Smoked BBQ & Salsa Music!

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A recipe has no soul. You as the cook must bring soul to your recipe.

Food glorious food,oh how I love thee. I knew we'd be best friends when I met you 😉 And food & I have been friends a long time now; like good friends I get it and it gets me! I am forever on a quest about food; how many different soups I can make, how many ways there are to stuff a pork tenderloin or chicken & am always checking out new recipes. And it's sheer joy for me to experiment with herbs & spices as well. The world is my oyster and watch out oyster - I'll eat you too! I will cook anything for our guests, and quite often I'm almost too full to eat my dinner if it's an ingredient our guests love but I'm not so fond of (ie hate to say it but I'm not fond of mushrooms). I'm a taster as I go along so my food is perfectly seasoned. And I will admit that I can be a bit picky about food as much as I love it; I like it the way I like it. For example when I order shrimp cocktail, I don't like the cocktail sauce but like extra zing of lemon.

Al & I killed ourselves over this one scene in "When Harry Met Sally" which goes like this: (Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan)

Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.

Sally Albright: Which one am I?

Harry Burns: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.

Sally Albright: I don't see that.

Harry Burns: You don't see that? Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you.

Sally Albright: Well, I just want it the way I want it.

Harry Burns: I know; high maintenance.

Heh heh heh...very funny.

And yesterday was a fun day concerning food. And it did not involve me cooking or even going near a stove ;>

As mentioned we enjoyed a really nice breakfast, enough to get us through till late afternoon.

Al & I took a walk and to pick up another one of the onyx lights but every time we've gone to this store it's closed. First time we went at 9, it was closed so we asked the Hertz Car Rental next door if his business was closed and they told us he opens at 11. We go yesterday at 11 and he isn't open on Sundays. We'll try again today, and for love of god he'd better be open or I'll be buying myself a crowbar to get into that store 😊

It was an overcast day yesterday and it was a welcome relief. It was SO humid still, and the a/c was very welcomed. At 2 we remembered that it being Sunday that one of the beach bars has BBQ day. Wah Wahs is a huge restaurant built over a year ago that has an in-house rock band, but further some pretty tasty food is going on there, and it was time I saw it for myself. We had been there before for drinks, food and music, but not BBQ Sundays.

For 100 pesos or $8 CDN, it's all you can eat BBQ on Sundays. So they had just set up the buffet when we arrived. Fresh fruit platter, chicken in alfredo & mushroom sauce, homemade spaghetti, green salad, (homemade dressings), home-made potato salad & coleslaw. But the pièce de résistance was the smoked pig & homemade BBQ sauce.

The Chef was overseeing the buffet, so I was chatting with him, and then he introduced me to this tall swarthy Texan named John who was wearing a cowboy hat. The Chef wondered why I wasn't loading up my plate & I told him I hate to waste food so I'll only take a bit for now and can always come back. I said we host a lot of parties in our backyard, and we know how much work it is to make food and have it go to waste when people over-pile their plate and their eyes are bigger than their stomachs. (not naming any of our friends; must be the strangers that crash our parties and waste all of our food!)

That's when John said "I like your style" and he said he appreciated people not wasting his food since it took him 18 hours to smoke the pig (now keep in mind there was no pig's head with an apple in it!). His side of pork comes out to the Chef who proceeds to pull it apart into bits of pulled pork. So after eating this delicious BBQ, (kids ate for half price!), I wanted to ask John some more questions about his smoking of the meat and his BBQ techniques along with where does he get his pork.

Well what a character that lad is. He's really not from Texas (but he sure has that drawl much like Alabama or Georgia etc.) but rather from Florida and grew up on a ranch and then spent many years working on huge ranches (something like 32,000 acres). Florida has the longest history of ranching in any state and I think the biggest ranches house 44,000 beef cattle on 300,000 acres or something to that degree. The cattle ranching has contributed significantly to Florida's economy for hundreds and hundreds of years. Amazing.

He learned about smoking and BBQ from his grandfather and father who made these huge smokehouses, and when he gave us a tour of where his smoker was, it was pretty cool. He built them himself, and I think he says it gets up to over 600 degrees in his ovens. One oven with 4 or 5 racks is for smoking fish and the other for his pulled pork and his prime rib. He gets his pigs fully dressed from local farmers, and the wood for his smoker is a hardwood comparable to oak that is found right here in the surrounding jungle. So it's quite an operation. He moved to this neck of the woods 13 years ago, and first started to do his BBQ at Bad Boys Restaurant on the beach, but eventually started up Wah Wahs with one of the musicians from the Nasty Bastards and his wife Kim. They seem to have a good thing going on there.

While the buffet goes on from 2-6, there's a live Cuban Salsa band called Criolla that plays live and they are fantastic. And from 7 on wards it's free salsa lessons. They also have biggest HD screen in Playa for sporting events and music; it's 8 meters high and 8 meters wide! Beer is 30 pesos ($2.50 CDN) and a margarita is 50 ($4)

Wah Wahs also has 2for1 pizza night made in the brick wood burning oven, and Tues night is Prime Rib night with mashed potatoes & gravy, Caesar salad (best in town they say), green beans wrapped in bacon and drizzled with maple syrup. They really put a lot of thought into their food, and we hope their business continues to grow, so make sure you drop by and see John and his staff 😊 They are great fun.

On the way back up 5th we heard the beats of loud drums, and being Domingo, there was a special Mayan performance. WOW is all I can muster; the ancient Mayan costumes are so elaborate, especially the men. At the end they give praise and offerings for their food which is laid out on a blanket and they light a copal resin incense. They also have a Mayan Dance that's done high up on poles and this ceremony was said o be used to stop droughts in ancient time but now is recognized as a historical/cultural dance to honor traditions and rituals of ancient times. It was a wonder to behold and I felt shivers down my back at their performance (I love that despite there being Starbucks & McDonalds here, that we can see this beautiful performance that is a cultural gift from them to us tourists). Here's one of the Mayan folk lore stories that is really interesting called, "The Tale of the Never Ever".
The Tale Of
The Ever Never
Once there was a "He of the night". Shadow of shadows, solitaire step, He walked many nights to find Her.

Once there was a "She of the day". Twinkle of wheat, dance of light, She walked many days to find Him.

They were always looking for each other, He and She. The night was always pursuing the day. They both knew, She and He, the quest for what can never be found.

It seemed as if it would never happen; it seemed impossible; it seemed never ever...

And then the dawn came for Him and for Her. Always, forever...

Isn't that a cute story...

Well moving on today we're going to have a change of scenery and are moving to a condo we've stayed at before (in 2011) that is a block from the ocean, but features a tropical architectural influence with 21 luxury units, and is set in an oasis reminiscent of a rain forest. It has an airy open design inside a private sanctuary with lush tropical plants and flowers with gushing waterfalls. There is a sun drenched roof top swimming pool the length of a city block and a second pool with two Jacuzzis. (Wanna come along with us? Sounds pretty nice ey?!)

It's 7 am and I'm up alone, and got the windows wide open to let in my nice morning breeze. It's slightly overcast and the ocean is rather rough with a few fishing boats out. The birds are chirping and this one small blackbird keeps landing on our balcony having a sip of water from a small pool of rain from last night. (as long as he doesn't pour himself a margarita, he can do what he wants!)

It's so peaceful enjoying a cup of coffee, enjoying the silence of the condo while everyone is sleeping. It's a chance to hear yourself think, if you're inclined to even think! Well I really should get off my duff and get out for a walk; and bask in this always perfect time of the morning when nature's at its best, the beaches are quiet and serene. (Please see Mayan pictures and the BBQ below. Will follow with the video of the Mayan ritual dance). PS I have re-typed this *&^^ blog a few times. Tried to fix spelling errors and grammar; sometimes it saves it and sometime it doesn't. You're forewarned 😊

The quieter you become, the more you can hear ~

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