Heading for the Keys

I have been struggling to title this post, given that when I think of The Keys it is Paula and George Keys that come to mind, not the Florida Keys.

So I hope Paula and George will forgive me any inadvertent humour caused by talking about going down the Keys or similar!!

Leaving Marco Island

I was up and 5am and Drew at 6.30am, we were primed and ready to leave the Condo by 7.30. We had to drop the car park tag back into the box provided (a $75 excess is charged if you forget) and put the envelope with the keys (self-addressed and sent to us in the UK, with the keys, by the owner) into the outgoing mail slot. 

This is our route for today:

We got in the car at 7.45 and Drew spent some time setting himself up in the car as he is doing most of the driving today. Our route took us out of Marco Island and past Everglades City, where we had been on Wednesday. 

US41 and on to the Ronald Reagan Turnpike

From Everglades City we headed down the US41 – the Tamiami Trail for 75 miles until we reached the Ronald Reagan Turnpike. There was some major construction on the trail as ever the traffic was managed by men with signs, rather than the lights which are more common in the UK.  

The Ronald Reagan Turnpike also had bits of road works, yes even on a Saturday!! Other than that it was generally a good road but with a lot of vehicles with boats behind. The photo shows three such in front of us. We stopped at junction 13 for petrol at 10.00am and stopped for our late breakfast (brunch) at 10:41 just as we left the Turnpike and joined the US1 South heading for the Keys. We now have 127 miles on US1 South. 

Brunch

Drew's Breakfast

Haydn's Breakfast

Breakfast was in a Cracker Barrel and it appears that everyone from Florida City likes to eat brunch at this time on a Saturday. It was very busy, but we were seated in 10 minutes and enjoyed our breakfast. Drew had an ‘old-fashioned’ breakfast with two eggs over easy, hash brown casserole, two rashers of bacon, biscuits, grits and country gravy. He decided to ignore the latter two items. I on the other hand had the Double Meat breakfast this came with three eggs over-hard (as I like them), two rashers of bacon, two patties of sausage meat along with the biscuits, grits and gravy. Even I quail at eating country gravy, but I managed everything else. 

Replenished we were back on the road at 11.30am heading down the US1 South, also known as the Dixie Highway and the Overseas Highway, I like this title as the road really does go over the seas. 

Given the popularity of the Keys, it was no surprise to find traffic hold ups along the way. In a good example of queuing theory the occasional passing places that let people overtake actually slowed the flow down as they tucked and dived back into the main lane when the passing lane ceased. 

We crossed over our first large bridge and entered Key Largo, this is a quite built up place, with an excessive number of bait and tackle shops. 

We moved on to Tavernier Key, followed by Plantation Key, then Windley Key then Islamorada. We were really travelling slowly at this point. I suspect it was just the amount of traffic, but we were grateful for the car's air-con as the temperature was in the high 90s - a lovely sunny day. We stopped for Coffee in Islamorada at 2pm. We had taken 2 1/2 hour to drive 44 miles from Florida City to Islamorada!!

After Islamorada the traffic eased up and we drove over the bridges between the Lower Matakumbe Key, Long Key and Duck Key before coming to the amazing site of the Severn Mile Bridge, which as the name implies is Severn Miles long between Knights Key and Little Duck Key without touching ground, this is just amazing and is hard to capture on camera, but is very dramatic. 

Seven Mile Bridge

We then went through Big Pine Key, Cudjoe Key, then Sugarloaf Key and on to Key West.

The latter 85 miles of the route only taking 2 hours. So we arrived at the Best Western Hibiscus hotel at 16:34 and quickly checked in to your lovely room and enjoyed the air-con for a while before going out to dinner.

Dinner

Given our proximity to Cuba, and the number of Cuban's who live in these parts, it seemed right to start our visit to this island with Cuban food. I had read in advance about a famous restaurant called El Siboney and when we found out it was only a few blocks away we decided to try it for dinner tonight. 

The walk was pleasant, up two streets along four blocks and we were there. Though we weren't the only ones. There was already a large crowd outside when we arrived. We went in and the gentleman behind the counter asked how many we were. He said we would be between 20 and 30 minutes. 

There was no waiting place inside, so we joined the others outside and read about the famous chief of the Siboney tribe who had ruled Cuba prior to the arrival of the Spanish. They restaurant has a statue of the chief outside.

It was just 30 minutes later when our number (19) was called and we were sat at a table in the corner. This restaurant has little pretensions in decor - more images, statues and lithographs of the Indian Chief - but has the most wonderful food.

I began with an old favorite from my days of visiting Cuba - Sopa de Pollo. This homemade chicken soup would have made any chef proud. With a rick stock, threads of chichen meat and a wide range of vegetables it was warming and satisfying in the way only homemade food made with care can be. So this wasn't my home, but if the food is always like this I would want it to be.

Drew had Empanadas de Pollo y Carne, again a favorite dish of his. The crisp pastie was filled with shredded chicken and shredded beef. Drew marginally preferred the chicken one, moist and tender, it was perfect. The beef one was also plesant, but not as homely as the chicken one.

I then opted for Albondigas con plantains, frijoles negros y arroz amarillo. The chunky meatballs were flavoured with chilli and sage and other deep flavoured herbs and in a rich tomato sauce that would have been strong enough to eat on its own. They were  served with the common additions of Cuban food, plantains, black beans and saffron rice. I know I have to try other restaurants while I am in the Keys, but I could happily come back here every night and work my way through the menu.

Drew chose the Ropa Vieja con plantains, frijoles negros y arroz amarillo. Any student of Spanish will know that Ropa Vieja means 'old clothes' but in Cuban cuisine the phrase is used to mean stewed beef with vegetables and like the Chicken Soup earlier shows the impact of the Jewish food culture on Spanish, and therefore Cuban, food. The origin of this dish can be traced to the Middle Ages.  

Drew finished with a Key Lime Pie which had a meringue topping. Drew felt it was more like a Key Lime Meringue than a Key Lime Pie, but the sharp limes set off the sweet meringue extremely well, so Drew loved it.

All of the above food, and the traditional 20% tip (yes that is the common practice here, which is not easy for a person used to 10% as being generous) all came to £50 at current exchange rates. Amazing food and cheap too. 

Dinner over we walked back to the hotel and were in bed by 10pm. Tired after a long, hot drive, but replete with the delicious food.