Roxy’s Corner @ Butterfish

Eat local – eat delicious Roxy’s Corner @ Butterfish

Roxy’s Corner @ Butterfish
Sometimes one has to eat local. Eating local is not usually fine dining however that does not mean the meal is going to be lacking in anyway. In fact, it often turns out to be more than delicious.

This “lolo” is owned and run by Roxy who decided after the hurricane to make the move and get going with her own business instead of hanging around waiting for the hotel she worked at to be up and running again. Her husband decided to support her and gets in on the act by helping with the cooking.

The menu is not complicated, and we made our choices without much dithering.

An amuse was brought to the table with our drinks, delectable Johnny cakes.

Eat these wrapped in a napkin – can’t get more deliciously local than that.

Our mains were three garlic fried shrimps with rice and peas and one salmon with rice and peas.
The meal was wonderful, a crispy side salad with a delicious light dressing set a foil for the fried shrimp with a creamy, yet light, garlic sauce.

For me the rice ‘n peas won through, it was perfectly cooked with more than a fair share of the red beans called peas by the locals. The flavour was rich with a hint of coconut. It was perfect and quite filling.
The salmon was beautifully cooked – thumbs up for this meal.

The menu offers the usual drinks from waters, various fruit juices, beers and mixed drinks but would a meal be enjoyed without a glass or two of wine? For this meal I enjoyed some great Pinot Grigio.
None of us thought to ask for the dessert menu.

Wonderful visitors

A dear friend came back to the island to visit recently, it was the first time she has returned after nasty Irma had done her dirty work. As a long-term timeshare owner she was, like many others, wondering how she would find things on her return. She has the island at heart, she did not want to feel she would be a burden on the infrastructure in any way. On the other hand, she felt that by coming to the island she would be helping boost the economy in a small way. (Make no mistake the island needs visitors to return asa possible and to those that do come we are grateful.)

Like many my friend had concerns about how she would feel seeing the devastation. Many have voiced concern  about returning because the nay-sayers are saying that crime is dreadful, it is unsafe to return. (Like elsewhere, yes crime does raise its ugly head now and then – one has to be “street-wise” or in this case “island-wise” and take heed when visiting, just as one would going anywhere.)

My friend returned when she felt the time was finally right for her to do so even though she would not be staying in her usual comfortable and much-loved timeshare unit. All her concerns have been laid to rest.

She has found that the island is moving forward – from arrival at the airport where, even though the setup is still interim, her arrival/luggage collection went smoothly – to the timeshare where, although not in “her” unit, the unit she is in has been completely redone. The beach and sea are as gorgeous as ever. Seeing the devastion can be a shock. To those who live here it is something we see daily as progess and a lot of progress is being made in all sectors.

Since Irma many others have come to visit. Finding different places to stay until their favourite, hotel/timeshare/villa is back up and running again is key. My friend, like many others brings the islanders the much-needed feeling that things are returning to normal, even if it is taking a while.
(Bear in mind that this island was hit by a storm stronger than any ever recorded, things will take a while to return to normal because designing and constructing stronger is going to take time.) (We won’t get into the politics side of things here!)

How wonderful to have visitors return. Visitors will see the resilient islanders determinedly moving forwards building back their businesses or starting new ones. Islanders are diverting and fitting in with the present situations. Like many other visitors, my friend returned open-minded and willing to offer and help out where possible to boost the island back. How grateful are we all – thank you visitors.

As it turned out my friend arrived on island right after the sad news of the tragic passing of Anthony Bourdain. He was a delightful, friendly person who loved coming to St. Maarten/St. Martin. He was someone who loved eating local, be it high-end or simple local food. The fact is he loved, loved to eat local. What more fitting was it that we had already planned on eating out at Roxy’s Corner @ Butterfish? Roxy’s Corner is a local eatery – a lolo – in the government owned “fishmarket” in Simpson Bay.