<center>ISLAND NEWS</center> <br><br>Beaches: We stopped in at Amandier Plage (http://www.AmandierBeach.com), now called Domaine de l'Amandier) and they have some beach back at the far end of Grand Case. They have room for a row of beach chairs. Orient is OK, still thin in the middle, but everybody has a row of chairs except Pedro's. They have a few chairs at the entrance to the nude section. There's a photo on http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/orient/pedros). Despite the massive storms that produced 5-8 ft rollers, Cupecoy is still there, at least at the far end. The sand at the Ocean Club end is quite moist. <br><br>Weather: At the end of March, it rained for the first time in weeks. The roads were covered with oil which floated to the surface and led to the usual bumper cars on the hill in front of Sapphire. People see the speed bumps, hit the brakes and start to slide, frequently hitting the parked cars. We saw two accidents in fifteen minutes. Few of the locals have ever seen snow and many tourists have never driven on rain-slicked concrete. Just after that, the winds died again, and switched direction bringing 7-10 ft rollers to Cupecoy, Mullet, and Simpson Bay. The next day was gray and rainy, but by 4 April it had cleared out. This was our participation in the huge cold front that pushed its way into Florida a couple days earlier. After that we had two nights of thunderstorms, something we have only seen once in the previous seven winters here. The second night was so fierce (wind gusts to the mid 40's) that we were awakened and the power went out. Both days following were quite nice. In fact, the day after the second storm we went to Orient for one of the nicest days on the beach this season and the next day at Cupecoy was just as great. <br><br>Tourism: It's really empty. That's good for those of us dining out or lounging on beaches, but in the long run, the restaurants and hotels need customers so that they can continue to provide their services. Already Jasmin in Grand Case and Texas Pit BBQ have closed their doors. I've talked with others who may follow. In the same vein, Hotel Pavilion in Grand Case and Alizea in Mont Vernon are closing and rumors surround three other properties on the French side. Many of the hotels were built with tax breaks that are set to expire <br><br>April Fools Day: As usual, the papers and the radio station (Laser 101) had a good time. The Daily Herald had an article that claimed GEBE, the local electric and water utility, was selling 5000 shares to locals before their public offering in order to ensure that a fair amount of the stock remained in local hands. The sale price to locals with appropriate documentation was $50 and the shares were estimated to be made public at $258 shortly. You had to take your documentation to the GEBE office that morning to request your shares. We heard there were many people waiting in line. <br><br>Whales have been sighted in the St Bart's passage off Pointe Blanche and several pictures have been in the paper recently. Today's ruse took this a bit further with a photo spread showing orcas (killer whales) trapped inside the lagoon. It's a bit south for orcas, but maybe they like a vacation, too. According to Marci at MegaGym (http://www.MMG2000.com) by first light there were people on the Dutch Bridge looking for the whales and all morning long dinghies were zooming around. Bulldog, the morning DJ on Laser 101 radio, even duped a reporter to go out for a live interview. <br><br>Later Bulldog had the Johnny Rand Vegetable Band on for promo interview before their big FREE (gets 'em everytime) concert at the Castle in Simpson Bay. Bulldog asked many penetrating questions, such as, "What is your favorite vegetable ... to play?" Some guy called in, supposedly from St Barts, and had a great gourd he wanted to bring over for the concert. <br><br><center>GROCERIES</center><br><br>Cheese: We like Magasin du Pont (US Export/Import at the French bridge) a lot, but Chez Bernadette and René in Bellevue has better cheese and paté at higher prices. They are down the side street in front of Saint Séverin (http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/marigot/stseverin). We actually did a side by side taste test with some friends recently and Rene's cheeses and paté were better at 25 to 50% more. <br><br>Wine: There was a new wine shop mentioned on TTOL without a name. It's understandable, because the place didn't have a sign until last month. It's called DeWine and is located next to Hot Tomatoes in the Portofino Village complex (formerly Sambuca). They serve wine, cheese, and charcuterie from 11 Am until 7 PM and have a great selection of reasonably priced wines, including the 2000 Carmen Reserve at less than $12 that is currently fuelling this report. We also bought a selection of Cotes du Rhone and cru Beaujolais in the $4 to $8 range. <br><br><center>ACTIVITIES</center> <br><br>We took a ride on Celine's Pub Crawl on Wednesday night. It starts at Hot Tomatoes at 7PM and currently visits Jimbo's, Uncle Harry's, and Peg Leg Pub. Each one serves up their specialty: pizza, tex-mex, garlic shrimp, and steak (in order). All were quite good. The cost is only $30, but you buy your own drinks. There is a website at http://www.SXM-Activities.com/lagoonpubcrawl . It certainly was great fun as we got on and off the boat several times and moved about several restaurants meeting lots of people. For $30 we got enough food to make a meal for us (admittedly not the biggest eaters in the world) and over four hours of eating, drinking, and motor-sailing on a 40' cat. It helped to have perfect weather and a full moon rising up over the hills to the east of the lagoon. <br><br><center>RESTAURANTS</center> <br><br>The Euro started at a 7% premium to the dollar at the beginning of the month, dropping to 6% by the middle of the month. In this newsletter, we have made the conversions on French prices to dollars, although the prices really are Euros in the restaurants, and subject to currency fluctuations. <br><br>On 2 April we went back to Spiga (http://www.GrandCase.com/spiga) for the second time this season. As we move into low season, Ciro has taken over the kitchen and Lara runs the front of this very cute Créole house. Ciro has tweaked the menu a bit, mostly to offer a few lower priced dishes as the Euro has effectively raised all prices on the French side by 10% this season. The menu has a couple appetizers and several salads, many featuring greens from her father's garden. We had what is usually a standard mozzarella and tomato salad, but the ingredients and Ciro's creativity made it anything but standard. It was mozzarella di Bufala and vine-ripened tomatoes surrounding a mound of fresh greens with a drizzle of basil-infused olive oil and a sprinkling of black olives. Cruets of olive oil and balsamic vinegar were brought over so that you could adjust the dressing to your liking. Dinners were a home-made half moon ravioli with veal in a Bolognese sauce ($17) and a pork loin stuffed with mushrooms and wrapped with pancetta ($19). Creative, tasty, and quite inexpensive. They still have a $35 Wisconsin beef tenderloin on the menu, but it's also possible to get an ap, main course, and dessert for less than $40. Your only problem is then wine, and it is my problem as we spent about $55 for a wonderful 96 Brunello from Frescobaldi. There are many less expensive but quite good wines on the list and if you need any help with your choice Ciro Russo, a native of Italy, is only a few steps away, although Lara, from a local restaurant family, knows a thing or two about food and wine. Bottom line: lovely place, creative food, not much view, but a quality multi-course diner for two at about $100 seems like a good choice to me. <br><br>The next night Patricia and Timothy Young took us to Warung Bali at the Simpson Bay bridge. Just that morning we had driven past and Martha said she would like to go back for a few more samples from the menu. I allowed that we had many restaurant clients to go see before we departed. When we got to the condo, there was a message from Timothy, and when I called him, he suggested a new Indonesian restaurant. It's a small island so there is only one new Indonesian restaurant. In other words, Martha got her wish. Patricia and I reminisced about working in Holland (she in Rotterdam and I in The Hague, both in Amsterdam on the weekends!) many years ago. We are now in the Dutch West Indies and Indonesian was part of the Dutch East Indies which exited long before we worked in Holland, but the influences still permeate Holland and its former colonies. Warung Bali does do a rijstafel (rice table) that consists of a bowl of rice and many other tiny tastes of Indonesia. The price ranges from $18 to $28 depending on how many tiny tastes you think you can handle. From experience, we knew we couldn't even do the smallest, and ordered off the menu. Aps of lumpia (spring rolls) and meat balls started us off. The hot sauce with the meat balls was such that I was requesting another Carib before I finished. Dinners included mahi-mahi, chicken saté (skewered chicken in a peanut sauce), gato-gato (a vegetable dish), and bami (noodles, green beans, carrots, a skewer of chicken, a meatball and more - lots of tastes and textures). We even had two desserts: the standard lychee nuts with ice cream and a green pancake surrounding toasted coconut with ice cream - interesting. <br><br>On Monday (7 April) we went to Orient for a lunch at Pirate Beach Bar (http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/orient/pirate) for a lunch. Nothing fantastic, just a burger and a mahi sandwich with fries and three beers for a mere $20. the great view of Green Cay, Pinel, and Tintemarre, not to mention the sights on the beach, were included free. <br><br>That evening we went to Bamboo Bernies at the Caravanserai Resort at the end of the runway in Simpson Bay. They have put a lot of money, thought, and energy into the space that was Baywatch for a few months. The menu is simple, mostly sushi and grilled food, but it is great sushi, possibly the best on the island, and the ribs are also something special, either the wet variety or the dry rub. The money, thought, and energy went into rearranging the space creating many individual tiki huts for dining. The huts surround the bar but are screened by intense tropical plantings. Out on the beach is a climbing wall and a 15' by 20' open air TV screen. They show movies on Sunday and Monday and sporting events as they are scheduled. We went from dinner to catch the opening tip-off the NCAA basketball championship. Syracuse beat Kansas on a night when Syracuse was getting so much snow that Gov Pataki declares several western and central NY counties disaster areas. The picture quality was fantastic and lying on a beach chair sipping a Carib with lime in the warm night air sure seemed better than being in Syracuse. <br>On Wednesday (9 April), we went to Sol é Luna in Mont Vernon. (http://www.SoleLunaRestaurantt.com) It is regularly voted the most romantic restaurant on the island by the Daily Herald, so much so that they appear to have retired the category this year. The restaurant is beautiful, inside and outside, and the food is just as good. Christian has tweaked the menu a bit this year, switching pintade (guinea fowl) for the chicken, changing the sauce on the steak, and adding a few more aps. We had the carpaccio of tuna, tuna so fresh you wouldn't know it was fish, with olive oil, lemon juice, scallions, and seasonings. We choose a 97 Volnay, a bit pricey at $65, but smooth, luscious, and full. the tuna had enough flavor to stand up to the wine and it worked perfectly with the pintade and duck breast that followed. The pintade came with prunes, a purée of celeriac, purple potatoes, and a crispy phyllo pastry filled with mushrooms and a hint of foie gras(?). The duck breast was sliced and mounted on a mound of shiitake mushrooms. A purée of purple potatoes was covered with the tiniest French fries. We had the chocolate dessert with the liquid chocolate center and a glass of Armagnac. The total was $160, but without the wine, it would have been under $100, not bad for such good food in such a great location. <br><br>On Thursday evening we went to Casablanca Restaurant at Atlantis Casino. It is a lovely space, dazzling in ocher and red, with luxurious fabrics. The food is Moroccan, which means different set of spices will be used and that cous-cous will be the starch and the basis for the meal. As a warm sunny land, fruits are plentiful, so they show up in main courses. We started with the Kemia du souk, an assortment of appetizers: carrots with sauce, lemon and egg potato salad with cumin, mashed eggplant salad with saffron, chick peas with lime, cumin, and parsley, cooked tomatoes and red pepper salad with garlic, and marinated fresh tomatoes with onions and coriander. We were with three friends, but just had an assortment for two and it was more than enough. Lots of interesting taste treats. For main courses we sampled three approaches to the cous-cous in a tajine: spicy sausages, two chickens, and lamb. Each came with cous-cous in the bowl of the tajine, the meat on top of the cous-cous, and chick peas and almond slivers sprinkled about. The lamb had onions, raisins and honey added. These Moroccan dinners were accompanied by a large bowl of cooked vegetables (carrots, potatoes, and onions) in their own juices. Scoop some cous-cous, flavorings, and meat onto your plate and ladle the veg and broth over the top. Our fifth diner could have had his fresh mahi prepared in this fashion, but he opted for a more standard approach. Although his fish was good, he was sorry he hadn't chosen the more exotic approach. We did let him ladle some veg and broth onto his plate. With water and three bottles of Moroccan wine (not great, but perfectly drinkable at $18), we spent about $40 per person and left food behind. http://www.SXM-Restaurants.com/lowlands/casablanca) <br><br>We went out for another great meal at Rainbow Café (http://www.Rainbow-Cafe.com Monday, 14 April. We had the crabcakes with a tomato and onion salsa and bit of salad. Although crab is pretty light, the extra ingredients in the cake and the salsa helped it to stand up to the 1999 Pommard Epenots, a fairly bold Burgundy. It worked even better with the blackened (but slightly) mahi-mahi on a bed of spaetzle and spring vegetables and a very tender and tasty beef tenderloin topped with thin onion rings with garlic mashed potatoes, a broiled tomato half, and more veg. The Pommard was over a third of our $153 bill, so the prices really aren't outrageous, but they are among the highest on the island. Then again, this is prime real estate with a great water view and a lovely restaurant laid out on two levels so that two rows of tables have great water views. It's almost a bonus to be told that your table isn't ready because you can go upstairs and enjoy the roof deck and its spectacular view. The food is also among the best on the island and the wine list has some of the best American wines plus all the usual suspects from France. This is a review, not a puff piece, so I must complain about something: parking is difficult and reservations are advisable.<br>