Isla Mujeres – Mexico - great food and good company
20 February 2017 | everything tastes better with a squeeze of fresh lime juice!
IMAGE – great food images
TACO TUESDAYS
Every Tuesday night the local cruisers meet for a pre-dinner drink at the American yacht ‘Tropical Fun’ docked in Oscars Marina - just a short dingy ride for us from the main anchorage up through the mangrove cut into the lagoon. Tim and his wife Reba were every welcoming and do a very good job of bringing the cruising group together. Tacos are the fare on Tuesday evenings at a very local restaurant Tonichos. It was basic, clean and we had good service. At 1st we had no idea what to order – so went for soft flour tacos with pork and chicken fillings, and were not disappointed – very tasty indeed – at approx. $1.00US per taco it was a great value and enjoyable meal, with the various sauces, salsa and limes coming to the table in a large pottery dish for everyone to share. After dinner – and now in the dark we all walked back to Oscars Marina, had an ice-cream at a corner store on the way and said goodnight to the members of our group. We enjoyed our ‘Taco Tuesdays’ evenings very much indeed and tried a different meal every week.
WEEKLY FOOD SHOPPING
Our weekly food shopping has been completed easily at the only big supermarket on the island. There is a local fruit and veg market – but the supermarket is so much more convenient. Our outing involves taking a dingy ride to a dock – this can be a wet 10 minute ride into the wind resulting in a soggy bottom. Once the dingy is secure we have a 15 minute walk to the supermarket. Our hunt around the supermarket with dictionary and calculator always takes us well over 1 hour – madly some of the fresh produce I see one week was not available the next so that doesn’t help with my menu planning! This supermarket is very well stocked with fresh fruit and veg, meat and fish. They have a fantastic onsite bakery with an enormous automated flour tortilla maker! A very big liquor selection and even sell washing machines – so really a mini Walmart.
Many of the small restaurants, and food stalls in the town totally purchase their produce from this supermarket. It was not uncommon for us to see 1 man with a huge bag purchasing what looked to be 100 small bread rolls and then transport them back to his restaurant on his moped!
The sailors that have come up from Guatemala, Honduras and Belize find this store absolutely wonderful and tell us that there is nothing like it at all the further south we go – so the moral of their stories is to stock-up here! Thankfully we have been successfully in paying with our UK credit card at this major store – all other purchases on the island are strictly cash only – either in US $ or local pesos. We have found Mexico inexpensive compared to the USA, and therefore have been able to enjoy more meals off the boat and treated ourselves to more fresh fish and good quality red meat.
Once we carry our loaded bags back to the dingy, load up and head back to the boat it take me about ½ hour to store everything and sort out the stuff that can fit in the fridge – so overall a food shopping trip takes us approx 2 ½ to 3 hours – our dirt dwellers friends and family wonder what we do all day!
FRIDAY NIGHT IS PIZZA NIGHT.
This became a very popular weekly night out for us at Oscars Restaurant, with usually a group of not less than 15/20 other sailors. The pizza is hot, fresh and very tasty – the huge portions meant that we always still had some to take back to the boat for a cold snack over the weekend. The evening always kicks off with dockside BYO drinks at ‘Tropical Fun’ and moves to the restaurant. The service is a bit like Faulty Towers – but hey its always a good night out.
MARGARITIVILLE
The Soggy Peso is a waterfront bar and restaurant that was highly recommended to us by sailors that had previously visited Isla. It has a great outlook onto the anchorage and you can sit with your feel in the sand and shade from the palm trees. We were told that Monday lunch was the time to go to try their Lobster Tacos and Margaritas – so one sunny Monday afternoon of we went.
Apparently things have changed! Yes they only serve Lobster Tacos on a Monday – and now their menu is limited to one main item per day. We found their bar area full with loud-mouthed expats and were given the ‘look’ of how dare we enter their territory. We were looking forward to trying their famous Margaritas – sadly when they came there were served in a Styrofoam cup– yes tasty and the tequila drink was freshly made and had a kick to it – but really what is the plastic cup all about!! The Lobster Tacos presentation was inviting – but the taste of the food only so/so.
Apparently after 3pm the entrance door is closed and only those ‘in the know’ have the access code – so the Soggy Peso then becomes a scudo private club for late afternoon and evening drinks. Sadly the good time to be had by all at the Soggy Peso is no longer.