Living on a boat inspires new ways to prepare familiar dishes and the exploration of unfamiliar cultures offers up a chance to try new dishes. Some failures will occur and some successes I will try to recount both. My successes so you might delight in those new dishes and the failures. So you might profit from my mistakes or to convince those long staying guests that its time to go before you really poison them. I'm going to start with Deserts I always hated those days when dinner was so good I ate so much that I didn't have room for desert. My first offering is a simple recipe called "Lemon Squares" You make it with no heat and you can decorate it to sub in for a cake when those birthdays come up.
The art of bartering is alive and in the islands. You can barter for work your daily meal just about anything. One very liquid currency is alcohol or to be more specific RUM. When you can get it its cheep at least by Canadian standards. But when it's in demand you have liquid gold. While anchored of a remote island a local fisherman came to the boat to sell or trade some of his catch of the day. His preferred currency was rum unopened and local brand (which usually is the cheapest) . I was lucky I had purchased a case of 12 bottles at my last port of call expecting to anchor off for a while. I keep most of the rum in a storage locker out of sight and only 2 bottles in the liquor cabinet. If they see a lot of bottles they will negotiate harder for more. For one bottle I received a large grouper cleaned and filleted big enough for 3 boatloads of people to dine on. During the negotiations the topic of lobsters was brought up and the next day a different boat arrived to trade for lobster. Again for one bottle of rum we this time received enough tails to feed 3 boats and have leftovers for breakfast. Such a deal. Later we found out a Fish camp was on the next island. The lobster tails were what are referred to as "shorts" to small to be commercially sold. The fishermen in the "Fish Camps" are there for the season or at least a month or so. After any alcohol the fishermen pack is consumed these camps are dry no booze and none is delivered to the camps. They know the market value of the rum at home but that could be a few days motoring away. So they negotiate generously. Don't get on their bad side or none of them will even stop
Bay Leaves
As well using them for there cooking benefits the leaves
have the ability to discourage the appearance of those black weevils found allover the world.
Just place a few in an air tight container with your flour, rice, beans, pasta, etc .
A quick and easy sea food dipping sauce Can be made with equal parts of mayonnaise , horseradish, and ketchup