Dining in Bermuda

[liuzhou]

All looks great, but I"m still intrigued by the 'lemon maringue'!

[liamsaunt]

Well, we are stuck in limbo at the airport.  Our flight home is delayed in Boston for maintenance and you cannot check in to US Customs until your flight takes off in the USA, so I thought I would take advantage of the fast and free wifi to finish this report (unless we get stuck here overnight, which, given 1. that we are flying JetBlue and 2. there is severe weather moving into Boston this evening, is a distinct possibility).

 

Here are some pictures of the beach we spent our last day at.  The Bermuda government cleans some of the beaches in the morning, hence the tire tracks

 

 

 

For dinner, we returned to Sea Breeze.  We ordered a mix of repeats and some new stuff.  Drinks

 

 

Nephew wanted TWO breads for appetizers.  Garlic ciabatta and the bruschetta we had before

 

 

 

We also got another order of the calamari and the tuna tartare

 

 

 

 

My niece chose a sushi roll for her appetizer.  

 

 

For mains, my niece and nephew both got the same thing they had last time: pasta carbonara and pasta with roasted tomatoes, arugula and ricotta salata

 

 

 

 

My husband, sister and I all got the local catch (red snapper) cooked with tomatoes, caper, and basil over crushed potatoes

 

 

We split two desserts: another salted caramel butterscotch panna cotta, and a chocolate almond cake with vanilla ice cream

 

 

 

And that's it for this visit!   My husband and I will be back to Bermuda in September for a long weekend.  Until then, see you on the dinner! thread.

 

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt 

 

thank you for sharing your wonderful trip .

 

and thank you for all the menus .

 

yes , thunderstorms are coming.

 

just intimate 

 

for me and MC.

 

hope you beet them 1

[Anna N]

@liamsaunt

Thank you so much and I look forward to your reappearance in the dinner thread. 

[KennethT]

@liamsaunt Yes, to echo the others, thanks so much for this.  I always enjoy looking at your Caribbean trips!

[chileheadmike]

Thanks for sharing, I hope you're home soon. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

17 minutes ago, chileheadmike said:

Thanks for sharing, I hope you're home soon. 

 

Maybe they should check the weather forecast before they get on that plane.

 

[kayb]

Hope your travels were safe and not horrifically delayed! Thanks for the vacation!

[liamsaunt]

I am back in Bermuda for a short visit with my husband, sister, and niece.  I am always the first person awake, so figured I would update this blog while I wait for everyone else to get their lazy selves out of bed.   We are only here for four nights and are not planning on doing much, so this won't be an exciting visit.

 

First, we have always exciting airport food!  Haha.  We had time for a sit-down breakfast before boarding our plane, so went to Legal Seafoods in Terminal C.  I had a basic egg sandwich

 

 

My husband had an omelet stuffed with shrimp and avocado

 

 

Sister had an omelet stuffed with vegetables

 

 

and niece hated all of the choices so just got toast and bacon.

 

 

A short flight later, we arrived back in Bermuda. We are staying in a rental condo that is easy walking distance to a beach.  It's pretty close to where we stayed this past summer.  Here is a (slightly wobbly) pano of the view:

 

 

My husband and I spent our honeymoon 25 years ago on the beach below.  The hotel we stayed in was washed out to sea in 2003 during Hurricane Fabian.  Normally there would not be so many chairs on this beach, but they were all moved over from the beach you can see on the far right, which was inundated with sand during last week's hurricane.  The hotel we honeymooned at was located on the empty point you see on the farthest right of this picture.

 

Here's a better picture  of the beach from the deck of the condo:

 

 

And taken from the beach, a view towards the beach of the (currently closed for renovation) Southampton Princess hotel.  That building with the pointy roof was a pretty good seafood restaurant when the hotel was open.

 

 

For dinner we just walked down the street to Henry VIII.  It's less than a five minute walk from the house.  

 

Drinks

 

 

Smoked salmon to share

 

 

My husband and sister both had fish and chips

 

 

I got a Bermuda fish sandwich on raisin bread with cole slaw

 

 

 

and my niece (of course) got sushi

 

 

My niece got bread and butter pudding for dessert

 

 

and the rest of us shared a bowl of ice cream, because why not? It's vacation

 

 

We got back to the condo in time to catch the end of the sunset over Sinky Bay.  That land is a better view of where the hotel used to be (on the point where the palm trees are).  The platform out in the water was a swimming pool covered with a dome.  My husband and I used to go there late at night, stand on opposite ends of the pool, and whisper to each other. Because of the dome, it sounded like you were standing right next to each other.  

 

[KennethT]

Happy to see this, as always.  Will Ian miss entirely?  I think it's just about due west of you right now, off the coast of Georgia/South Carolina.  On average, how is the sushi rice there?

[blue_dolphin]

3 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

I got a Bermuda fish sandwich on raisin bread with cole slaw

I had to look up Bermuda fish sandwich.  Interesting sweet/savory combo with the fish, cheese and raisin bread.  I can't say it appeals to me but I'll always try a fish sandwich with local fish so I'd surely give it a try!

 

2 hours ago, KennethT said:

Will Ian miss entirely?  I think it's just about due west of you right now, off the coast of Georgia/South Carolina.

You didn't ask me, but it looks pretty good for Bermuda at the moment.

[gfweb]

I never have gotten the whole raisin bread thing

[Shelby]

16 minutes ago, gfweb said:

I never have gotten the whole raisin bread thing

I feel the same way about raisin bread as @liuzhoufeels about corn.

 

But I'm glad others like it  

[liamsaunt]

22 hours ago, KennethT said:

Happy to see this, as always.  Will Ian miss entirely?  I think it's just about due west of you right now, off the coast of Georgia/South Carolina.  On average, how is the sushi rice there?

 

Yes, no issues from Ian.  The water was choppy yesterday with a lot of seaweed and some flotsam washing up, but today it is flat calm and the water is clear from debris.  I can see through my binoculars that a big milk crate washed up overnight, so I am going down to clean up the beach by filling it with plastic this morning if nobody else on the bay gets to it first.

 

I have not actually eaten the sushi rice here to my recollection!  My niece usually orders some but I am more drawn to the local fish if it's available.  We are going to New York City next weekend and I think all of our reservations are at sushi restaurants so the odds of my trying any this trip are pretty slim too.  

 

20 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I had to look up Bermuda fish sandwich.  Interesting sweet/savory combo with the fish, cheese, and raisin bread.  I can't say it appeals to me but I'll always try a fish sandwich with local fish so I'd surely give it a try!

 

Bermuda fish sandwiches do not typically have cheese.  It's fish (fried or grilled, but usually fried), and slaw on raisin bread.  Sometimes extra slaw sauce and/or hot sauce are added.  Most places offer the option of getting regular bread rather than raisin bread, but I like the raisin bread.

 

Yesterday we went out to breakfast.  We normally would not, but we have been unable to find any butter on the island for the bread I bought!  Granted, we have not looked too many places, but the market within walking distance does not have any, and I had groceries delivered from the large market in Hamilton yesterday, and they did not have any butter either!  So we walked over to the Reefs hotel and had breakfast at their restaurant Aqua Terra.  Here's the view

 

 

And the menu.  They also offered a buffet, but we opted for a la carte.

 

 

Three of us ordered the avocado crush.

 

 

Nicely poached eggs

 

 

 

My niece got the coconut french toast

 

 

She also ordered a side of bacon.  Do you think they brought her enough?  🤣

 

 

The day was very uneventful and spent swimming in front of the house and reading.  For dinner, we went to Blu at the Newstead Hills golf course. Here's the view

 

 

My sister and husband both got the same cocktail, a cucumber margarita

 

 

 

The menu was eight pages long, so no pictures of that!  We ordered a wahoo carpaccio to share.  It was beautifully presented:

 

 

We also ordered some fried calamari.  Well, we ordered a Thai-style wok stir-fried calamari, but they brought us this one instead.  Oh well, it was still tasty.

 

 

My sister ordered the fish special, which was pan-seared local snapper with lemon risotto

 

 

Husband had local lobster thermidor

 

 

I ordered the seafood mixed grill (clams, calamari, snapper, wahoo, shrimp, and scallops)

 

 

and, despite the large and delicious sounding sushi menu, my niece chose Mongolian beef

 

 

The sun went down as we enjoyed our entrees

 

 

They brought out some cookies while we contemplated the dessert menu

 

 

My niece chose the chocolate souffle

 

 

and the rest of us got the lemon soufflé to share

 

 

Overall, it was a lovely (though expensive) evening, and some of the best food we have had in Bermuda.

 

[KennethT]

26 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

 

I have not actually eaten the sushi rice here to my recollection!  My niece usually orders some but I am more drawn to the local fish if it's available.  We are going to New York City next weekend and I think all of our reservations are at sushi restaurants so the odds of my trying any this trip are pretty slim too.  

 

Got it - I'm with you - I'd be getting the local fish also!

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:

We are going to New York City next weekend and I think all of our reservations are at sushi restaurants so the odds of my trying any this trip are pretty slim too.  

 

 

Let us know some names, but why only sushi?

[liamsaunt]

22 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Let us know some names, but why only sushi?

 

Essentially, it is my niece's weekend--we are going to NYC so she can tour a college she is applying to transfer to.  Somehow the weekend has morphed into an entire trip of things that she likes best--bookstores, sushi restaurants, and Broadway shows.  I'm not too thrilled about the whole thing (other than the bookstores, ha), because I am not a big fan of musicals, and more importantly, I don't think she is going to end up deciding to transfer there, so I have not been paying attention to what the dinners are, frankly.  I just know they are all sushi places.

 

We spent the day at the beach in front of the house.

 

 

And then for dinner, my husband wanted to return to Sea Breeze at the Elbow Beach complex.  We ate there a couple of times this summer.  View from our table:

 

 

Menu (I forgot to take a picture of the sushi menu)

 

 

Drinks

 

 

My niece ordered a torched salmon maki roll for her appetizer

 

 

My husband and I shared a Thai seafood salad.  I really liked this.  It had some heat to it. 

 

 

and we also ordered some fried calamari for the table

 

 

For mains, my niece got the same truffled carbonara she had over the summer

 

 

My sister chose a special offering of pasta with clams and fried zucchini

 

 

My husband got a special of grilled lobster

 

 

and I chose the Goan king prawns

 

 

The sun went down as we were eating.  We were not facing the sunset, but the sky turned a lovely shade of pink

 

 

My niece got a creme brûlée with berries for dessert

 

 

and the rest of us shared a warm apple galette.  We swapped in vanilla ice cream for the rum raisin ice cream that it came with because rum raisin ice cream is a crime

 

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

other than the bookstores, ha

 

I hope you get here...https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday dawned as another day without butter for our toast.  So, we decided to head back to Aqua Terra for breakfast again.  Pretty views of the hotel:

 

 

My niece ordered a Belgian waffle

 

 

Sister had pancakes 

 

 

Husband chose a smoked salmon plate

 

 

And I ordered a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet with wheat toast.  Here is my very sad plate.  Very overcooked eggs, dry toast, and no cheese in my omelet.  I should have sent it back but I was really hungry so I just ate it.  

 

 

Oh well.  The setting is very pretty.  I keep meaning to stay at this hotel and then we never do.

 

 

We spent the day at the beach in front of the house.  You have seen it before.  Dinner was at Aurora.  Here's the view. looking over the pool and harbor to Hamilton.

 

 

Drinks

 

 

The menu

 

 

 

It was really hard to choose what to order, because so many things sounded good!  We shared a couple of appetizers.  The passion fruit seveche (delicious)

 

 

Tuna tartare

 

and the stir fried calamari

 

 

For mains, my niece ordered a salmon poke bowl

 

 

I chose the tandoori halibut

 

 

My sister had the monkfish curry

 

 

and my husband had the lobster linguini

 

 

We ordered dessert

 

 

The sky opened up and it started pouring before the desserts came, so we had to move inside.  That was fine--the restaurant actually had corresponding tables inside for every outdoor table just in case this happened!  You just proceeded to the indoor table with your outdoor table's number on it.  I thought that was pretty clever. 

 

Niece ordered the chocolate souffle

 

 

I chose the mango brûlée, which I shared of course

 

 

and sister had the Bailey's cake.

 

 

We are headed home today, so this probably concludes our dining adventures for this trip (unless we get stuck for some reason).  As always, here's the oddest book I found in our rental house

 

 

And a nighttime view of the beach we stayed on.  Until next time!

 

[TicTac]

Great photos as usual. 

 

I guess with a setting like that they can choose to charge whatever they fancy...but $22 for pork dumplings....!

[kayb]

A lovely trip, as always. Thanks for taking us along!

[liamsaunt]

I am back in Bermuda. The view is not bad from our accommodation, and the weather is warmer than at home.  Food photos to come.

 

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt 

 

Excellent !

 

looking forward to visit.

[lindag]

23 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

I am back in Bermuda. The view is not bad from our accommodation, and the weather is warmer than at home.  Food photos to come.

 

What a tough life you have.  😁

[blue_dolphin]

@liamsaunt, your photos, whether food or land/seascapes, are always glorious! Thank you in advance for sharing another trip!