St. Martin: A Tropica(naca)l Island

I spent my spring break cruising around the Caribbean.  Our final destination was St. Martin/Sint Maarten, a half-French, half- Dutch island located in the northeast Caribbean.  Since it was our last stop -- we had already been to five beaches -- and we only had about five hours on the island, it was pretty easy to decide that we wanted to spend our time on the French side doing French things (like eating good food and "shopping" for $150 bathing suits).

St. Martin's commercial area isn't humongous, but there was enough to do and look at that we were preoccupied for the entire day.  Around noon, after seeing multiple kinds of miniature shoes, we got hungry for lunch and started evaluating the surrounding restaurants' menus and ambiance.  After much deliberation, we settled on Le Tropicana, a quaint eatery next to the harbor.  The maitre 'd immediately took a liking to us -- I mean, who can blame him? -- and promised the "best table in the house" (or, out of the house, as we learned when we were seated next to the water) and a fabulous lunch.

The menu was great.  There was a lot to choose from and all of the dishes had unique personalities and ingredients.  We decided to share an appetizer salad and frites, and then to each get her own entree.  We wanted a cheesy salad, since we were going to take advantage of the fresh seafood in our main dishes, and decided on a warm goat cheese salad.  The salad was scrumptious! The goat cheese was warm and it was covered in a crunchy sesame seed coating.  In addition to the goat cheese, the salad featured lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and -- SURPRISE! -- a hard-boiled egg.  I'm not usually the biggest fan of eggs in salads.  Eggs are given a bad rep, especially by children, and when they are incorporated in an unexpected dish, like a salad, the egg really needs to be earned.  If it isn't earned, the egg falls short of all expectations and sits, blandly in the salad, absorbing the color from every other vegetable and/or fruit that it touches.  In this situation, however, the the coupling of the goat cheese, egg, and veggies was perfect.  The crunch of the cucumber, the squirt of the tomato, and the softness of the cheese, were all brought together by the egg's simple texture and taste.  I would even go so far to say that had the egg not been part of the salad, I would have felt like there was something missing.

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

Next came our entrees.  I ordered the marinated fresh salmon with lime and basil.  It was a carpaccio/tartar type dish, which means that the salmon is thinly sliced and spread over the entire plate. Carpaccio dishes are usually served as appetizers, but I had been craving the lime marinade that I associate with ceviche, and I thought the carpaccio might satisfy my craving.  Boy, was I right! Not only did this dish resemble Alma de Cuba's salmon in their Rainbow Ceviche (if you don't remember what that tastes like, now would be a good time to review), but Le Tropicana's salmon was so fresh that the thinness of the fish made the dish even more delicious.  The texture also gave the dish a light and airy feeling, which left me full, but not stuffed.  In terms of the taste, it was everything that the menu description said it would be.  Prominent basil and lime flavoring tied the fish together, but the fishiness of fresh salmon was certainly the star of the show.

Salmon Carpaccio

Our side dish, the epitome of French food, added some salty goodness to our otherwise healthy meal.  It was spectacular.  In fact, I think I can sum up the frites, literally French Fries, in five words: Salty, hot, fresh, oily, heaven. Yup, that sounds about right.

French Fries

I said this before, but the thing that made this food so great was that we left feeling light.  Having been on a cruise for five days leading up to this epic meal, the airiness of the food was a nice contrast to the dense, heavy mass-produced goods available on the ship.  We knew that we couldn't order dessert at Le Tropicana because we had passed a bakery filled with macarons that we wanted to eat! But before we left Le Tropicana, our beloved maitre 'd indulged us with complimentary shots of Banana Rum, which tasted like chocolate covered bananas.

Banana Rum

Le Tropicana was without a doubt the best meal I had on the cruise.  If (and when) I return to St. Martin, I will be sure to dine there again and I hope that you do too! 

Visit Le Tropicana: 

+(590) 590-877-907