Meet me in the Pale Moonlight on the Blues Cruise

Did you miss me, because I certainly missed you, and I missed a week of posting the blog?  We were vacationing in the Caribbean on the Delbert and Friends Sandy Beaches Cruise created, organized and well run by Delbert and his wife Wendy aboard the Oosterdam Cruise Ship run by the Holland America Cruise Line.  On the ship there were 1300 passengers (picture aging hippies, a sea of bald spots atop thin silver pony tails and tie dye for days) while being entertained almost 24 hours a day by more than 30 bands performing on the 6 stages set up from stem to stern on the ship, with adult beverage bars available throughout our stay, seriously good food and tons of fun!  As you would expect, most of the dining was cafeteria buffet style service, but we had two evenings where there was an upcharge to dress up, look at a menu, order ala carte from impressively upscale menu items.  It was a welcomed break from the buffet scene, but we were not on the ship 🚢 for a culinary experience, it was all about the music.  This is an annual event that has been occurring for years, in fact this year was the 25^th year and their big celebratory anniversary cruise.  Our longtime friends Terri and Michael Burke informed us about the cruise and Sara (my wife) and I were very glad they did and we enjoyed lots of laughs with the best of friends on the cruise.  The bands played every day from noon until 2AM.  Most of music 🎼 was R&B with a little bluegrass and pop, even a little standup comedy, courtesy of Jaston Williams aka Greater Tuna.  The music was really great but an added element that was the most pleasing part of all of the performances was watching all of the artists interact with each other on stage.  You have a captive population of performers while on the ship and they each had contracted to do 3 performances and that left them with a lot of idle time and during each and every show, Kevin Russell from Shiny Ribs or Marcia Ball or Bill Kirchen or Carolyn Wonderland or any combination of artists would jump up on the stage and play along, watching them play with and off of each other was so entertaining.  Their joy on that stage was tangible and infectious!  A show I enjoyed the most had 6 keyboards and a Hammond B3 organ in a semi-circle on the stage all headed up by Marcia Ball serving as home room mom of the group of artists.  She would look at an artist and say “you got one?” and that artist would begin playing while the others carefully watched his/her keyboard and quickly learning the runs and it wasn’t long until they all joined in and then she would tag another player and say “you got one?” and again everyone on stage quickly learned a new run.  What talent.  It was a whole lot of spontaneous boogie – woogie happening on that stage.  For the final performance of the Pianorama event, every keyboard player on the ship came out on stage and there were 3 players pounding on each keyboard at the same time. Quite a sight with great sound and a whole lot of love and respect for one another.  The talent was predominantly based out of Austin and Nashville and all of the stages were small, so it created a close and personal audience connection.  A unique experience of close up sight lines mixed with a Caribbean atmosphere, you completely forgot you were enjoying music in paradise until you looked away from the stage and to your right or your left and saw the sparkle of the beautiful blue waters.  There were so many great performances it is hard to say which was the best, different sounds for different people.  My favorite band and the one I most anticipated seeing was Raul Malo & the Mavericks.  Raul Malo is from Cuba and specializes in a diverse blend of rockabilly, honky tonk, Tejano, Cuban and country.  Many of their songs had a Cuban flavor, but they ended one performance with a Beatles classic “Back in the USSR”. Most of the bands sang songs that had a tropical feel, after all we were in the Caribbean.  The list of artists was long and impressive, go to the internet for the complete list, Google Sandy Beaches or Delbert & Friends Cruise.

Mid-week of the cruise, the ship docked in San Juan and we brought back packs filled with school supplies to donate to the school children and/or sent money all to give a little relief after the devastation to the region from last year’s hurricanes.  Delbert and Wendy and crew organized a fundraising concert that we attended while we were in the city and we were treated to a musical history lesson of Puerto Rico, mountain music and a flavor of old San Juan.

Years ago, I was recruited by a Greek boat line to do a cooking demonstration as part of the entertainment.  The ship was doing the Mayan Riviera tour which stopped at Cozumel, Belize and Roatan.  I was standing in line to board the ship when a friendly fellow cruiser said “what are you doing here?”.  Apparently, I didn’t fit the profile of the average cruiser.  He then pointed to a very overweight lady standing in line to board and said “that’s my sister, you gain 5 pounds on every cruise, she has been on 50 cruises”, enough said.  Once I was settled in, I was given a tour of the galley and they proudly showed off all of their modern ways to cook, remember this was 25 years ago.  The ship had a walk-in microwave complete with rack and rolls made out of microwave safe plastic and of course miles of the same plastic sheet pans.  Thank goodness it was not in use when I was inside of there.  They then showed me their coffee unit which was fueled by a block of frozen coffee concentrate.  I did my best to act impressed but it was actually stunning and one of those things you would rather not know, what you have seen can’t be unseen.  Their kitchen staff was doing all the mise en place preparation for my upcoming cooking demonstration so after giving them my list of needed preparations, I high tailed it out of the galley before they turned on the microwave.  Then it came time to do my demonstration and we were in stormy seas and the ship was rocking and rolling, but the show must go on!  The kitchen staff delivered my ingredients for the demonstration, all in individual bowls just as I had requested and I was all set to begin or so I thought.  As I began my show the ship made a big heaving roll and all of my ingredients slid to one side of the tray getting completely mixed up.  With the “show must go on” attitude I carried on with a widening leg stance for balance. To this day I don’t know if I added paprika or cayenne, they both look the same in unmarked bowls.  The cruisers never tasted the final dish so they never knew.  They were entertained and that is all that counts.

I think that one of my favorite seafood dishes is appropriate at the conclusion of a Caribbean story. What say ye mateys?  I have had this or a version of this dish on every restaurant I have been involved with.  It was called Parrot Head Pasta because it was Jimmy Buffet’s favorite dish at our Aspen restaurant.  There is special flavor when you combine seafood with pasta.  This recipe is made with lobster, shrimp, crab and scallops.  But you can use any combination of fresh seafood.  I think anything fresh from the sea is great in flavor.  You could add or substitute fish, octopus or different crabmeat. As long as it’s fresh it will add to the end result.

Parrot Head Pasta

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 lobster tails grilled to medium rare and chopped to ½”

24 large shrimp (free of head and shell)

12 large scallops

½ pound crabmeat

½ pound spinach fettuccine, dried and cooked al dente and drained

½ pound egg fettuccine, dried and cooked al dente and drained 

2 cups white wine

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoon minced garlic

¼ cup lemon juice and zest

4 tablespoons minced shallots

2 tablespoons minced herbs (basil, oregano, thyme)

2 tablespoons sea salt

2 tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips

2 cups mushrooms, quartered

1 cup grated parmesan

1 cup tomatoes, cut into strips

1 bunch chopped scallions

2 cups baby spinach

1 stick butter

Method

Add wine to a hot 14” hot skillet and cook over high heat until ½ has evaporated.

Add olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest, shallots, sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, Parmesan cheese and seafood. 

Bring to a simmer.

Add pasta and return to a simmer.

Toss in herbs, spinach and butter and again return to a simmer while stirring. 

Serve.