Tequila, Choolate and Chicken

Today is Cozumel. If anyone doesn't know, it's an island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, just south of Cancun. If you do know, it's still the same.

For Cozumel, we'd booked a cooking class on the beach, with both a tequila tasting and a chocolate demo. The ship was supposed to arrive at 10, with a meeting time at 10:30. The location would depend on which dock we were at. The ship actually arrived at 9:30, so we were golden.

We went down to breakfast, and enjoyed it.

After breakfast, we went upstairs gathered our backpacks, tickets, water, etc. Upon exiting the ship with no waiting, we walked out of the pier area. We then took out the map to the meeting spot. First question - which pier were we at? Apparently, they use 3. We asked a couple of the vendors, and found we were at the international pier. The meeting point there was at the Playa Mia office on one side of the Hard Rock Cafe, or just in front of the cafe.

In front of the restaurant, we found a representative from Playa Mia, the waterpark hosting the tour. He told us to go around the back to the their office. It took a few minutes, but we did find it. They were expecting us and we registered by signing waivers. It was about 10:20. They did say that 10:30 was the check in time, and we'd be leaving at 11. She also told us how to get to the restrooms before we left. A few minutes later, a couple came in - they were joining us on our tour. They gave us wristbands for the water park (apparently we were welcome to stay, but we'd have to find a taxi back), and a sticker to indicate who's group we were with. Our guide was named Reyes, and he was there with, so at 10:40 he called the transportation, and about 5 minutes later, we headed to the taxi area, and boarded a mini bus.

Our first stop was a small village, where we'd have a few minutes to take pictures of the local church, as well as the remains of a Mayan pyramid. He did tell us we wouldn't have time to shop. That suited all four of us just fine.

After viewing the church, we headed into what appeared to be a bar, but was actually a tequila company. They had, similar to a winery, a tasting room. First, we learned that tequila, like other liquors can be barrel aged, and the longer it goes, the smoother it is. We then tasted some 6 and 12 year aged, as well as some flavored tequilas. I particularly liked the amaretto flavored one.

After we finished tasting, and our fellow tour members bought a couple of bottles, we piled back into the van and headed to the Playa Mia water park. First stop was the chocolate shop and, for lack of a better term, museum. We started with a greeting from a mayan priest (or worker dressed as one) and then wandered through the displays about chocolate. One fun moment was the display about coco beans as currency. You could buy a turkey for 300, an avocado for 3, or a public women for 30-50. We thought that was rather funny, but it turned out that public woman was a nanny or maid. Also along the tour we were treated to a tortilla stuffed with a pumpkin mixture that reminded us of refried beans.

We were then treated to a demonstration of chocolate making, including a taste of pure coco, which was pretty bitter. There was then a demonstration of how to make it into edible chocolate. They followed that with a local coco drink (in a ceramic tasting mug so ecologically friendly). It also was pretty bitter, but there was sugar, honey, cinnamon, etc you could add to it. Since I don't like chocolate anyway, I took one sip and gave up.

In the store, I found they had a nice white chocolate bar with puffed rice. The sample was good, so I thought I'd buy a few bars. Turns out they were 8.00 US. That's a lot for a chocolate bar, so I just got two.

After that, our guide lead us through the shops at the water park and over to the buffet. He told us to wait there. All of us had the thought that we signed up for a cooking class, not for =a lunch buffet. Reyes soon came back and said that our class would start at 1:30 in the building next door. In the meantime (it was about 1pm) we could shop, or have any drinks at the included bar.

After grabbing a drink and wandering a bit, we met at the entrance to the building. Reyes arrived and told us the chef would be there in 2 minutes, but that would be Mexican minutes, so who knows?

It was really close to two minutes. Chef Moses came and introduced himself and we headed up a few steps into the class kitchen. We donned chef hats and aprons and headed to the cooking stations. There were several cooking stations, similar to what you see on Master Chef. He put us all around the same station, facing the person you wanted to cook with (it was the Clare and John, the couple and me and Beth, the sisters).

We started with dessert. We had two cut plantains, some sugar and some cinnamon in front of us. We put the sugar and cinnamon on the plantains and then cooked them on the gas stoves in front of us, and we grilled the plantains until they were caramelized. We then peeled them them, got a demo of decorating the plate (note that mine looks nothing like that) and plated them. They went into the refrigerator when done.

Next up, was the entree. Normally, it's fish, but Beth and I requested something else and we got chicken. They also put out some chopped vegetables, and a couple of sauces. First up we grilled the chicken until the outside was was done. We put it aside, and then grilled the vegetables. When they were partially cooked we added the sauce, which was basically tamarind sauce and very sweet. We then took the other sauce, which was a chile sauce and added enough to cut the sweetness and add heat to our taste.

Once that was done, we put the chicken in foil, topped it with the sauce and vegetables (plus a couple of tomatoes) wrapped it, and put it on a plate, which we wrote our name on (in heavy cream). It was then going into the oven to finish cooking.

Our last course was our first course. We started with a ball of tortilla dough and a tortilla press. Our goal - make sopes. Those are a small bowl made from tortilla dough that's filled with something. The class called for shrimp, but we had chicken. First step was to grill the tortilla. At this point chef Luis took over for chef Moses. We put the dough balls in the tortilla press, and pushed down until they were roughly the thickness of a sugar cookie. We then put them on the grill and grilled until cooked through. Then we pinched the sides up to make a little bowl, and put them on a plate. We then cooked the chicken or shrimp, added tomato sauce and chile sauce to taste. We split that between the tortillas, and topped it with lettuce and crema.

We then removed the hats and aprons, and took the sopes to a room with a set table upstairs. Bottles of water were provided there as well. Chef Luis sat and chatted with us as we enjoyed the appetizers. Following that, the chicken was brought up, supplemented with rice and cabbage. Finally, they brought our dessert plates.

After enjoying our meal, our guide Reyes came back and took us back to the port. There was a lot of traffic on the road, but it was only about a 15 minute drive without traffic and the ship wasn't leaving for about 4 hours, so all good. Reyes dropped us off at the port around 4:15 and we headed back to the ship.

Since we hadn't yet visited the martini bar, we stopped in for a martini. I had the Candied Apple martini and Beth had a Cosmo. After enjoying those, we headed to the room. For tonights snack, Jo had left a cheese and meat plate, a plate of shrimp, plus two glasses of wine. (When we ran into him later, we said to just bring the normal plate, but no fish or sea food).

Beth decided to go for a swim, while I hung out in the room. Earlier in the day, we'd talked about maybe having dinner with our friends Dana & Bruce. They agreed we'd call at 6:30 to see when they wanted to go. I called while Beth was still at the pool and left voicemail. Beth returned soon after. Dana called, and apparently they'd had a rough day snorkling, so were going to skip dinner. We then called our usual 8pm friends, but they'd had a very late lunch, so were going to just have their small appetizer plate, and some left over birthday cake. I offered them my shrimp platter, and took it over. I chatted with them for a while, and we agreed for dinner at 8 the next day.

Back to the room, dressed for dinner and headed down. We were seated along the wall, and Serkin took our order. A few minutes after that, Dana and Bruce came down - they'd decided to do dinner after all. We moved our tables together. Interesting since we had a different waiter. Our service was slightly offset, but it was fine and we had good conversation.

This is the day that I love the appetizers in the main dining room, so I ordered 4 for dinner. From Luminae I had the Mushroom Terrine, which was only OK. From the main dining I had beef Carpaccio, a gorgonzola salad and crab cakes. My waiter thought it was a bit odd, but made it work. (Next time, I'll just get the beef tartare, salad and an entree, as the crabcakes weren't great either). For dessert I had the Hibiscus parfait.

We had an early start the next day so it was a quick after dinner walk and then off to bed.