leaving an afternoon and early evening of playoff<br>football. We actually had seen the end of the Patriots game the<br>night before. seeing live pictures of snow falling always makes me feel<br>better about rainy days down here. In order to see the second game on Fox,<br>we had to go to Ric's Place http://www.ricsplace-sxm.com in Simpson<br>Bay. Many other people had this problem, making Ric's more crowded than<br>usual. They serve Tex-Mex and have several TVs tuned to sports<br>channels, making them the only American-owned Tex-Mex sports bar in St<br>Maarten. They usually do a great business with Americans looking for the<br>usual American breakfast.<br><br><br>