Rosemary Beach

Saturday
Arrived around 7pm local time and caught up with the beach rentals guy. Walked the four min down to La Crema at this recommendation. Bustling outside patio almost made us turn away but a table for four inside was offered and accepted.
To drink, Shaya Chardonnay. For J, a Spanish chard and then an abarino. Food: crab cakes. Meaty and tall, 2 inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches tall. Three pretty tasty soldiers, even if it was limp crab. Two shell pieces, one only found as I swallowed it. Paella with half of the smallest overcooked lobster tail ever. Mussels, small littlenecks, a gulf shrimp and a scallop. Not bad but needed salt. No crispy bottom, but I understand how hard that is. Grilled red snapper cooked beautifully, a great sign of seafood to come. Ceviche, with cooked gulf shrimp and scallops, but refreshing. Spanish strawberries. Palatable cleansing and peppery. With orange zest, molasses, and black pepper.
Next table, six loud people, but the loudest who only drinks cab, hates merlot, loves Trader Joe's former two buck chuck. Frantic waitress. Mediocre service but good enough for a first night on vacation. A short walk back to the carriage house in the cool saltwater air.

Sunday
Coffee. Toasted asiago loaf we bought from H&F @PRFM. The beach: quiet, uncrowded. I play sunburn roulette by not putting on sunscreen. Breaking in newly purchased Tommy Bahamas beach chairs and umbrella. Thank you, Costco. iPad keyboard hurts my fingertips. Back to my book and the crashing sounds of the surf.

For lunch, the Village Market in Seagrove. Gena recommended the grouper sandwich and the guy at the register recommended it fried, so that's what we got. Fresh and delicious.

We also got the fish tacos with grouper grilled. Also very fresh and clean-tasting. Josh also got some hushpuppies which he said were "okay".

On the way home, we stopped at Goatfeathers II and picked up a pound of U-16 gulf shrimp and a good-sized red snapper fillet. We also ran to the local Publix for some sundries. Before dinner, I cut up some of the red snapper and improvised ceviche, pulling together a few different recipes. I marinated it for 15 min in lime juice, then drained it and added more lime juice, cilantro, onion, salt. It turned out delicious. For dinner, I sautéed the shrimp with some s+p and olive oil. They were very tasty. For the red snapper, I adapted an Eric Ripert recipe called for the whole fish. I minced instead of grating ginger and lime and crushed the coriander with a pot instead of grinding since you have to make do with what you have. It came out beautifully and was even well cooked. The flavor tasted like coconut and lemongrass. Wonderful. Go me. We had a nice Bandol rose to go with it.

Monday
I got up early and sat on the deck checking email while Josh slept. After a quick coffee and English muffin, we headed out to the beach.

For lunch, we went to George's at Alys Beach. Gena recommended the sesame crab and avocado salad so we got that. The sesame smelled so sensuous from across the table. Thick lumps of jumbo crabmeat mixed with a generous amount of avocado. After a while, the saltiness of the soy got too be too much but it was a very good salad.

We also got the fried oyster Caesar which was pretty tasty. I would say those were the best fried oysters I've ever had with the lightest crust.

Before heading home, we hit Goatfeathers II again. I was hoping to pick up some cobia, which we saw there yesterday but they were out. So we got a fillet of scamp and a good-sized spiny lobster tail which we will cook simply with just s+p, butter, and lemon. We also got another pound of the U-16 shrimp which I sautéed up and brought down to the beach. We also hit Sweet Jeni's, which Gena said have the best cupcakes on earth. To follow her advice, we got lemon curd and strawberry cupcakes (that's two kinds) and some lemon sorbet to go.

Now for some sun and reading before dinner.

Dinner was late, no doubt due to the two rounds of margaritas and shrimp on the beach. The lobster tail, which looked pretty sizable in the shop, now looked rather small after it was cut in half. I put it into a hot sauté pan with some s+p and added some butter to the tails. Then I added a bit of water and covered it. In the end, I think they were just done, though the thickest part was a little underdone. The scamp was prepared simply also with s+p and butter/olive oil. It was delicious! I also sautéed some broccoli raab, which I've decided I don't like at all and some corn off the cob sautéed in the s+p and butter. They were good. For wine, I'm not sure what we were drinking, but I was all wined out. I didn't have much. We finished off with the lemon sorbet which was lusciously sweet and tart together.

Tuesday

Got up early again (8 cst) , caught up on emails, had a Greek yogurt for breakfast, and headed down to the beach. After a couple hours of sunbathing, we headed out to lunch at The Shrimp Shack.

We shared a dozen Appalachicola oysters, a lobster roll, and a half pound of Royal Red peel n eat shrimpies. And homemade lemonade. Then we had another two dozen oysters. Because yum.

The lobster roll... Well, they cook the lobster and stick it into the rolls dry with some lettuce. No herby butter mixture. No mayonnaisey herby goodness. I sprayed some lemon and mostly congealed melted butter on top. I am definitely more of a fan of ) Maine lobster and 2) Maine lobster rolls.

The Royal Red shrimp were awesomely delicious. I chomped on all the heads to get all the goodness out.

The oysters were delicious, although I will admit that eating mostly two dozen myself is rather a lot.

The view from the Shrimp Shack pavillion, overlooking the beach. What a great place to eat lunch.

On the way back to the car, Josh got one of the famous dark chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick. Sweet. Big.

For dinner, we went to Cafe Thirty-A. To start, I had the shrimp ceviche. Apparently, they do ceviche here by parboiling. As I ate it, I started to like it more, with its mango, honeydew, persimmon sauce, and jalapenos. Less so on the fresh coconut.

Josh got the tuna poke which I was generally jealous of since I have been mostly addicted to sesame oil recently.

For my entree, I had the wood oven roasted grouper with white beans, edamame, savoy cabbage, and a really delicious broth... Til I got to the end and it was all peppery.

Josh got the cornmeal crusted red snapper which he really enjoyed. It came on a bed of hoppin' john which was a porky mixture of black eyed peas partially mashed a la refried beans with some greens mixed in. We tried to ask our nice but socially awkward server but first she said "this are probably baby watercress" and then she said "maybe collards or spinach" when I was like, mixed in with the black eyed peas? I am sad she did not go ask in the kitchen. Apparently, I am used to another kind of service. For dessert, decaf coffee and a raisin/apple bread pudding. Pretty good, but huge and very sweet.

Well, tomorrow we had back with a stop at Sweet Grass Dairy. Can't wait!