My Halloween Baby

Bienvenido loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary as they go on a birthday tour. Buen provecho!

Mary, Halloween baby that she is, always felt a little cheated when she was a kid, with the holiday always overshadowing her BD. So now, to make up for that, it has been our policy to celebrate the weekend before, the weekend after and the day of. So, here we go, on Mary’s BD tour.

We are toasting Mary’s BD at Madison South, the fine dining restaurant serving Casa Isabel.

Our table commands an impressive view of the bay.

On this zoom, if you look closely left and center just beyond the condo complex, you can see the green umbrella on our front deck.

This is the bar and main dining area of Madison South.

There is a bar, pool, and hot tub on the level below us.

You can tell Mary likes this place.  In the background you can see the owner’s penthouse apartment and below it is the honeymoon suite.

While we are waiting for our food, our wonderful server Arturo, gives us a tour of said suite, but wait, there’s something wrong with this pic…

There, that’s much better.

We had arrived at about 4pm thinking light lunch but we are a little late for that menu. We are not hungry enough for dinner so we settle for appetizers. This is Mary’s excellent Gazpacho.

And this is my Chile Azteca, a Pasilla Chile stuffed with seafood. The word that comes to mind is… sumptuous.

We are completely taken off guard by this BD cake and the Happy Birthday serenade.

And of course there is the mandatory tequila shot.

This is one fine tasting BD cake!

We take a look back to Casa Isabel as we walk down the hill towards home. BTW: We had taxied up the hill.

It’s October 31st, Halloween and the actual day of Mary’s BD and here she is at A Taste of Italy located at Calles Olas Altas and Carranza.

This is the view of the ocean from the corner where A Taste of Italy is situated.

A look into the kitchen from our table.

Roger is our most excellent mesero, server, and of course the first order of business is…

Beers and Cheers! And here’s where we come clean… A Taste of Italy does have a pretty interesting value priced pasta and sandwich menu but what really brought us in was… Buck Beers!

Our meals come, here is Mary’s Pasta Alfredo, muy delicioso!

And this is my Pasta with Clams in a White Sauce, just what the doctor ordered!

And here is the owner, Darren. We were wondering why Darren was speaking to Roger in English in the kitchen and now we know. Darren is an Italian American born and raised in NYC and has recently taken over this restaurant from his folks.  We are surprised to hear that his brother Troy is the owner of the well known Sea Monkey and Cheeky Monkey, also buck beer sites. A message to other Old Town restaurant/bars: Get on board!!

It’s Saturday and we’re on the final leg of the BD tour. We’re starting the day off at the Sea Monkey enjoying buck beers and a cigar. And the high season has begun, the joint is packed with gringo tourists.

Next on our agenda is Polo’s, a great seafood restaurant on Calle Madero, entre Insurgentes y Aguacate.

The salsa cruda is pretty awesome here, we think it is because the tomates are so sweet. And the tostada chips are very tasty. We ask if they are hecho en casa like the salsa cruda but no, they buy them at Sams. The brand name is Del Barrios.

Our food comes and Mary, who is not a fan of mariscos, has ordered this. It is a grilled chicken breast surrounded by a vegetable medley that goes way beyond the usual medley offerings with chayote and garlic cloves as surprise treats, along with rajas de poblano, strips of poblano pepper sauteed with onions and corn. Delicious!

Me encanta mariscos mucho, I love seafood! My dish is Mahi Mahi Marinera, a filet stuffed with Octopus, Cheese, Onions, Bell Pepper and wrapped in Bacon and covered in a Shrimp sauce. I have entered the Marisco Zone.

Mary tells our charming server Cristian that our food was so good that he should kiss the chef for us,  but no, he says, he cannot do that as the chef is demasiado feo, too ugly.

After settling the bill we waddle our way home and that my friends, brings Mary’s BD tour to a close. Cheers!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader.  Please join Bruce and Mary next week as they continue the exploration of their new home, Puerto Vallarta. Hasta proxima Domingo!