Key West Introduction

Hello, my friends!  Welcome to another installment of The Key West Chronicles!  

Thank you to Uncle Gene and Aunt Nancy for their awesome contribution.  

I TRULY appreciate it, and them!  

I'll be posting one a day til they're done.  

Be a dear & comment, would you?  

Have you been to the Keys?  Are you planning a trip?

What's your favorite color?  No, wait, not that one!  

What's your favorite dish featured here?
What's your favorite JB quote?

There may be a contest for comments going on in one of these posts, so keep your eyes peeled and fingers ready!  : )  

And now, without further ado...

Carrie has once again asked her somewhat addled uncle to contribute some entries to her much celebrated  food blog. It is back to that 100 mile chain of islands that stretch from the tip of Florida into the gulf of Mexico.

Yes, it is back to the keys!

This time we will be eating our way around that wild and mysterious place called Key West. (The Spanish called it Cayo Hueso, translated “Isle of Bones”, because is was covered with bones of many Indian battles that took place there. Drunk Americans couldn't pronounce that, so they called it Key West … Close enough)

There are lots of cool places to eat in Key West. Hope we can pass on some useful information and get you a little hungry along the way.

The picture is Key West harbor near sunset. We did a lot of eating and enjoying this view at the same time. Food always tastes better with the ocean in the neighborhood.

Bon  Ton  Roulett   Y'All  
Gene and Nancy

 “But there's this one particular harbour
So far but yet so near.”
--- JB

Coming Soon!

Greetings to anyone who is still hanging in there & reading my Menu!  I have been a slacker lately, and for that, I extend my apologies!  


The good news is that I have a couple of posts in the works!  Hooray!  


Are you ready for even MORE good news?  My dear Aunt Nancy & Uncle Gene have agreed to be guest contributors again this year, sharing more adventures in food from Key West!  Double Hooray!!  : )  


I'm more excited about that than I am about the posts I'm working on - but don't worry, those will be good, too.  Heh!  


So, check back later this week for some interesting tales of things made to eat at home (some worked, some most certainly did NOT.  Pity!) and things tried out & about!  


Until next time - where have you been eating lately?  Has "the economy" forced you to eat more meals in?  Have you had a windfall & been eating more meals out?  Do share, if you'd like!  

Saying Goodbye / Key West 14

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE


With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

On our last sad day in Key West, we just had to lunch at Hog’s Breath Saloon. (Hog’s breath is better than no breath at all...) We probably drink brew here more than we eat. It is another fine live music bar. It is one of those half inside half outside places so common on Duval Street. (Even though it’s main entrance in on Front Street.) It is a lively joint, and it is often hard to find a place to sit.

I know I probably say this too often, but the Hog’s Breath chicken sandwich is the best in the whole world. (I must not get out much) It is always fresh and juicy on a crisp sesame seed roll. Throw in a strong dill pickle and some chips and you got the perfect bar food. I had a big cold bottle of Hog’s Breath beer with mine. We toasted goodbye to Key West and shuffled off with the rest of the gloomy and broke tourist down Duval and across the harbor walk smelling salty seawater and boiling shrimp one last time.

We will leave you with this proud rooster sitting on Hog’s Breath’s roof watching us eat our last meal. I always kid that the chicken is so good at Hog’s Breath because the birds run wild and free all over town and that all you gotta do is grab one and you got a sandwich. This rooster was either happy that he didn’t have to fight all night as his cock fighting ancestors did or sad because we were eating his favorite hen.

Thanks for tuning in for our highway one eating tour and thanks to Carrie for asking us.

Bon Ton Roulett Y’All (“Let the good times roll” as the say in New Orleans )

Gene and Nancy Morgan

(Carrie's Note: This photo was added by me, and was taken at Sancho's after their return.  I just think it's a cute picture & wanted to share!)  : ) 

Thank you both for taking the time to create these posts for me to share with the world (or the 10 ppl who read this blog...lol)!  I appreciate you and love you both! 

Turtle Kraals ... Time For Brisket / Key West 13

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE


With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

OK, Turtle Kraals is an odd name for a bar and grill. In the old days there were lots of sea turtles in the Keys. This is the dock where they used to brings loads of turtles to be butchered and cut up for turtle soup. The smell is almost gone. (I know I used that before, but I just call ’em as I see ‘em.) There aren’t many turtles left in the surrounding waters. I guess more people like turtle soup than I ever imagined. (Carrie's note: Aww, poor turtles!  Save the turtles!!*sniffle*)

Nancy does not usually like crab meat, But they had some great crab cakes in a buffet up on Duval Street. They had really fresh crab in them and were nice and sweet and she tried them. When out late one night after a sunset catamaran cruise we stopped at Turtle Kraals for little snack. I talked Nancy into trying their crab/spinach dip. Nancy’s exact words were: “Awesome, Dude!” The weird skinny crackers were decent as well. The dip was so tasty we took half of it back to our cottage with us and ate it on sandwiches the next day.

We eat seafood as much as we can when we are in the Keys, but after a few days we are actually ready for a bit of a modification to our all crustacean diet. There used to be a great restaurant uptown next to the Green Parrot Bar called The Meteor Smokehouse. They had the best Texas brisket I have ever tasted. Unfortunately they went out of business. We hunted all around the Keys for some good beef, and were surprised to find it on the Turtle Kraals’ menu.

This brisket was a fine hunk of cow that came with rice, yellow squash, and jalapeno corn bread. The bread made me sad because I love the corn, but just can’t handle those hot Mexican peppers. What a shame. But the bread was all that was left on the plates when we were done.

Shrimp...On A Stiiiick! / Key West 12

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE

With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

Within an hour from getting off our flight in the Key West airport we were eating shrimp on a stick at BO’s fish wagon.

It is not really a wagon, but a crazy building that looks like it was put together with pieces of junk found on the beach after the last hurricane. This is Key West fancy. How it looks doesn’t matter, they got shrimp on a stick for 5 bucks a hit. Believe me folks, it’s a drug.

We ate here more times than anywhere else in the Keys. Every Friday night they would have a jam session featuring the coolest band on the island, and good music always makes us hungry.

Shrimp on a stick is shrimp grilled on a stick. (skewers for you elegant folks.) Wow, who would have guessed? It can be either barbeque, teriyaki, or plain. (that is the way I like it, I want to taste my seafood!) Their french fries taste just like the one mom used to make. That and an import beer, and you got a feast made in paradise.

We ate so much shrimp on a stick that one time we came in and they told us they weren’t gonna have it on the menu anymore. They gave us some kind of rap about how they had too many kinds of grilled shrimp on their menu and the boss wanted to cut back. I think they just wanted to sell more of their more expensive dinners and grouper sandwiches. Boy did we complain. The next time we came in the shrimp was back where it belonged, on a stick. These shrimp on a stick pictures are probably the worse we took. We were new to the island and too hungry to take great photos.

We did have one of their grilled shrimp dinners one time. It was big and juicy and came with a simple lettuce salad. You notice the usual cocktail sauce, but we never dipped in it. They had their own homemade key lime mayonnaise sauce. It was tangy and sweet.

Man, writing all this really makes me hungry. Have I said that before?

Fresh Fish / Key West 11

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE

With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

There are lots of places in Key West where you can eat right next to the ocean. This picture shows you the busy harbor full of boats both private and charter types.

Way back there on the boardwalk is Schooner Wharf, a restaurant that looks a hundred years old, but is less than twenty. This town has changed much over the years and not too many years ago this was all commercial fishing docks. Schooner Wharf was built to look old, and even their bathrooms are funky and it is hard to believe they pass local health inspections. This place is almost always full. There is live music on the stage every day from noon on. But a really great time to be there is in the morning.

If you can get yourself down to the harbor early in the morning you will get a chance to eat breakfast unlike any you will get in parts of the country without an ocean. You can watch the charter boats taking out loads of happy would-be fishermen to catch those giant tarpon and grouper they have heard so much about. Gulls sail above, scanning for their own fishy breakfast in water below.

And, you can eat eggs benedict smothered with shrimp. (yes even for breakfast!) The potatoes are quite good, too. You don’t see any shrimp in the picture? Nancy messed up and ordered eggs benedict Florentine. She forgot to have them add the shrimp. I didn’t rub it in at all.  (Carrie's note: Haha, I bet he did...d'oh!)

Just to prove how fresh the seafood is I have included this picture of a man hauling some just caught grouper from his boat to a nearby restaurant. The mouths of the folks in the outdoor café were watering like Niagara Falls.

Salute / Key West 10

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE


With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

It was a rainy morning in Key West so we headed to one of our favorite spots, the White Street Pier. It is on the Atlantic side of the island next to Higgs Beach. It was too damp to swim. (how can it be too damp to swim?) This lady decided her dog wasn’t soggy enough yet, (and dog smelly) so she took him for a dip.

As we wandered along the shore we noticed a little restaurant we hadn’t been aware of before right on the beach called Salute Café. We were hungry, so we got out of the rain to check it out.

Salute is not a big place, but it has nice atmosphere and it’s outside dining area has a decent view of the beach. The chicken sandwich was pretty good, but the rice was excellent. It had a flavorful sauce that wasn’t overloaded with odd herbs and spices that so many restaurants use.

Sorry for the poor overexposed picture. It was a dreary day and my flash went off without me noticing it. No amount of photoshop magic could fix the problem.

Lobster Bisque / Key West 9

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE

With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

I don’t think tourists ever stop on Stock Island. It is the last landfall before you cross over the Cow Key Channel into Key West. Compared to the resort areas all around, it s just a down right slum. It got it’s name because it was originally where they raised cows and pigs. If you get off highway one on the south side, it’s not long before you run into areas that might be good places to set mystery stories. As a matter of a fact, Key West mystery writer Tom Corcoran used Stock Island back roads in his books as a place to find headless bodies and burning motorcycles.

Hogfish Grill is impossible to find. We go there often and still have trouble locating it. You travel a maze of crisscrossing streets along the harbor area until you just accidentally run into it.

You might have noticed, we eat shrimp a lot. Coming from the Midwest eating fresh seafood is a rare pleasure. The shrimp in our area, even the stuff from fresh fish stores, comes from Thailand and was probably frozen and hasn’t seen seawater for a month or more. Fresh is pretty much a joke around here.

Fresh is the order of the day at Hog Fish Grill. Around the corner on the dock is where the shrimp boats unload their daily catch. From the ocean through the Hog Fish kitchen right to your table is all it travels. It don’t get any fresher than that, and the difference is in the taste. It is sweet and fragrant and oh so good. As I said we ate there a whole bunch of times. Nancy loved the bacon wrapped shrimp.

We almost always eat our shrimp grilled or broiled, but sometimes a little extra flavor from another meat or sauce gives a little extra kick to the meal. I like mine stuffed with crab meat. Fresh crab is even sweeter than shrimp. It adds a lot to the flavor. Man, writing this is making me hungry.

Oh, we almost forgot the lobster bisque is heavenly.

We had the bowl half gone before we remembered to take a picture. You just don’t think too good with a bowl of hot lobster bisque in front of you. Hey, Next stop, Key West.

Shrimp Wrap / Key West 8

EATING DOWN HIGHWAY ONE

With Gene Morgan and his favorite traveling companion Nancy

They say when Jimmie Buffet hit’s the Keys he likes to eat at Bobalo’s. It is a little family style café on Big Coppitt Key. The food leans a little to much on the Cuban spice side for my taste.

The roast beef wrap I had was pretty strong for my liking. Nancy’s wrap was shrimp, (I can’t believe I passed that up) which didn’t have enough shrimp on it and the Caesar dressing was way too strong. It kinda attacked the old taste buds. I don’t like to give bad reviews, but I’m gonna have to have to have a little talk with the old Son Of A Son Of A Sailor. (That’s a Jimmie Buffet reference Y’All)