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Bon Bini Aruba!

 

For those of you who aren’t up on all things Aruban, that means “Welcome to Aruba!” in the local creole language  known as Papiamento. The historical origins of Papiamento are still not 100% known, but their roots have been traced back to Portuguese, Spanish, and various African languages. All I know is, I can say “Mi por a hanja un glas di biña?” (can I have a glass of wine?) and that’s all that matters…right??

 

Right

 

Have you ever been to Aruba? Well, if you haven’t been to this happy little island yet…GO RIGHT NOW.  Seriously. Get on a plane and fly away. Just beware…you will never, EVER, want to come back.

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I mean, COME ON….really?  This is real life. And some people actually get to live here. I know. It’s crazy.

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Crazy lucky.

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See, I’ve never been on an island or vacationed anywhere remotely tropical (aside from Florida back in the day) so there’s a chance I mayyy be overreacting a bit– but I’m pretty sure that if there are places BETTER than Aruba, I’m sending in my application to be a tiki bar girl NOW and I’m never coming back.

 

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Just 17 miles off the Venezuelan coast, Aruba is one of four constituent countries that form the kingdom of the Netherlands– meaning Aruba’s primary nationality is actually Dutch (Dutch is widely spoken on the island due to this tie). So aside from the sun, sand, and serene beaches, Aruba is also known for having some pretty diverse food.  Since the climate and land in Aruba are both pretty dry, the island isn’t able to support much farm land–therefore, most goods (including food) are imported. Aruba does have a booming fish industry however (shocker, I know being an island and all), and they’re able to raise livestock for export and for food.

 

Sooo… what did that mean for little old vegan me?

 

Well, I didn’t know much about Venezuelan, Dutch, or island food, but something told me that the combination of the three wasn’t exactly screaming “vegan-friendly!” Just check out these examples of traditional Aruban dishes below:

 

Appetizers include “sanger yena” (“Aruban sausage”) and “scabechi” (“marinated fish”).

Soups include “giambo” (“Aruban style okra bouillabaisse”–fish-based) and “sopi mondongo” (“tripe soup”).

Main courses include “keri keri” (“grated stewed fish”) and “keshi yena” (“filled cheese shell”).

Side dishes include “pan bati” (“Aruban pancake”) and “funchi” (“Aruban polenta” or “cornmeal mush” often made with chicken stock).

Snacks include “bolita di keshi” (“cheese balls”).

 

Oy. Not exactly my cup of tea. But I wasn’t about to let a little thing like food get in the way of an amazing vacation or fun, fancy dinners! Plus, I always find a way to figure it out  no matter where I go. (It’s pretty much like a vegan superpower ). This time would be no different. And who knows! Maybe I’d be pleasantly surprised– I mean, look at how great Italy turned out.

 

Of course, in the end, everything did work out quite perfectly (as predicted).  My boyfriend and I stayed at the Marriott Surf Club timeshare, which meant our room amenities conveniently included a small kitchen. So as soon as we were all settled into our temporary home, we went straight to the grocery store down the road and loaded up on fruits, veggies, hummus, edamame, rice cakes/crackers, peanut butter, jelly, pita bread and healthy snacks. We made breakfast and lunch at the resort everyday and then in the evening we would head out to explore the island and find a tasty restaurant for dinner. There was free wi-fi in the hotel lobby so occasionally we’d try to search for popular restaurants online before venturing out for the night, but most of the time we just ended up winging it and stumbled upon bars and restaurants as we walked by the high-rise hotels or explored the bustling Aruba strip.

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On our very first night, we were still feeling a bit tired after the flight, so we decided to stay close to the resort for dinner. As we walked towards the water hoping to find something in a neighboring hotel, we happened upon a beautiful restaurant (Hadicurari Restaurant) with tables right in the sand on the beach just steps away from the ocean.

 

Perfect.

 

The hostess gave us the best seat in the house– a cozy, romantic table much further from the other customers and the bustling (but super fun!) Moomba bar. I ordered a nice cold glass of chardonnay and salad with a side of guacamole and yellow rice to put on top of my salad. The boyfriend got a tall glass of beer with ribs and fries (opposites attract after all :)).

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Here’s a not-so-great picture of Moomba Bar –located right next door to the restaurant. We spent a lot of time here throughout the week . I wanted to show you the cool setup anyway. My apologies for the yucky quality…

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On our second night we decided to do something a little more fun and exciting, so we headed to the Westin Resort (located about a mile down the beach from our hotel) and went to a hibachi restaurant called Blossoms. My boyfriend and I absolutely love, love, LOVE hibachi, so I was excited to try it out and get a good hearty meal in me. The staff at the restaurant were fantastic and extremely accommodating when I told them that I was vegan. The chef made sure to prepare my meal first, and he cooked up my veggies and rice separate from everyone else’s. He also used a little bit of oil to cook my dish instead of oil and butter. The chef was very friendly and outgoing and had all sorts of typical hibachi tricks up his sleeve, but he had to tone it down a bit when the little girl across from us got scared of his onion volcano and cried through the rest of dinner– poor thing!

 

(Side note: Not sure if this is typical of most hibachi restaurants–none that I’ve been to at least– but LOTS of butter went into the regular fried rice at this place…so much in fact that one of the male diners at our grill told our chef “Please, No more butter!”).

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Please forgive me for not taking a photo of my food, but you see…my meal was so delicious that the moment the plate was put o the table in front of me… I couldn’t wait another second before scarfing it down. I did, however, manage to take a photo of our chef in action and another of our tasty mai tais before we tossed those babies back as well .

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On our third night (per my boyfriend’s request) we went to–are you ready for it?–a Brazilian steakhouse called Texas de Brazil. Now, I had no idea what a Brazilian steakhouse was before experiencing it myself, so for those of you who also aren’t familiar with this style of an establishment… let me clue you in. These types of steakhouses are called “churrascarias” and the meat is cooked “churrasco style” –which roughly translates to “barbecue” in Portuguese. Passadores, or waiters who serve the meat, come to your table with knives and large speared skewers displaying various kinds of meat such as beef, pork, filet mignon, lamb, chicken, duck, ham, sausage, fish, or any other sort of local cut of meat (the boyfriend might as well have died and gone straight to heaven. You should have seen his face).

 

Thankfully, my thoughtful, meat-eating guy knew not to bring me near such a place without checking to see if they served any vegan-friendly options first. He assured me that they had an amazing salad bar and low and behold…there was! Now, when I tell you this was quite possibly one of the BEST salad bars I’ve ever seen, I mean it– I couldn’t put enough food on my plate! I wanted to taste a little bit of everything, so I settled on a sample of marinated veggies, meaty mushrooms, tabouli, olives, rice, beets and pasta salad over a bed of arugula with some homemade dressings on the side.

 

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Now, if you’ve been following my blog for a while, most of you know I love a nice bottle of wine or a fancy cocktail when the occasion is right, but I do try to limit my drinking for overall health and wellness reasons (after all, I got plenty of that out of my system while in college ). Sure we casually sipped drinks on the beach during out first couple of days on the island, however, I was ready to let loose a little bit. It was vacation after all! And I think that qualifies as a special occasion, don’t you?

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Let’s just say I quickly realized that I am SO not in college anymore . I’m actually slightly embarrassed to admit, that our fourth night was a bit of a blur– and it all started right here at a pier bar with a little sign that read “Happy Hour from 4:00-6:00!” …

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You see, beach bars are tricky little things. Every hour is essentially happy hour, because every bar runs a different drink special at a different time! You could go from bar to bar starting at 10:00 AM and you’d easily find a different happy hour special at a different bar straight through to midnight (not that I suggest anyone try this). And with a view like THAT why would you ever want to leave? As you can imagine, after not having a single adult beverage for close to three whole months happy hour qualified as a little bit of a dangerous activity for me– especially when the drinks are two for $8.00…(oops!)

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After a few (too many) delicious drinks, we headed over to an incredible restaurant called  Amuse Bistro which was located right along the main boulevard in Aruba by all the shops, vendors, and other restaurants. I had the bright terrible idea to order a bottle of wine (really Ashley?) and for my main course I ordered the “Chilled Smoked Vegetable Salad”– a variety of smoked veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onions) tossed with lettuce and herbed vinaigrette. The salad was amazing (or so I was told) and the presentation was lovely. My boyfriend ordered a “fish of the day” special that he quickly proclaimed was “the best meal of the entire vacation.” I think we have to go back to Aruba just so we can relive this night again…(sans the happy hour this time ).

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On our fifth day, we ventured into town to do some shopping after hitting the beach and found an adorable gelato shop. Nostalgic from Italy, I took a peek inside on the off chance that there’d be soy gelato like the kind I found in Rome. And wouldn’t you know…there was! I chose the hazelnut flavor (keeping with my Italian tradition) and my boyfriend settled on a Nutella flavor.

We took our gelato down to the beach just as the sun was setting…

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Watching the sunset in Aruba is like watching a movie– it’s the evening’s feature presentation. Everyone stops what they’re doing, congregates to the beach, sits down in the sand, and turns their eyes to the sky for 20 beautiful, peaceful minutes. I think this is what I miss most about the island–it reminds me how truly amazing Mother Nature is. Who needs all that technology and TV that clutters our lives when real beauty like this exists in the world?

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After watching the gorgeous sunset, we walked back over to the main strip in time for our reservation at an Italian restaurant called Gianni’s . We had heard nothing but wonderful things about the restaurant from other vacationers, but we must have caught it on a bad night because neither of us were impressed with our meals and the service was pretty terrible. I didn’t even take a picture of my dinner that night–and honestly, now I can’t even remember what I got. We did enjoy the steamed artichoke I ordered as an appetizer however (Nooo wine/drinks with this meal…after the happy hour festivities the evening before, we needed a break ;)).

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The next day, we vowed to pick a better place for dinner, so after our daily routine of tanning on the beach, lounging in the hotel’s serenity pool, and relaxing in the lazy river (please, don’t hate me!), we headed out to watch the sunset and find a prime dinner location.

I had a hankering for sangria and I really wanted to eat at a restaurant on the beach so we were on a mission to find a place that fulfilled both requirements. That’s when we walked by the Hyatt and spotted this beach-view restaurant (The Palms) surrounded by tiki torches, palm trees, and a stylish-looking bar crowd. As we lingered outside and checked out the menu two couples leaving the restaurant came up to us and raved about how absolutely fantastic the restaurant was.

 

Sangria was also on special for happy hour….

BINGO.

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I swear to you, this was the BEST SANGRIA OF MY LIFE. Life changing. Seriously. It puts all other sangria to shame. Oh, and it turns out the food was pretty incredible too .

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I ordered a yummy tomato-basil wrap spread with an herbed hummus and filled with roasted peppers, asparagus, onions, tomatoes, and radiccio. My boyfriend ordered a small plate of nachos for an appetizer and fish tacos for his main course– both of which he said tasted fantastic. I ordered a couple glasses of sangria (obviously ) and the boyfriend ordered Amstel Bright– his favorite beer of the trip.

 

After dinner, we walked the beach and happened to pass a couple of beach weddings that evening. We were even lucky enough to catch an impromptu performance by a group of local dancers at one of the ceremonies!

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On our very last day of vacation on the island, we decided to give a different Italian restaurant a try since the last one we went to wasn’t so great. We saw a promising place called Azzurro overlooking the beach at the Playa Linda Hotel just few days before so we decided to give it a shot. I really wanted to have dinner somewhere that had a nice view of the sunset, but without reservations I wasn’t sure if we’d get in. Luckily a table for two opened up just as the sun was going down…

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Aside from the gorgeous sunset and the delicious food, the best part of the night was listening to the amazing violinist who played throughout dinner. It was a perfect way to end our trip! I kept my meal pretty simple — I ordered a plate of grilled veggies and a filling bowl pasta fagioli (not pictured because I couldn’t get a decent photo and didn’t want to annoy my fellow diners with 1,000 flashes from my camera). My boyfriend ordered chicken parmesan and pasta.

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This trip was everything I could have asked for and more–And it was even better because I could easily adhere to my vegan diet along the way. I’m thinking I should make this a thing…the whole traveling around the world and documenting my vegan eats along the way. Seems like a pretty great gig to me!

 

Thoughts?

 

Anyways, for the time being I think I’ll go plan my next dream vacation thank you very much. But for now, I’ll leave you with a few more of my favorite photos…

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Mi Stima Aruba! (I love Aruba )

 

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Fabulously Yours,

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Ashley Michelle

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Sources:

Brazilian Steakhouse

Food In Aruba

Cuisine in Aruba

About Aruba