The lovely town on Cascaish as seen from the marina
I really wish I shpoke portugesh, not jusht becaushe I would like to shpeak with the lovely people we’re meeting here, but alsho becaushe is shounds like shuch a fun language to shpeak. I apologize if I sheem irreverent, I actually have the greatesht reshpect for the portugeshe and have found them to be very kind and mosht welcoming. I will shtop now, promishe.
Taka Trois and her crew are now happily ensconced in their new berth in the very posh marina in the town of Cascais--no daily bread delivery here, but a complimentary bottle of local wine upon arrival. Nice! This an affluent suburb of Lisbon with lovely shops, a mall, cobble-stone pedestrian streets, international schools nearby and a large expat population--a little like a Portugese St. Germain-en-Laye, a town close to our home in France or Westmoorings, where we lived in Trinidad.
From the latest marine weather report, it seems like we will be ‘shtuck’ (oopsh, sorry, that one just slipped out) here for at least a week, so as my personal version of the old saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping and get a pedicure,” and I’m pretty tough! Seriously, we plan to take advantage of our enforced stay to make use of the ship chandlers here to get some work done on the boat, do some chores, explore the area and rest up and provision before the next passage to Madeira which will be a three to four day trip.
Our tuna, by the way, was exquisite. Patrice skillfully cleaned and gutted the fish with relatively little mess and then sliced them into steaks--very impressive! We gave half the bounty to a neighboring French family on our pontoon (three children aboard; 6, 4 and 7 months old! And you think we’re crazy?) and we flash-grilled the rest, Receta* style, marinated in olive oil, lime juice and dark rum. Yep! The same rum that we used to kill them.
On this subject, we have had many queries and comments about the use of rum as a weapon. In answer to your questions: Yes, we really did use rum to kill the fish--it beats bashing them over the head or other violent solutions. We used Appleton's Jamaican dark and it worked instantly. Makes you wonder what the stuff does to our brains... No, we did not use all the rum on board, there is still plenty left both for humans onboard and for all the fish we hope to catch in the future and finally, no, we couldn’t tell if the rum that killed them actually flavored the fish. All I can say is that they were exceptional both as steaks and in the fish cakes which we made with the leftovers. Can't wait for our next catch!
Our tuna, by the way, was exquisite. Patrice skillfully cleaned and gutted the fish with relatively little mess and then sliced them into steaks--very impressive! We gave half the bounty to a neighboring French family on our pontoon (three children aboard; 6, 4 and 7 months old! And you think we’re crazy?) and we flash-grilled the rest, Receta* style, marinated in olive oil, lime juice and dark rum. Yep! The same rum that we used to kill them.
On this subject, we have had many queries and comments about the use of rum as a weapon. In answer to your questions: Yes, we really did use rum to kill the fish--it beats bashing them over the head or other violent solutions. We used Appleton's Jamaican dark and it worked instantly. Makes you wonder what the stuff does to our brains... No, we did not use all the rum on board, there is still plenty left both for humans onboard and for all the fish we hope to catch in the future and finally, no, we couldn’t tell if the rum that killed them actually flavored the fish. All I can say is that they were exceptional both as steaks and in the fish cakes which we made with the leftovers. Can't wait for our next catch!
The view from our cockpit as we sipped ice-cold white Port wine and grilled our fresh-caught tuna--priceless! Remember the question I asked at the beginning of my last post? Well THIS is one of the answers to that question.
*Receta is our friends’ Steve and Ann’s sail boat. Ann Vanderhoof is an outstanding cook and the author of The Spice Necklace, a potpourri of stories about island cooking and culture and An Embarrassment of Mangoes, which tells the story of their trip on Receta from Toronto to Trinidad and back. The tuna recipe can be found in this book and is an excellent read even if you’re not a sailor.
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