Allow me to tell you about my recent Florida escapade! A dear friend of mine, living in Germany now, is in charge of planning our annual vacations. We have known each other for a very long time and met in Chicago while working together. It’s true what they say: people who cook together stay together! Okay, I made that up, but this year, she picked Southwest Florida. She wanted to explore this part of the state as it seems everybody is familiar with the ocean side: Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, etc.
I personally find the Gulf part much more interesting, especially the small islands such as Marco Island, Captiva Island and beautiful Matlacha (pronounced Mat-la-SHAY, which is a Native American word meaning "water to the chin,” probably a reference to the shallow waters that surround the area.) The food here was absolutely fantastic! The fresh and delicious seafood was truly remarkable, and restaurants even call the days they are closed "gone fishing days”.
We ate at the local restaurants and received very friendly service, great food, a low key atmosphere, and plenty of live entertainment every night. Of course the clientele is mostly older folks whose dinner time seems to be early, around 6pm! However, that may not necessarily be a bad thing. Coming from Chicago, I found this place to be paradise simply due to the warm climate. It made me resent winter!
We took a bike tour of Marco Island: it took about five hours to explore this great place, beautiful homes, parks, wildlife, and exclusive beaches and resorts. There are plenty other activities to enjoy. We preferred to spend middays relaxing in the white sand at the beach, taking naps, watching the dolphins swimming close to shore, black pelicans fishing, and contemplating the scenery. Two important things to always have on hand are sunblock and plenty of water to drink!
My friend wanted to get close to a real alligator, so we went to the zoo in Naples for alligator feeding hour. It was great to get a bit closer to these creatures, but I was thankful there was a fence between us and the gators! We learned that alligators are actually terrified of humans and would only attack when hungry.
The highlight of our trip was visiting our old boss, who lives on the ocean part of the state near Cape Canaveral. It has been several years since we last saw him. We drove about four hours to the Cape and it was really great to reconnect and reminiscent about the good old days. Visiting South Florida was such a beautiful experience! It makes me feel like packing everything and moving down there to wake up every day and enjoy such a wonderful place. Maybe one day, I'll have dinner at 6pm.
If you want to learn more about cooking seafood, join us here at The Chopping Block for a class. We have a Seafood 101 cooking class with an all-new winter menu coming up in January.
