Coconut Shrimp from Grenada, The Spice Isle

[Tripatini]

by Tripatini staff

Here's why Grenada, aka the Spice Island, is the Caribbean isle of your dreams: Locals offer visitors a warm welcome, food is sourced locally instead of being crated in from other continents, and lovely beaches are dotted with little hideaways rather than highrise hotels. One of the nicest small resorts is Maca Bana, a boutique hotel with seven romantic villas on a hill overlooking the beach and sea. And it's not just a great place to stay: It's a wonderful place to eat.

Maca Bana's restaurant, Aquarium, features an eye-pleasing dining room with dark wood, colorful fabrics, a friendly beach bar, and, yes, aquariums. “Our restaurant is situated on a palm-fringed beach,” says chef Lorry Francis, “so freshly grated coconut is readily available. It's a very popular Caribbean ingredient with our guests, as is seafood.”

We like these things, too, and since Maca Bana's chefs are also great cooking coaches, we asked Francis to teach us how to make the perfect seafood-and-coconut dish. He calls this shrimp entree Deep Sea Palm Tree, and he encourages us wannabe chefs to “arrange the prawns so they resemble the top of a palm tree as it branches out to all sides.”

DEEP SEA PALM TREE (coconut shrimp in pineapple/curry sauce; serves two)

Coconut Shrimp:

10 jumbo shrimp (peeled and deveined)
2 eggs (whisked)
½ cup (118 ml) of fresh grated coconut (or pack of desiccated coconut flakes)
5 tablespoons (73 ml) of flour
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup (118 ml) of oil

Pineapple and Curry Sauce

4 tablespoons (59 ml) mayonnaise
1 teaspoon (5 ml) curry powder
¼ cup (59 ml) milk
2 slices of pineapple (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation of Pineapple and Curry Sauce

Mix all the ingredients together, place in two small dishes, and chill.

Preparation of Shrimp

Place flour and coconut on two separate bowls.
Dip each shrimp into the flour, then the egg, and finally the coconut.
Fry in a shallow pan until golden brown.
Drain and serve with the chilled pineapple curry sauce.

Presentation

Place on a dish surrounded by a fresh garden salad or seasonal vegetables. Open a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio and turn up the reggae.

[Latifa hussein kayed]

is there any of the middle east going ??? would like to know

[Rebecca Thompson]

Sorry to hear of your medical experience Mary and I presume you were in the Public Hospital. There is a very professional small privately run hospital called SAMS (www.samsgrenada.com) in Grenada which accepts all overseas insurance and is of the highest standard of hygiene and care. Many tourists are sent to this facility and its a shame you weren't. I hope you are feeling better and are fully recovered.

[ASTA]

Latifa - We are hosting the travel blogger show and would love for you to attend! Right now we have more than 70 travel bloggers, travel media and travel agents registered to attend. You will also get to go to THETRADESHOW which will have more than 1,000 travel agents and other travel professionals there to networking with about travel in many ways.

Register today here: http://www.thetradeshow.org/pdf/BloggerRegForm_late.pdf

We are also offering blogger show registrants back stage tours at Cirque Du soliel and more Universal parks! You can't miss this chance. You will also be able to sign up for any of these tours and go to any of these classes.

Tripatini will be there too!

[Latifa hussein kayed]

hey guys are you planning to register to Orlando to the travel show??? how many are registering ???? I am thinking of it.

[Mary E Gallagher]

Bad experience? I took a bad fall at the resort I was staying at. A van was the ambulance..that is throw me in the back on the metal floor of a van, did you see many paved roads in Grenada? The hospital bed was a bare mattress on four cement blocks, no linens, no food, no water for four days. The nurse said "who ever brought you needs to take care of you". Wendy you don't want to know the rest. I was airlifted to Florida, over five hours of surgery, five weeks in a rehab place etc.But when you're in rehab you find out about people (tourists) who have been shot in a riot in Burma and left on a "hospital" bed while the maggots eat away parts of their bodies...if you or anyone else wants to fly to these places without evacuation insurance that's fine but now and then something happens and you understand the real meaning of third world. Why do you think the cruise lines airlift people out of the caribbean islands after a bus accident?










the hosptial

[Wendy Capra]

I've been to Grenada and I didn't feel it was so dire, Mary... did you have a bad personal experience there where you just didn't trust the medical care?

[Mary E Gallagher]

Grenada is a beautiful island with wonderful food and resorts but from personal experience let me tell you this is a third world country and if you plan to visit be sure to have medical evacuation insurance. If you get sick or injured get yourself flown out as quickly as possible.