It’s already mid January and it seems time has been flying fast… yet I have not even thanked all of you for the warm wishes over the holidays and would love to greet you all a new year full of hopes and new food discoveries….

After such beautiful short break in London, am back to work with two consecutive weekends of not having days off yet.

The boat am working on is on the market for sale, so my days goes with dealing with brokers and buyers. Gone are the days dealing with guests and traveling from one port to another, one unknown island to the next.
I miss the fun of the travels, the discovery of new food & culture but am sure it will not be long I will be back to it and be working long hours once again and days or weeks with out days off.

So last weekend, one prospective buyer requested a sea trial. We cruise down along the coast towards Miami then entered the intracoastal waterways south to Hallandale to Golden Beach.
It was a lovely cruise down and see the typical Floridian shack style eateries the dot the waterways, as the night prior to this trip, I had a dinner with a friend in one of the eateries. Then we drove along Ocean Blvd towards Hallandale.
And yet the next day I pretty much on the same route but on the yacht, that everytime I take photos of the restaurants, you can have jolly crowd rousing with hoots for more photos…. oh Florida.

To welcome the guests, I made some cucumber cups with smoked salmon mousse, lemon and parsley. One cookbook which has not failed me with ideas is “CANAPES” by Eric Treuille & Victoria Blashford Snell.
I bought this book in France and has travelled with me from one side of Atlantic to another.
This book is full of innovative ideas and the photos are tantalizing that make create these dainty canapes.

Since its hot here in Florida I needed something cool and refreshing. I was told we would be expecting 7 people which I have to do lunch and some snack while they watch football…. european readers, I am talking here American football, not the football I know of.

In the recipe it calls for smoked trout. I could not find smoked trout or maybe my mind was really was so drained thinking how am I going to cope feeding 7 guests and 5 crew.
So I bought Norwegian smoked salmon and Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon which I used for the called recipe.

Here is how, this is really easy and fun:

Cucumber Cups:

1 cucumber
3.5 cm flutted pastry cutter , melon baller

Cut cucumber into 20 – 1.5cm (3/4inch) thick slices.
Stamp each slice with the pastry cutter.
Using the melon baller, scoop out soft centres to make cups leaving a 0.5cm layer as a base


Smoked Salmon Mousse, Lemon & Parsley
Makes 20

150 g smoked trout
125g cream cheese
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
cayenne pepper
cucumber cups
1 tsp paprika for dusting
20 dill sprigs to garnish but I ran out so I used parsley.

Piping bag with large star noozle.

Place smoked salmon , cream cheese, zest and juice in a food processor or blender, pulse to smooth paste.
Add cayenne pepper to taste.
Fill piping bag with mousse and pipe to cucumber cups.
Dust with paprika and garnish with dill or parsley

Et voila easy… and here are some photos of typical Floridian shack places eateries along the intra coastal, and the condos the dots along side as well.

Taverna Opa… not visited this place yet as I don’t like the idea of chain restaurants. There is one just north of my marina in Ft Lauderdale, this one is at Hollywood and I saw one at South Beach, Miami. Though I discovered a real taverna near my place that is worth blogging about.

A typical Floridian water side eatery or shack for burgers, grills and some cold beer with a good view.

Le Tub established in the mid 70s where collection of rift raft collected from the beach decorate this place also bath tubs and loos oh yes… Food was not so great but the ambiance is.

Ft Lauderdale Port where one can see great cruise ships dock bound for the Bahamas or the Caribbean. That is Costa Fortuna of Costa cruise liners which is an Italian liner based in Genoa, Italy.
Upon seeing this cruise ship I contemplated how much my world has shrank in some ways. Back in 2003 when I was working on a yacht that was wintering in Genoa and being repaired at the yard, Costa Fortuna was still being built right opposite us.


If I do not blog hop or even gone awol at plurk and facebook it is because we do not have the wifi here at the boat. I am using the marina’s router which is not so mac friendly. I have to position myself at certain angle at the deck to pick up signal and could barely do my emails.