Turks and Caicos – Seaside Cafe

March 21st, 2015 Update:

Get the Fish Sandwich for lunch people.  Its a couple of pickled carrots shy of being the perfect Banh Mi, although I sort of prefer this simplified version.  Toasty baguette courtesy of Caicos Bakery filled with expertly blackened fish grilled to flaky perfection.  Great little sandwich.  Moving on from Vietnam to Peru, Amazing Race style.  The Peruvian Conch Salad brings out our animal instincts, each time without fail.  If there’s one tip I could offer to the 15 TCI viewers I get per day (over 200 look at the Hell’s Kitchen Survival Guide alone, 15 at TCI), get some of that Peruvian.  We dont even need to open the lunch menu here.

We also had another outstanding dinner later on.  Nice and springy flatbread with goat cheese, pesto, and arugula.  A new discovery was the Conch Chowder that may have cracked our top three.  More of the delicious Tuna Sashimi, and Lobster Risotto of course.  Meaty Lobster was grilled to perfection, and the garlic butter that came along elevated the dish even more.  And as the old saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough gets Salmon.  Meaning the weather was too rough for the fishermen and the freshest thing on the menu was Salmon, via Miami.  Teriyaki glazed Salmon (below) couldnt be cooked any better, with soba noodles, tofu, asparagus, miso sauce, and Wakame – Japanese Seaweed.  After watching seaweed all week long, it was time for revenge, Kamikaze style.  Best dish of the night.

January 10th, 2014 Post:

“What?  Ziggy the great foodie is writing a post on Seaside Cafe?  What’s next.. Pizza Pizza” I can hear the critics already.  For many years Seaside was a decent, casual, resort (Ocean Club West) owned dining spot, not exactly a foodie destination.  But things have changed.  New owners took over (same owners as Opus), brought in a Coco Bistro veteran, and a new foodie powerhouse is born.  This is not your old Seaside, and I’m a couple of years late to this party.

“Chef Driven” is a term used loosely these days.  Every place has a chef.  Some are great, some are ok, some are just learning on the job.  But then there are those chef who experiment, transform, and set trends.  The chefs that make me want to go there for the chefs, instead of the setting or atmosphere.  Quebec born Francois who started cooking from the young age of zero (I have trouble remembering simple facts sometimes but this sounds about right) knows a thing or three about cooking.  From dishing out all sorts of goodies in the army in Canada (Canada has an army?) at the age of 16, to sharpening his skills big time in Provo’s busiest Coco Bistro, Francois has gone a log way.

This was a first in Eating With Ziggy history.  Every single one of the 4 dishes we sampled in Seaside was a top dish of the trip nominee.  Choosing from this one will be harder than driving through a town that didn’t endorse Chris Christie.

A few months ago we went to a new risotteria in NYC to sample some delicious risottos from a renowned rice grower from Verona.  Some hits, some misses, and none came close to the risotto bliss of this lobster shiitake goodness at Seaside (below).  This was one of the most palatable risotto we’ve ever eaten.  Cheesy, well spiced, perfectly cooked arborio with tender, plentiful chunks of lobster and a lot of love.

The Escolar (aka “White Tuna” but not really) was another outstanding dish.  Another South Caicos beauty cooked expertly medium rare with jasmine rice, veggies, sweet wasabi mustard on one side and some sort of miso sauce on the other.

A note about south Caicos fishermen.  Lately those guys are simply kicking some serious ass.  Deep fishing for octopus, tuna, escolar are just some examples of what they are bringing to the table.  I don’t recall seeing so much locally caught fish on the menus, especially octopus.  Way to go South Caicos fishermen.  Way to go!

Tuna Sashimi with Wasabi mustard (top) –  A revelation!  Long time followers of Ziggy know how much I love a similar dish at Coco Bistro and it turns out that that was a Francois creation.  Fresh tuna from south Caicos, veggies, that wasabi again, and just a glorious concoction on individual tortillas.

Peruvian conch ceviche. Yet more awesomeness.  A fantastic combination of veggies (love his use of fresh veggies), fresh conch, lime and different peppers including scotch bonnet.  Addictive stuff to say the least.

Seaside is easily a top 5 in Provo after this trip!