Friday morning, I had a ham and cheese omelet for breakfast. Iapos;m not sure what Chris had. It might have also been some manner of omelet. They were yummy.
After breakfast, we headed back down towards Key West for another day. We made another stop on Big Pine Key / No Name Key to try to spot some deer with the working camera (it had punked out last time). Chris got a couple of shots of a boy and girl deer together, but I didnapos;t see any more this time. We also visited the gator and iguanas again at the Blue Hole.
Once in Key West, we pretty much wandered around. We went to the southernmost point monument and took obligatory cheesy pictures, and we wore ourselves out walking all over the island. For lunch, we followed one of Carolyn (from the Island of Delights dinner)apos;s suggestions and went to a sushi place called Ambrosia. Chris had the best miso soup Iapos;ve ever tasted. I had a delicious kelp salad. It was great, but I always love them, so I canapos;t say it was any more delicious than usual. We shared 4 rolls -- the spicy tuna, the Manhattan (I assume this was the one with smoked salmon and cream cheese), the "Crazy" roll, and the "Ambrosia." I donapos;t know which was which, but they both involved asparagus, avocado, fish skin, and salmon roe. One of them had pork, I think. Weird.
After lunch, we went to Ripleyapos;s Believe it or not. It was typical Ripleyapos;s, so fun but predictable. There was a two-way mirror with signs instructing you to make stupid faces. I made them. Chris did not. When we got to the end of the tour, where the see-through side of the mirror was, we watched a trio of tourists making silly faces. That was a lot of fun... But what made it worth the admission price was that later in the day, we ran into the same 3 people at the Hogapos;s Breath Saloon (where I enjoyed a VERY tequila-laden margarita and Chris had a beer). Chris could not resist calling them out on their face-making, and we all had a nice laugh about it.
We decided to visit the new Sloppy Joeapos;s bar, since weapos;d been to the new one on Tuesday. So we went there and had a couple of lazily-consumed frozen drinks. Then we wandered around and shopped and whatnot. We sat around in Mallory Square for a while, watching pigeons and contemplating their social worlds.
For dinner, we had another Carolyn suggestion, so we visited Santiagoapos;s Bodega, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the middle of nowhere Key West, which we would never have found on our own. It is a delicious, delightful tapas place. We had a great server named Alan, who told us he was going to Atlanta that weekend to see "Wicked" with his son, so I already loved him.
Chris and I split a pitcher of their red sangria. I actually didnapos;t much care for it. It was a little watery, but it was refreshing after the long walk to get there. We had a Greek salad to start off. It was really, really tasty (although I foisted all my capers off on Chris. I freakinapos; hate capers). The five little dishes we ordered came out in random order, so I am going to list them in order of my preference, from least to most favorite:
1. Yellowtail Ceviche, with avocado, tomatoes, mango, and onions. This was only my second encounter with a ceviche-like dish, and I really thought it was way too limey. Or just way too acidic, especially with the tomatoes and mangoes and onions in there. I tried to like it, but I didnapos;t much. I ate a lot of it... Because I was hungry. Fortunately, itapos;s the only one I actually didnapos;t like. The other 4 are just placed in order of how much I liked / loved them.
2. Croquettas -- potato cakey things with bacon, cheese, and an herby sour cream. They were really, really delicious, and the only reason theyapos;re only #2 is that they arenapos;t terribly inventive. It was a pleasant take on the loaded baked potato.
3. Saganaki -- Flaming cheese The flaming cheese was similar to the one formerly at Stax Omega, only much tastier. They used brandy to make it catch on fire, so it had a nice, rich, sweet flavor. My mouth was very happy.
4. Dates, stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto. They tasted exactly like they sound. It was heaven in my mouth.
5. Pepper-crusted beef tenderloin with bleu cheese butter. This was very decadent, delicious beef, cooked to a perfect mid-rare. The bleu cheese butter was prepared in such a way that it eliminated everything I have ever disliked about the cheese itself. It didnapos;t taste bitter or sour or at all sweat-sock-like. It was just smooth and perfect.
We were pretty full, but everyone else in the place, and our server, were raving about the bread pudding. So we got some.
If I were the type to use the phrase "OMG," this would be the appropriate place to use it. They made the pudding out of croissants, so it was light and flaky on the edges, and dense and sweet and wonderfully bourbon-laden on the inside. I cannot say enough good about this bread pudding. I would, if I had the money, fly down to Key West just to eat it again. It was served with warm, syrupy berries and a vanilla custard ice cream. Chris hates bread pudding, and he ate as much as his belly would hold. I kinda like bread pudding, and I ate beyond what was wise for my belly to hold. It was great.
We were going to go to another drag show, but we decided that we should just let the great show on Tuesday be our drag memory, since the other show we were considering would almost certainly not be as much fun. So we went home and went to sleep.
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