vacation recap #2: culinary delights

taken at Southport Raw Bar, an all-time fave

sorry about that... the vacation recaps took a backseat to the reality of everyday life. After all the soccering and laundry and vacuuming, vacation seems so far away, y'know?

I'm dividing my food recap into 2 sections-road food & vacation food (for the lack of a better name). Let's start with the road food, shall we?

We stopped at Wendy's, Mickey D's, Skyline Chili, Cracker Barrel, Steak -n- Shake, KFC. None were thrilling or exciting or different than at home, except for maddening waits (Wendy's, I'm talking to you). The main annoyance with stopping to eat on the road is that it always takes twice as long as it needs to, no matter how fast we eat.

The best part of vacation,( if you have an adventerous family) are the meals. My kids are very good eaters, and are always willing to try whatever we are eating. The key is not waiting too long to feed them, or they get cranky and need an immediate fast food transfusion.

Sadly, many of our favorite places to eat in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea closed. It's a bummer. But the good news is that there are still many, many places to chase off a fierce hunger.

on a side note- we eat dinner really late. And sometimes not at all, if we have a big lunch. We usually order a bunch of things and everyone splits them, so it's more like a feast.

Since we arrived in the middle of the afternoon the very first thing we did was order subs from LaSpada, this awesome deli that we often dream of on a hot summers day. We just get italian subs, but they are chock full of meat & cheese, smothered in dressing and topped with lots of pickles and sweet peppers. To die for. Add some Wasabi Mustard chips to it, and a cold beer, and you have the perfect meal.

On Easter we ate at a new Greek restaurant named Avra, which was beyond good. Our waiter was really cool, and kept bringing us things to try free of charge. I had lamb chops that were simply divine. We also tried some calamari that was stuffed with cheese. Interesting, to say the least. He also brought out souvlaki and a huge piece of baklava that simply melted in your mouth.

One place we always make time for is Aruba, just down the beach from the condo. Sometimes we get take out, but this time we decided to eat there. Blue cheeseburgers and yummy fries.

Another favorite is Southport Raw Bar. When we fly down, it's always the first stop after the airport, no matter the time of day. It's the first place the kids ask to go to. This time we had a major feast... mussels in wine, fried clams, fish & chips, conch chowder, conch fritters, old bay shrimp. Dad & Carol had oysters as well, and Evan tried one. See what I mean?

Our best dinner was in Islamorada. Sunset in Islamorada is pure heaven on earth. We had dinner at the Lorelai, outside watching the sunset. I had parmesan encrusted yellowtail snapper-my favoritist fish of all! Not only was the food superb, but so was the show! Everyone agreed this was our favorite moment of vacation.

Before we left we got takeout pizza from this awesome place who's name I've forgotten. Margarita pizza, with lots of of basil and cheese. A huge batch of fried calamari. And the best garlic rolls of all time.

My stepmom is also a fantastic cook, and we did make a few meals when we didn't feel like getting dressed for dinner. There was a never ending supply of delicious things to eat.

And then we come home and eat corndogs and pot roast.

Ahh, it was good while it lasted!