Rum Festival 2017 – Nassau, The Bahamas

goat-girlpirateIt’s the third annual rum festival in Nassau, The Bahamas. Going on right now in the Fort Charlotte. Tickets cost $25 per day, or $60 for Friday-Sunday (pre-purchase online, I think). Tickets can be bought at the entrance to the festival. Fort Charlotte is about a mile from the cruise ship harbor. rumThe stalls are all around the bailey of the fort making a natural path past the stalls. There are stalls selling rum, cocktails, rum cake, desserts, food, jewelry, plants (lettuce plant is not what I’d normally buy at a rum festival, but why not?), soap, tea, candy, t-shirts, and art. You can get samples, but mostly, it’s about shopping. There is music throbbing off the walls and pirates waiting to take a photo with you.  There is even a Johnny Depp-look who is very willing to stare glaze-eyed into your selfie. rum-fest-golf-cartsHappening now, February 24-26. I’d recommend it if you like festivals, rum, and a street party… I bought jerk chicken and rum cake.viidThere are also some voodoo elements… and cigars. Overall, not a great way to see Fort Charlotte because the dungeons and other parts of the fort are closed for the festival. But it’s a good use of the fort.

I’ll write more about the foods I tried in a later post. It was spicy!

 

Dim Sum in Caracas

14642356_10154595409009618_7761823639592039314_nYup, that’s a thing here. The dim sum places serve “brunch” and it’s best to go fairly early in the morning — like at 7 a.m. or no later than 9.

14670721_10154595407759618_8734189639895963433_nThe dim sum restaurants in Caracas have their own ordering system. There are no carts pushed by waiters here. Here you have to go up to a buffet and pick your items. The waiter will still notate it on a chit which you take to the cashier to pay. In addition to the usual items in a dim sum selection, they have a few local varieties of food. The pork is crispy and less red than in other places.

14670790_10154595406654618_7352959441999699665_nNext to the dim sum restaurants (I think there are two or three main ones), there is a Chinese market which only happens on Sundays. This is another reason to go eat dim sum on Sunday morning. The market has everything you could need to make Chinese food, from seafood, bean sprouts, instant noodles, to fresh tofu. The dim sum restaurants are in an area called “country club” near the river.

14642271_10154595327849618_5591894706066765038_nOh, and another thing, there were a lot of chicken feet.

West Market Food Hall in Copenhagen

There is a new indoor-outdoor market in Copenhagen. It just opened a week ago but looks set to be a popular food hall, just like Papirøen and Torvehallen, on Amager to the south and Nørreport to the north. Located at Vesterbrogade 97, it has a Netto in the Istedgade side and a gray facade on the Vesterbrogade side. 

The stalls inside are a mixture of artisanal coffee, fine gin, middle eastern vegetarian, French cheeses, ramen, fish and chips, Danish health foods,  vegetable market, beer on tap, tapas bars, and so on. The only thing blatantly missing was a Danish cheese stall. 

No free WIFI yet. Delicious!