Once again this little foray into the Caribbean begins with, yes, you’ve guessed it, rum.
You see I’d booked this venue for a dinner with Keeley, before an extra invite appeared in my inbox inviting us both to a rum tasting beforehand, where Oliver Blackman, Bar Trainer would take us through a sample of the rums on offer at Turtle Bay.
How could we say no?
Although, yes, we’ve been to a lot of rum tastings, what was intriguing about this one, were the extra elements that Oliver had for us, including sugar cane and juice, and molasses, all of which can be used to make rum. It was fascinating to be able to try these in person, as most rum tastings we’ve been to have involved the rums alone – this was a fantastic little added extra.
The rums too offered a lot of variety. We’re often at rum tasting events taking us through a range of rums from the same brand. This time, we had a host of different brands from those on offer at Turtle Bay, from the Chairman’s Reserve White Label (as written about last week) through Appleton Estate, to Pusser’s Navy Rum.
Rather than give you the tasting notes for all 8, I’ll mention our favourites – after all, there’s a tasting rum board on the drinks menu. Why read my notes, when you can try for yourself?
Keeley’s sweet tooth came into play with the Santa Teresa Rhum Orange – unsurprisingly given this liqueur tastes like liquid chocolate orange. It’s delicious and makes me recall a very dark hot chocolate I had one Christmas with a good shot of this added. Stunning.
Personally, I was torn. I love Appleton Estate and it’s lingering Demerara style finish. I even rather enjoyed the Pyrat with it’s honeyed smoothness. But simply because it tasted of liquorice and bonfire toffee, Myers’s Rum was my favourite of the evening.
Wobbly with rum – after all there’s only so much dilution water can offer – and clutching a Mojito, Keeley and I headed around behind the bar to dine. The venue is a little TARDIS-like, the bar hides the back of the restaurant from the windows and there’s a further section upstairs.
We were seated very near the station for the waiting staff, which was rather darker than other areas of the restaurant, for this reason my images aren’t at their best, though I’ve tried to compensate where possible.
Enough grumbles, we were there to enjoy the food and given the scents wafting out from the kitchen, this wasn’t going to be difficult.
The menu offers a variety of options. If you fancy sharing with friends then the Cutters menu is for you, a variety of street food style items that you can nibble at tapas style. There’s a light lunch menu for those wanting something a little less heavy and the main menu for those with an appetite.
Given the amount of rum we have just consumed atop empty tummies, our appetites were running relatively high and so we dove in head first with our starters.
I began with one of my favourite elements of Caribbean cookery, salt fish, in their salt fish pattie. I’ve made salt fish and ackee on more than one occasion and I have to admit, I was a little disappointed not to see it on the menu – even in a venue that caters more for the western palate.
Either way, this was exactly as it should be, soft almost sweet dough, salty firm fish on the inside – the scotch bonnet mayonnaise adding a nice touch of spice.
Keeley took a lighter option with the Jerk Pit Prawns – shell on prawns, served with flat bread and in chilli and garlic butter. The prawns were delicious, sweet flesh, nicely flavoured with charcoal from the grill, but though my love of butter would rival Mr Martin’s, these were a little heavily slathered in butter even for me and very fiddly to peel because of it. Though from my point of view, total bonus at being able suck the head.
Onto our mains and once again Keeley was very well behaved and went for one of the lighter options, the chicken Festival salad. Jerk chicken served with a small hunk of fresh watermelon, rocket, baby gem, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and raisins, a veritable rainbow on a plate.
The star of her plate, though wasn’t the spicy chicken, or the fresh crisp salad, no, the star was much more humble. It was the Trini chick peas. These soft nutty nibbles were ridiculously addictive and though aside from hummous, I’m not the world’s biggest chick pea fan, handing this little cone back to Keeley was an effort.
But I had to, for I had my own main to attack. I’d opted for the Double Dipped Steak from the Jerk Pit BBQ, a thick steak, in a deliciously spicy marinade, cooked pink to order (rare in my case). This hunk of meat was served with Caribean slaw and sweet potato fries.
The steak was delicious, though could have probably been rested for a little bit longer, and the fries ridiculously addictive.
We’d also ordered sides,an extra portion of Caribbean slaw and the sweet plaintain. The latter was certainly a little too sweet for me, but the slaw proved a great freshener and I loved the contrast between it and my steak.
Dessert loomed and given the heat of the day, I’d had my eye on the Spanish Town Sunday all day. Fresh mango, pineapple and slices of banana interspersed with mango sorbet, and rich coconut ice cream.
Perfect. The water melon on top was a gorgeous touch, as it’s another of my favourite fruits, I was in fruit salad heaven.
Keeley had picked the BBQ Pineapple and I could easily see why, grilled pineapple, rum caramel sauce, coconut shavings and coconut ice cream. The caramelisation on the pineapple added a deeper flavour and the sweet rum and caramel were mellowed by the coconut ice cream. I’m fast becoming a big fan of coconut ice cream.
To accompany all of this, once we’d finished those luscious Mojitos, we indulged in a cocktail each – to finish as we’d started. With rum.
Keeley’s Rum Runner was a frozen slushie fruit salad with dark rum, blackberry & banana liqueurs, lemon, grenadine and pineapple. I’d selected something much more alcoholic, purely from curiosity. The Tobago Tea combines rum, tequila, vodka, gin and triple sec with fresh lemon, mango & lemonade, mimicking the Long Island Iced Tea Caribbean style. In truth it’s much more dangerous, the alcohol isn’t very strong in flavour, the fruit masking much of it, meaning a couple of these and standing up could be a bit of a challenge!
All in all, Turtle Bay offers lots of good Caribbean food, good cocktails, great rums. Admittedly, it doesn’t offer the spice or variety that a traditional West Indian restaurant would, but then, it’s not meant to – this is bringing Caribbean style food to those who probably wouldn’t normally eat it.
And you know what? That’s not a bad thing.
This afternoon meal was supplied for free by Turtle Bay. As ever, this doesn’t guarantee a positive review (if anything, I tend to be a harsher critic). In this case, we were really impressed by some elements, a little less so by others.