Caribbean Flavors Restaurant

Tried a new place tonight. New for me anyway, they have been there about 15 months. Caribbean Flavors restaurant is on Highway 124 in Snellville. The family is from St. Thomas and they have owned restaurants in Alabama and North Carolina for many years. I met the chef, Leroy Walwyn. Nice guy.

Now for the food. To start I had a simple garden salad with a raspberry vinegarette dressing and johnny cakes. The salad was just your basic salad but I really liked the johnny cakes. They were good and filling.

For my entree I got the jerk chicken with rice and peas. It came with two sides so I chose fried plantains and macaroni and cheese. It was a ton of food, and all of it was quite tasty. I like this place and will go back again. The great thing was the price. I got all of this for only $7.95! Just an unbelievable value.

And I was liking the music they were playing as well. It was a happy, tropical, upbeat vibe with lots of steel drums. So I mentioned this to one of the guys and he says "Hold on, talk to my wife over there". So I walk over and tell her that I was just saying how much I liked the tunes and she says, "Oh good! Give me your name and phone number and I will burn a CD for you!" So, in addition to the great food at a great price, I'm gonna get a cool new CD out of the deal as well.

Everybody who likes a little Caribbean food should go to this place.

Seafood feast at Caneel Bay

Quality of the pictures isn't all that great, but the food was decent. Each Monday Caneel Bay offers something I think they call the Island Feast or something like that. It's all you can eat for about $90 including tip IIRC.

These are two of the plates I had. The first was a grilled lobster tail with butter and some fruit and cheese and bread and whatnot on the plate. The second was swordfish with some kind of a mango/pepper salsa. First time I had ever had swordfish for some reason and I really liked it. I will have it again one of these days.

I also had some other stuff but it's a bit hazy now. That was the night after I had been out on the water bar-hopping at the BVI beach bars all day.

Honestly, for the money I wouldn't choose this meal since there are many fine options on St. John at a lower cost. Caneel used to be the Rockefellers old hangout and I guess they didn't have to worry about such things. Most of us do however.

BBQ Chicken and Fried Plantain at Cuzzin's in Charlotte Amalie

You know how sometimes things just taste better when you're on vacation? Well this was some of the best BBQ sauce I've ever had. The chicken was just drenched in the stuff. I think it helped that the chicken was smoked and must've been cooking for hours before I arrived. I tried to buy a bottle of the sauce, but they didn't sell. I asked the waitress what was the secret ingredient, and she said they just mix up a batch of regular BBQ sauce. So now I have to go back and try it again to see if it was really as good as I was thinking.

The fried plantain was real good too. I don't eat that often, but of course I had to order it for my last meal in the islands. Also got some fries. The meal was $12 and included 3 sides but that was enough food already so I didn't order a third side.

Also had a bushwhacker that was real tasty as well. I'm gonna have to mix up a blender full of those things sometime soon.

Crab Cake Sandwich and Onion Rings

Crab cake sandwich and onion rings ($24) from the Caneel Beach Bar & Grill. The sandwich was good, but the onion rings were fantastic. I wish I had ordered them more often while we were there, but I only ate lunch there twice during our stay.

Grilled Chicken with Mango Ketchup (?)....Yes, mango ketchup

Click on the pics to see the right side.

Grilled chicken with corn on the cob, simple salad with Italian dressing, cantalope, and the clincher - mango ketchup direct from the Virgin Islands. Sounded a little gross but it was better than I thought it would be. Can now safely give the other bottles I bought for gifts to the intended recipients!

Pic of the bottle up top.

Breakfast buffet at Caneel Bay

This is from the breakfast buffet at Caneel Bay resort on St. John. Click on the picture to see it all.

In the foreground is French toast, bacon, and pineapple, with an orange juice/pineapple juice mix to drink.

Over to the left we have bacon, sausage links, kiwi, cantalope, pineapple, zucchini bread, and cottage fries. To drink is a mango/pineapple juice mixture.

We had multiple plates each morning, but this is representative. The cost of this meal is $73.16 including tip, but I didn't pay. Thank God.

That water is Caneel Bay. You can see St. Thomas in the distance.

Spaghetti and garlic bread

Not bad, a nice cheap filling meal. Ate too much of it though. Just me and one of the kids so there was way too much bread for the two of us. Had no trouble eating it all though.

Spicy Thai Chicken Wrap and Other Healthy Stuff from Evos

(Click on the picture to see all of it).

Went to Evos for lunch today. They bill themselves as healthy fast food. I had planned on trying their burger but when I got there I discovered that today is "Wrap-it-up Wednesday" so I got a free shake by buying a wrap. They charge a lot for their stuff so free sounded good. The shake is normally $3.49 I think. I should mention that I had a $25 gift card that I had purchased from Half Off Depot for only $10. I don't like paying a lot for stuff so some might call me cheap.

So I went with the Spicy Thai Chicken Wrap (510 calories and 10 grams of fat), Airbaked Fries (230 calories and 8 grams of fat), and a Mango Guava shake (180 calories and 0 grams of fat). The best thing I had was the Airbaked Fries - they have flavored ketchup to go along with them. I had some Garlic Gravity ketchup (35 calories and 0 grams of fat) that was pretty good. So adding all that up I get 955 calories and 18 grams of fat. I guess it's healthier than Dairy Queen, but I better have a salad for supper tonight.

Spinach Artichoke Dip with Cheddar Pita Chips and Sausage Cheeseballs

Big games apps. I can eat my weight in sausage cheese balls. Haven't made them in years and my effort was a little inconsistent but still dang good. Also had some spinach artichoke dip and some cheddar pita chips that were perfect for the dip. Not pictured was some fruit that made a good complement to the other stuff.

Fried Grouper Sandwich with fries and jalapeno cole slaw

Went to Hail Mary's Sports Pub in Grayson this evening and had the grouper sandwich. It was a huge hunk of fish - like twice as big as the bun. Took me forever to eat it, but I did. The fries were seasoned well. My favorite part of the meal was probably the jalapeno cole slaw. That was some good stuff. The pic doesn't do it justice.

The table next to us got a 128 oz dispenser of Budweiser but I didn't get a pic. I think they charge $19 for it which I guess is not too bad these days.

Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate

With raspberry filling! It's my afternoon treat for myself. And healthy, too!

5 Benefits of Dark Chocolate

1. Studies have shown dark chocolate to lower blood pressure
2. Studies have also shown dark chocolate to lower bad cholesterol (LDL)
3. It turns women on more than a passionate kissing session (no wonder they want it for Valentine's Day!)
4. Contains serotonin, a natural mood-boosting anti-depressant
5. Stimulates pleasure-inducing endorphin production

Italian BMT from Subway

The Thursday special at Subway is the Italian BMT. Got a six-inch on Italian Herbs and Cheese, with baked BBQ Lay's chips and a diet coke. Only $3.99 plus tax. Good deal.

Buffalo Chicken in a Spinach Wrap

Grilled chicken with buffalo sauce in a spinach wrap. BBQ chips and diet coke on the side. It is my "go-to" lunch in the cafe downstairs when I don't bring mine and I don't feel like getting in the car.

Let's get this thing started

Let's start with the plate of store bought Christmas cookies and the homemade fruit salad somebody brought in to the office today. Cookies are terrible (I know because I've had four so far), but the fruit salad is good.