Monty & Melo's "5 Months Mon Goat Can Eat" Trip Report - Oct 2012

[Monty&Melo]

Head out of Canoe and up the road to Bentley’s, remember that I visited Bentley earlier in the day to discuss our meal and leave my downpayment, none of the others had ever been to Bentley’s before and upon turning left and driving up Pee Wee Lane, I started getting questions about whether we were headed to the right place, etc. Chill people, it’s Negril, things are not usually what they seem. Soon enough we were there, we all piled out of the car and up the 13 steps to the deck.

There was another large group there, turned out to be Booger, Sandie along with Sweetness and a few others….

Bentley was busy in the kitchen preparing our meals



Applying the Magic sauce



Pretty soon the meals were placed in front of us. Each of us had one crabcake, some brown stew chicken and then Bentley brought a plate of fish for us. We wanted to try a little bit of everything and I thought this would be the best way to do it. A food pic:

Five tings on the plate mon….



Maybe the coolest ashtray ever….



Good lookin dudes here!!!



I don’t know how many of you have or have not been to Bentley’s but it is well worth the trip…..Bentley is an infectious character that just makes you damn glad you met him and spent a few hours of your life with him. His laugh is incredible and he seems to be one of those people that enjoys what he does, how he does it and really enjoys all of the people that he gets to meet. It may be a big act in the name of building his business, but I didn’t think so, he seems like the genuine article to me. We will definitely see him on our February trip.

The funny thing at dinner, besides having great food, we also managed to drink the half gallon of juice that Bentley supplied but at the end of the night there was less than an inch of rum left in the bottle of Appletons….Damn, where did all that rum go??

As we were sitting around talking after dinner, Bentley’s phone rang and it was none other than GerryG123 checking in on things, he talked with Bentley and Booger.

Pretty soon it was time to go, go down the 13 steps…..



Our driver had arrived and it was time to go back to Rondel for the evening, we had a big day tomorrow, it was finally goat day and that promised to be a big adventure…..

[Monty&Melo]

So this is the view into the back of the car when our driver arrived to pick us up for the BBQ. (I am now using this pic as my wallpaper for my work computer, talk about some strange reactions from my co-workers!!!)



Remember he said that the goat would be in a box, well, he is officially in a box, but we pictured the box being a big box with holes in so the goat could breathe….this was more like he was riding with us and he was our pet. I knew immediately that this goat would not be meeting his ultimate demise at my hands, someone else would have to do the dirty work if we were indeed going to be eating goat that day…

The cookout was actually in Lucea so we had about a half-hour drive ahead of us. Not much was said on the way there, the idea that dinner was sitting in the car with us and that he was so cute made us all a little shy with our words on the way.

Upon arriving we started unloading things and icing down the beers, the rum started flowing and the party was well underway.



It was time….The goat was dispatched and it was all over pretty quickly…as you can see, Melo was not the least bit interested in this portion of the party as she sits in her chair with her back to the festivities nose buried in her book, I can’t really say that I blame her….



That work done, things started to pick up considerably, I guess the thought of the goat’s fate was all weighing on us pretty heavy, but once it was done, it was done. Now on to preparing the meal…..

All the major butchering is done…..



Spices and herbs applied



Fire readied



Curry Goat on the fire!!!



With the curry going on the fire pretty well, it was time to prepare the Mannish Water….This I was very interested in, because I have cooked curry goat at home (not from a goat that was alive a few minutes ago, I have to buy frozen goat here in the Midwest and usually it is from Australia, but you gotta work with what you can get your hands on!!) but obviously Mannish Water was new to me.

Vegetables for the soup…I think there is carrot, yam, irish and green banana in this pot



Lots of spices….



Mannish Water now on the fire

[Monty&Melo]

The whole meal cooked pretty quickly, the reason such a young goat is used is that the meat is very tender to begin with so it cooks quickly and doesn’t have as much “barnyard” flavor as they say. We even had some time to fry some chicken for the girls on the coolest grill I have ever seen:

The chicken well spiced and ready




Chicken frying….



That is just a wheel with hot coals in it and a trivet on top. The pan sets atop the trivet and gets very hot. I am making myself one of these next weekend, along with a jerk chicken barrel, I will post pics when I am done….

Finally it was time to eat….the party was held around a great little outdoor kitchen, complete with seats, a sink, many grills and nice tile work….



Everything was delicious…..even the Mannish Water!!!



Doesn’t it look like I am enjoying it!!!



I will be the first to admit that the Mannish Water was interesting....the broth was great and the veges in the soup were very good too. The goat parts however....let's just say it is an acquired taste. I could see me eating it again, but I don't think I am going to order it for dinner every night of my next trip. I'm glad I tried it though, check another thing off the list as they say....

Now the party is in full force……



Time for the Noni Juice…..I hear its good for the Bamboo!!! Melo looks less than impressed



We had a great time at the BBQ, it was truly a real Jamaican experience and we were welcomed by our hosts. During our conversations, we discussed tourism, Americans that travel to Jamaica and how most of them never see the real Jamaica, interact with real Jamaicans or even get out of the compound enough to give Jamaica a chance. It was fun getting Jamaican perspectives on things like that, it lets you know that a lot of Jamaicans are interested in what goes on, not only because tourism is good for their pocketbook (I think everyone at the party was employed in the tourism industry in one way or the other from hotel employees to taxi and bus drivers), but because they want people to come to their country and leave impressed with what they see. You can be impressed by the beauty of a big all-inclusive hotel but in order to be truly impressed, you need to peel away a few layers, get to know some people and see how they live and how the country is really put together. Sure there are some rough edges, but hanging out in the yard that day really reinforced with me the true beauty of Jamaica and its people and culture. OK…enough philosophy….I am not that good at this stuff anyway.

He headed back to the beach as it was nearing Sunset and we had taken up enough of these folks’ time. We were able to snap a couple of sunset pics to cap another great day in Jamaica





Tomorrow is our last full day in Jamaica before heading home

[billndonna]

Excellent report Monty,please keep it coming!!!

[Monty&Melo]

I'm taking the night off to watch the election results....more trip report tomorrow.....soon come!!!

[bjritz]

My favorite beer of the whole trip is that first one at the Groovy Grouper while we are telling countless taxi drivers that we don’t need a ride and that we have one prearranged. Something about that first splash of beer on the back of your throat makes you realize you are in Jamaica!! And Oh what a feeling that is.

You put me right in the Grouper with that, and I agree it was one fine Red Stripe that first one!
Great report, nice to hear about Mirage - walked by but didn't go in there.

[Smokin Kevan]

Your report rocks! Keep up the good work..We've often thought of spending some time in the Cliffs and stopping by 3 Dives..

I'd never heard the electricity thing in The Cliffs and appreciate this insite!

Look forward to more "Cliffside" adventures!


Happy Travels

SKB!

[Guirigay]

Chicken Lavish, Canoe, Red Dragon, Juicy Patties, 3 dives. One day. Wow... You need to walk 6 miles a day

[T&A]

Love it! The picture of the rainbow was really nice.

[Monty&Melo]

So it’s Sunday morning now, day 3 of our 9 day trip. I’m wide awake early after another wonderful night’s sleep at Le Mirage. The good news is that the current stayed on all night and therefore the AC was nice and cold. This is the day we were moving to the beach, back to our home at Rondel. I decided to give the West End walk one more try and my brother decided to join me this time. We took the same path I had taken the day before, all the way out to the turn where you head to Westender, away from the cliffs. Once we walked past Hylton Avenue, my brother kept asking me “so when are we turning back?” I assumed he thought we had walked far enough and of course every step we took away from Le Mirage meant another step we were going to have to take to get back. Every few minutes, he kept asking me…..I was sort of thinking to myself, “what a wimp, he can’t handle a long, brisk walk in the morning!!”

As we were almost back to Le Mirage, we were walking past Wise Choice when a voice called out to us, this voice belonged to a Jamaican dressed in chef’s pants and a chef’s coat. It was none other than BENTLEY, the man, the myth, the legend. He walks up toward the road and greets us, “Ya Mon, I’m the chef, I’m Bentley.” “I know who you are, you are the Man!!!” I barked back at him. “How do you know me mon?” he asked, and I replied “You are world famous mon, you are all over the internet.” You all know what came next, the famous Bentley laugh!!! We talked for a few minutes and I told him we had plans to come see him later in the week. He reminded me to call him first and then come see him. He said, “you need my number?” “No mon I said, 393-6768, I got it in my brain already.” I have this weird habit of remembering phone numbers and other useless information, I guess in this case it came in handy. As we walked back to the hotel my brother was freaking. So you never met that guy before?? Nope, but that was Bentley and we are going to see him later in the week for dinner, its going to be awesome, 5 things on the plate mon…and magic sauce!!!. He just shook his head at me as if he felt like his older brother was the weirdest person on the planet!

Back at the hotel for breakfast with the girls, we talked about what time we would transfer to Rondel from the Cliffs. We decided we would have our driver show up about noon and we would make a quick stop downtown at the HiLo for a couple supplies and get to Rondel about 1230pm. If the room was not ready we would already be in our beach clothes, so no problem we would dump our luggage at the front desk and check in later.

Here are a couple of shots from Le Mirage before we move to the beach. It is a great place to stay, I am not sure I could handle a full week there, maybe if I was there in high season and there were lots of other people around it would be different, but it just seemed so quiet and with no bar or restaurant around there weren’t folks from the outside stopping by. I guess it was just different, I’m certainly not complaining about it, it is wonderful place and the scenery is awesome. We all decided that we stayed there just the perfect amount of time and that it is a good way to get into the Negril groove, a couple of days of peaceful and quiet on the Cliffs before we hit the hustle and bustle of the beach.

Melo and JMA in the infinity pool


Love the shady Gazebo…like Booger said earlier, I think you can get Naked and do your thing there if you are into that…



This jet ski is not as close as it appears, I was testing the zooming and focusing abilities of my new camera



Before we knew it, it was noon and time to head to the beach and say bye to Le Mirage