2 13 11 At the Sailfest auction we won the bid on a dinner at Amulettos, which is a very upscale restaurant and boutique hotel at the very highest point above La Ropa/Las Gatas areas. Now I know this from having read the message board out of Zihuatanejo, but the senor isn’t fully aware of how up scale this place is. I tell him he needs to wear his white shorts vs denim shorts and his dress leather sandals and I plan to wear a dress as I frequently do evenings in Zihuatanejo. I borrow our neighbors phone and make reservations, which are recommended,but not mandatory. So tonight is the night, we flag a cab, and arrive on time, 7:30. Our certificate is for 1000 pesos (a little more that $100.) and the senor says for that amount we probably could have brought friends, but I know different. Of course the sun has just set and it’s just a little too late for a sunset shot which is too bad as the sky is quite pink. We are on top of the highest hill with a path to the door to the restaurant which as we approach we find the door is closed and no door knob to turn or handle to push. It is a huge door and we of course question we have been let off in the wrong place. But there is like a speaker phone with a button to push, I push and expect a voice but no all we hear is a click and after a couple of clicks we push on the huge heavy door and it opens into a pavilion where a couple is enjoying a bottle of wine and the sunset. We inquire as to the restaurant and they direct us down some stairs. Now my knee’s are holding up well , but the senor’s have gone kaput, both of them. Fortunately there is a doctor appointment waiting him upon our return, but tonight these steps are a bit of a challenge for him. As we wind our way down we enter a beautiful garden courtyard restaurant with only 4 -5 tables. The view is spectacular, Zihuananejo is lit up like a christmas tree, a few fishing boat lights can be seen as they manuever around the bay and our waiter seats us at a perfect table to take in the view.. Our menu is presented and we can choose from either a 3, 4 or 5 course selection,and all the options are listed in great detail. We choose the 3 course selection with the senor concerned that it will be too much food as we don’t normally order appetizers and deserts. We order our drinks and begin to study the menu, we can either order a hot appetizer or a cold there are 5 selections in each category, and then there are the main courses, meat, fowl or fish, with 4-5 choices in each category with all the details of sauces and method of cooking. Then the desert course lists another 4-5 deserts again with great descriptions. It takes us a good 15 minutes to read, discus and interpret all our choices while the senor says to me don’t suck up that wine too quick as we are paying for it, suave isn’t he! I choose a cold appetizer of stuffed tomato with some sort of cheese, lobster tails for the main course and a chocolate dish for desert, the senor has a cold clam appetizer, pigeon for main course and a raspberry desert. All this listing of sauces, ingredients, and method of preparation is lost on the senor, 22 years of eating in Navy galleys has not given the senor a discerning pallet, just plain food is what he really wants. And he really prefers it spelled out in plain english. His clam appetizer baffles him as he tries to figure out where the clams are buried in it, the pigeon main course he proclaims as good while wondering if any of the pigeons that roost and fly around our building are missing and how it reminds him of raising and barbaqueing pigeons when he was a kid. He soon discovered the things that the things he has beeen rolling around his plate are carmelized carrots and are really good, not prunes or dates which were the first guess. His raspberry pastry is excellent. For my appetizer I choose a tomato that was stuffed with a fluffy cheese concoction and the main course of 2 lobster tails in a great sauce which was wonderful, I did pass over both the spinach as asparagus, my desert was a warm chocolate cake with a dollop of avocado colored ice cream on it on a plate of warm orange sauce . Normally I never eat sweets, but tonight it was a must have. All in all we had a good time, we laughed about now knowing how the other have lives and frankly we could care less. The senor would be happier with a good hamburger and Zorro’s fish and chips suits me just fine. Long story short, you can take the boy out of the country and feed him on Navy chow, but you can’t convince him gourmet food is the way to go. It was a great experience, the portions were small so 3 courses was perfect and the 3 course choice was priced at 450 pesos per person, the 4 at 550 and the 5 at 650. So our certificate and another 20 bucks for drinks and a tip and we were out the door. Was it fun,yes,. Will we do it again, probably not. Signing off KO
Zihuathyme 