Hedy and Patrick at the market.
Update: We bumped into farmer Patrick Panton of East End Garden & Gifts at the farmers market Camana Bay is now holding every Saturday morning, in addition to Wednesday afternoons. A fellow farmer point out my Cochon 555 shirt to Patrick, who has been thinking getting into raising heritage hogs on-island. Patrick is one of our trusted Grand Cayman small farmers with whom chef Thomas has developed a solid relationship since we opened in 2010, growing together. He started out with veggies, then branched out to chicken and eggs… Now heritage hogs were on his mind? When Patrick puts his mind to it, there is no stopping him! So I quickly shot an mail to Michael and hooked Patrick up with Jim Wood, of Palmetto Creek, who raises Herefords in Avon Park that can be found in our porchetta and more in Miami. Jim’s operation is advanced for a small farm but he can likely provide good advice to someone starting out, maybe even help him figure out what breed works best for the conditions on his property… or aid in a breeder stock!
The reasons number many that I love my six visits a year to Grand Cayman my work permit permits. Seeing my favorite people at the restaurant is a little kumbaya but, heck, it’s true. Plus Cirillio, and in today’s case Tony, cook perfect 7 minute egg breakfasts and you don’t know what starting the day off right is until you’ve had one. If only we had a breakfast place… Then there’s the cocktails, like last night’s Rum Runners with Blackberry Brandy that Ryan and I had after riding around the West End in search of dinner. Those drinks just don’t taste right unless you’re drinking them on a Caribbean Island, perhaps with your feet in powder beige sands, an aquamarine sea spread out before you to the horizon. And then there are the sunsets. It’s good to be home.
Ryan arrived Wednesday, Hedy and I yesterday (my earlier flight scored me this amazing sunset on 7 Mile Beach,) and she’s been baking up a storm this morning with our Cayman pastry chef Adriana Duran. It’s cookbook launch time here, and the two quickly banged out 4x the Giant Sesame Fortunes recipe in order to demo them in stages for a Caymanian Compass web video. Tomorrow’s October Farm-to-Table Dinner celebrates Baking Out Loud in a big way with a sweet ending of treats from the cookbook. Click here for the menu,
This is the last of these dinners chef Thomas throws in honor of Cayman’s local farmers for the year, and we’re going out with a saweeeet bang, so come join us! CI$50 per person (CI$45 for Slow Food Members) gets you four courses served family-style, CI $75 includes copy of the cookbook which Hedy will sign for you in-person, and a supplement of CI$40 per person brings beverage pairings.
Click here for the last 24 hours in pictures on the rock and hope to see you tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. On today’s adventure list? Heritage Kitchen for lunch, a trip to the Havaianas store to remedy my #fail flip flop situation, and a Biergarten our friends at the Brasserie Cayman are popping up with some craft goodness. Slainte! Stay tuned to my Twitter to take the trip with us.
