Conche Fritters

We’ve covered Key Lime Pie and we’ve covered Gator Bites so far in the blog. Now onto the third strictly food segment: Conche Fritters. Conche are a type of shell with a fleshy inside, which in turn is boiled, then mashed up with some vegetables, dipped in batter and then deep fried. Served with a tomato & paprika heavy sauce, these are heavenly little snacks perfect to serve with a couple of drinks. You could find them quite easily in key west, and I also found a few places in Miami that served them. The taste is a little difficult to describe – the flesh is quite a sweet meat, with the sweetness reduced with the addition of vegetables and batter. Delicious. Best conche fritters we had were at a place called Finnegan’s on Duval St, purely for overall taste. However, that just being suited to my pallet, I should probably also mention another place (whose name escapes me) on Caroline St (both in Key West) and just across the road from Pepe’s Café (Key Lime Pie) in a little shanty set up, which looks far from glamorous. They serve up a generous helping for a small price whilst you overlook Caroline St. The chef here proclaimed to have a 50/50 conche-to-vegetable ratio, and they weren’t quite as sweet. The batter was also a far simpler batter, leaving the fritter itself to do the work. Only a close second, but both deserve a mention.

Another night out in town

So you can only imagine how we were feeling. A long day in the sun. Snorkelling and all the other water activities. Free beer. Then a cruise with more free alcohol. We were a little bit buoyant (which is how we ended up with the last post).

Just wanted to add though of the infamous Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. Yep, it's his bar. And he makes his own type of rum, which I got to try. It was ok, not the greatest, but definately not the worst. So being in Margaritaville, we went there and had a margarita. Ended up chatting with a guy who used to be Jimmy Buffet's room mate (doubt if you want, I don't mind what he told me, because it was bloody interesting at the time). He turned out to be a rum fiend too. Again not sure how genuine anything he was saying was, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

We had to leave kind of early the next day, which didn't quite go as planned, due to Lukas leaving his bag in a bar and only realising at 3am in the morning when I was fast asleep. Though kudos to him for waking me up to drive him, only to realise that the rental car key was in the bag. Thanks buddy.

Ultimate Adventure in the Gulf of Mexico

We woke up nice and early to be on time (literally, smack bang on time - I couldn't believe it) for our cruise on a catamaran out to do some snorkelling, jetskiing, parasailing and various other activities on the water. Also included was breakfast, lunch, drinks, and once all the activities involving machines were over, free booze! All this for $139 (and it also included another 2 hour 'sunset cruise' which was also included free booze - pretty bloody good deal!).

The snorkelling wasn't the best I've done, with water visibility quite low due to the choppiness of the sea. This is probably due to the fact that there are storms out over the ocean nearly every evening. Still managed to see barracudas every time you turned around, a couple of sharks and some stingrays.

The wind picked up making it near impossible to hold down your plate for lunch, but quickly after, we were ushered off in our group to go parasailing, the first time I've done it. You only got about 10 minutes up there, but it was still pretty amazing to see a view over much of key west and a good look over the Gulf (don't worry folks, the oil spill hasn't made it down to Key West yet, no oil in sight).

Tearing up the jetskis was next, another thing I'd never done before. Trying to throw Lukas off the back of the jetski was the aim, and I came close, but not quite.

Then came the water activites: a giant rock climbing mountain floating in the ocean, along with a giant slide and a giant trampoline. Lots of fun was had with the other people from the trip, particularly on the rock climbing mountain, where there were numerous times people accidentally 'slipped' or lost their balance and fell into the water.

The day ended (it goes for about 6.5 hours) and we ended up back on dryland, a couple of hours to kill until our sunset cruise was to depart. Big shoutout to the crew at FURY (http://www.furycat.com/) who were the ones who took us out for the day. They did an awesome job and if anyone ever heads to Key West, definately hit these guys up. Chilled out, ever helpful, and not really much of a dull moment on the boat. The trip out to the reefs didn't take long at all, and there is generally always something happening whilst on board, so you're not waiting for long periods at a time for something to do.

Day Two in the Keys

So out and about, walking around Duval St on a Monday night. Taking it all in, it is very much a chilled out place, although the streets come to life once the sun goes down. The closer you are towards the marina at the end of Duval St, the closer you are to the action, so it seemingly tapers off the further you walk down.

Some dinner was had (an entire post to Conche Fritters is a must read), some jumbo sized cocktails were consumed and then we headed home.

Waking up feeling strangely fine, we organised some stuff for day three (Wednesday) and then spent time at the National Park beach, Fort Zachory Taylor. A couple of little rock formations to swim out to, and the sun shining long and hard. Prior to the swim, we got our tourist on and headed to the landmark that shows the southern most point on continental USA. How it's still continental USA when you've travelled over a good 15 islands to get there is still beyond me, but nonetheless, obligatory photo was taken (and attached).

Tues night, again we hit up Duval St and some of the various nightspots. Drinking is very much a way of life down in the keys. Not only is drinking allowed on the streets, it is encouraged. They serve you in plastic cups and encourage you to top up your drink before you leave the bars. Some more conche fritters were eaten, and due to it being a Tuesday, and also considering that we had to wake up early for our Ultimate Adventure on the Wednesday, we headed home around 12:30.

On the road to Conche County

So today, we went and hired our car (which I haven't even taken a photo of yet... we named her KW), and headed south along the keys to Key West. Drive took about 3 hours, and it was not only interesting, but refreshing to get away from the glitz and pretentiousness of Miami. To sum up Miami (moreso South Beach where we were), it's like a combination of Kings Cross & Darling Harbour with a hint of Bondi in there. A lot of attitude, and if you don't like people getting up in your face, then probably stay away from here. Don't get me wrong, Miami was definately nice for a holiday (very nice beach) but as far as the culture goes, very much up in your face, and everybody trying to make a name for themselves. A lot of sleazy guys, but also a lot of scantily clad girls. Very hot the whole time (was always at least 33 degrees during the day) so have developed a bit of colour compared to what I would have in Sydney.

Driving down US-1, you got to see a lot of different independent diners and small resorts (they literally littered the highway), and not a neon sign in sight! We stopped at a little diner (the one in the photo) where I got served an Iced Tea (home made of course) in a pitcher jug (MASSIVE). We ordered GATOR BITES (little bits of deep fried alligator tail, seasoned and served with chipotle mayo and a squeeze of lemon) and they were DELICIOUS. I'm tempted to go and find somewhere that serves alligator steaks, because the meat was phenomenal. A little like pork, but a bit gamier.

Also had a slice of the compulsory KEY LIME PIE. Let me put it this way - I couldn't finish a slice it was so sweet. And big. Massive. Nice, but only in small doses. I'm not one for overly sweet things, so it might go down a little differently for others (forgot to take a photo, but I'm sure I'll eat some more somewhere - everywhere sells it).

We drove over the 7-mile bridge on the way down, weaving through the islands, which is, just as it sounds, a bridge that is 7 miles long. Not that you really notice much apart from blue on either side.

Safe in the hotel now, will probably end up going out for dinner, before coming home and planning for tomorrow. It's a little windy down here for now, so not quite beach weather, but still quite warm.

Adios!

PS. The pictures to the other posts will come later tonight when we get back to the hotel.