A lovely meal at La Plantation Cafe this evening. Ensconced in the main reception building at La Plantation Resort, La Plantation Cafe is a very good restaurant that perhaps has gone unnoticed by the wider public; it certainly deserves more notice from foodies, casual diners, and those drawn in by the chalkboards and barkers in Grand Case and Orient Bay (not to mention folks staying on the Dutch side of the island).
The amuse bouche was a lovely creamy carrot soup with curry & ginger. Served warm with a straw, it was garnished with whipped cream and chopped walnuts.
Appetizer was (French) onion soup. Is calling it French onion soup redundant in France (or FWI)? A very non-traditional approach, it featured a trio of cheese-stuffed raviolis topped by baked parmigiana rounds. The broth was light, sweet, and refreshingly low on salt; chock full of onions, as it should be! It was also free of big, unmanageable chunks of soft or crusty gruyere cheese (as is often the case with more traditional crock-based preparations). All in all, a lovely reinterpretation of a classic (French) dish!
The main course was grilled yellowfin tuna served with mashed sweet potatoes, vegetables and fresh berries (strawberries, raspberries and blackberries). Grilled to perfection and served with a bacon garnish! Lovers of tuna, it was neither undercooked nor over cooked, but parfait (perfect) — a lovely medium rare execution!
The tuna was served with a lime butter sauce and a fresh half lime. Perhaps the best, most innovative and beautifully rendered preparation tuna I’ve enjoyed in St. Martin(and perhaps anywhere). Per the server’s recommendation, I paired the tuna with a glass of Pinot Grigio that was light, refreshing and a perfect compliment to the tuna. I’m not sure I’d have thought to garnish tuna with bacon, but it’s taste sensation much easier to enjoy than describe, adding both fat and savoriness to the clean and simple palet of the tuna.
Way too late for a heavy dessert, I capped off a magnificent meal with a decaf cappuccino paired with a couple of mini pistachio muffins.
All of this topped of by a magnificent pool-side setting just a few hundred yards from Orient Beach! And of course no meal is complete in the French West Indies without a shot (or two) of home-made rum, in this case Café Plantation’s vanilla-caramel infused rum. Heading to bed a very happy foodie!
The Accidental Treasurer 