Sister Noodle House

Seen at night in it's usual place on Petronia at Thomas Streets. Blue Heaven is always written up in tourist guides to Key West which point out the funky Caribbean atmosphere, the free range chickens in the open air dining room and the place has thrived. It's a bit pricey for my tastes but they do fine without me, a romatic place to eat al fresco and know you are in a classic Key West eatery. Mango pancakes, when on the menu should not be missed even at something crazy like fifteen bucks. The coffee, priced separately, is too strong and bitter for me but that's me, weak and watery. I like coffee that tastes like tea! On the subject of weak and watery check out this soup take out:

Finally it seems proper Vietnamese food has arrived in Key West. And when I say proper I mean the US version of noodle soup that has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds recently across the US. There is one place on Southard Street that has failed to enchant me, frankly. It's been a while since I went to Kojin and I found it over priced and not inspiring. Blue Heaven is, by contrast, expensive but inspired to my way of eating even though they are two completely different kitchens.

On the Vietnamese front: Sister Noodle House struck me when I walked in, as being as close to a street noodle stand as the health department would allow.  It's family run in the style of a cheap and cheerful Chinese eatery, not designed as haute cuisine or a romantic rendez vous. I was buying food to go so that suited me just fine. Dinner for two filled the front seat of the Fusion and attracted Cheyenne's interest.

Sister Noodle House is not downtown and is thus not seeking the tourist trade. It's an undistinguished store front in an unremarkable strip mall that goes by the name of Conch Plaza and is anchored by Gordon Food Service, the closest Key West gets to a warehouse type store.  That puts this eatery two miles or more from Duval Street, but I know it has already generated a fair bit of interest among locals. When I placed my order for two soups I asked if they were related to Tong's Garden, my preferred Chinese eatery and they smiled. How did I know? Key West is a small place and the word is out...Apparently this is a new venture by family members branching out. Good for them.

I bought two small soups, pho pronounced pha we are told, as the word is derived from the French "pot au feu" as the original broth is believed by some authorities to have been developed from recipes taken to Vietnam during the French Colonial era. Luckily for us the authors of this deliciousness are patient and asking for pho will get you excellent pha. And get this, with two ten dollar soups we made two meals for my wife and I. Inexpensive, filling and delicious. 

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Paradise Deferred

Walking Bahama Village early in the morning excited Cheyenne enough that she was ready for a break. So we paused she and I. She liked the cool tiles at the entrance to the restaurant and anxious staff came running for Her Majesty to bring her a bowl of fresh water, which she lapped up as though it were her due. Refreshed she paused to watch the world o by.

I'm off today I told the black man in the white apron, a way to establish one's bonafides as not-a-tourist. I'm off for three weeks Wilson said, rolling his soft R's as only Caribbean Francophones can, the restaurant closes and I'm going home. Home? I asked. Haïti he replied with a grin. I've always wanted to go I said, not telling him of my dream of circumnavigating the Caribbean on my old Vespa. Ah its beautiful he said, when I blamed my wife for being nervous about going to the poorest country in the hemisphere. Ah! he sighed and grinned. The waters are palest blue, the sands on the beaches are endless and the people are so friendly...

But the women he went on, just as I was starting to think he was a walking tourist bureau. Umm, I said, and he went on, yes I too am married but their skin is so soft, smooth café au lait, his eyes rolled, really, in the ecstasy of memory. There are none like them he said giving me the thousand mile stare of a man with memories. Suddenly Haïti for me was no longer pictures of crumbling post earthquake buildings or the vine covered walls of Sans Souci. Suddenly Haïti became an exotic land of poster perfect beaches and gin clear waters populated by gorgeous mermaids desperately interested in meeting fat old white guys. Oh he shrugged getting practical, it's for the money he said rubbing his forefinger and thumb in the universal symbol for moolah as though the prospect of sex for cash should entice me.

Oh he said again, another punctuation, glancing over his shoulder, I have to get back to work. And he shuttled off, dreams of paradise found - in Haïti, not Key West - deferred by the intrusion of reality. Paradise is where you aren't.

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Goombay 1

The city closes Petronia Street from Duval for the Goomaby street fair.


This year the performance platform was set up in the soccer field beyond Fort Street instead it's usual location on Emma. Thus the festival, supposedly celebrating Bahamian culture was longer than usual, and with apparently fewer vendors, seemed rather sparsely attended compared to years past.


There was still plenty of food,


And the usual quota of straight people expressing eccentricity.


Petronia Street was dressed to represent the almost tropical Bahamas.


And we ate the food we came for. The round yellow pancakes are corn meal tortillas filled with melted white cheese, a slightly sweet dried food pula in Colombia, called arepa.


Alcohol is always on hand at Key West functions,


in one form or another.


Blue Heaven, at Thomas and Petronia, put on quite the spread. We ordered conch salad which came on a bed of green mango slices.


This is the restaurant that most represents Caribbean food in Key West.


The Conch salad was actually quite good, and I say that as one of those rare humans that prefer their seafood cooked, not raw.


Goombay is more than food, it's also companionship, nothing nicer than a sidewalk to sit on.


This wasn't the best Goombay ever but I'm glad I went.



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My Blue Heaven

When Thérèse arrived at Key West International(!) Airport she was whisked to IHOP for breakfast. She lives in Paris but she spent many of her younger years in the US, and pigs in a blanket at the International House Of Pancakes hit the nostalgic spot on arrival. For her second morning back in Key West my journeyman gardener needed something local.

This place is excellent I said, in a chicken coop, but too expensive for locals. As though to hammer that point home a friend of mine said, of Blue Heaven, "I've heard it's good but the prices..." That's the thing about visitors, they give you carte blanche to splurge.

So splurge we did.

And we were not alone, the place was absolutely packed. We had a half hour wait when we two signed in and all the bar stools were full and people were sprawled in garden chairs in front of the band. The band? Live Caribbean music for a breakfast serenade by a white boy singing not too bad at all.

I by far prefer gentle live music to a television screen while eating as the music added to the funky atmosphere. Is it too much to ask restaurants to get rid of their gruesome TVs? They don't have to add wandering chickens but I hate the attention-sucking TV while eating. A television in the dining room tells me the food is crap.

The food here was not crap, it was perfect.

Late morning mid week and they couldn't run out of customers. Lines dissipated and more hungry people showed up to wait.

Service was good without being intrusive and we got all the (strong - oof!) coffee we could drink.

We both ordered bacon lobster and tomato Hollandaise with a side order of grits and cheese. "I love grits!" Thérèse said clumping corn meal on her plate. They were perfect, of course.

As Buffalo Bill will tell you if you are in town for Goombay, bacon makes anything taste better and it pulled a real number on this lobster and key lime sauce.

We staggered out into daylight passing still more lines of waiting patrons. Blue Heaven cashes in on it's cachet with a dust catcher store alongside. I like the upside down parking sign.

One other thing about Blue Heaven, the owners have been in town for decades and they help everyone they can. Eating at Blue Heaven or Salute puts money to work doing good around town. And the food's not bad either.

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Blue Heaven

Thursday dawned overcast and gray with drizzle ruining my plans for an outdoor day after my Wednesday night off work. I looked to the west and saw blue skies over Summerland Key and figured most likely Key West was under blue sunny skies so perhaps today was a morning off and we should drive. We stopped along the way, Cheyenne and I and took a little walk here and a little walk there and finally when Key West came into sight I could not help but notice a gray curtain of rain enveloping the island. I drove to Bahama Village where I planned to walk and photograph and leaving Cheyenne in the car, God knows it was cool enough I took myself to Blue Heaven for lunch. There was a brief wait and I felt about as happy as this cat: I sat at the bar, dripping, and ordered coffee as I planned to have breakfast. Before he could get to it, hardier people than I were drinking alcohol at eleven in the morning, I was called to my table in a dry part of the mostly open air restaurant.I rarely indulge my pleasure of newspaper, coffee and breakfast these days but for some reason I felt the urge to splurge and my wife was on a field trip sailing (!) with her class so I figured she couldn't complain. Instead of the very splendid mango pancakes I rather like I ordered off the special menu recited to me by the waitress and in no time at all I had strong coffee, the opinion page in a rather damp paper and a plate of shrimp, spinach and cheese omelette with mango garnish. I ordered no potatoes and none came with the dish which was fine by me as the calorie count was sure to be vast anyway and I got two thick slices of buttered toast, so I was full but happily not stuffed by the time I had finished reading the paper. My bill came to $18 to which I added a three dollar tip, which continues to rate Blue Heaven as a most expensive place to eat in my book. Excellent but not cheap.The rain was easing up a little on Petronia at Thomas Street by the time I had finished and Cheyenne was ready for her walk. The letter carrier was dismally sorting mail on her three wheeled electric carrier as I went to get the dog. Rain in Key West is generally short lived but two consecutive days of gray skies was getting me down. Blue Heaven is a good place for tourists who aren't watching pennies and want a particular Caribbean style meal. The menu is eclectic and well presented but I think I remain a fan of the Hatch's other, more reasonable enterprise, Salute at Higgs Beach. It was fun to take a morning off and walk Cheyenne around town after such a splendid start.