West Chester Dish

“It’s normal to have this much movement in a plane of this size.” Physics Partner (who will be referred to as P.P.) yelled at me over the loud motor in the 12 passenger plane (including a person squeezed in next to the pilot.) I nodded as if to say “oh yeah sure, this happens all the time I fly in these things” and looked out the cracked plastic windows at the crystal clear blue water below. I smiled and discretely rubbed a shamrock good-luck charm in my pocket that a friend gave me. The view took my breath away but I couldn’t shake the feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t so much that we were whisked into the air in a vessel filled with tourist sardines it was more of a feeling of being hungry for some local eats.

I had flown from Philly to Miami. From Miami to Belize City and was en route to Caye Ambergris which is a small island off of the mainland of Belize. When we landed we found our hotel the beloved “Martha’s Hotel.” The pluses are the price, the private bathroom, the cute soaps on the back of the toilet (the sink is in the room) and the nice breeze. The negatives are the beds and the overall look of the place. We ditched our bags and went searching for food.

Apparently, finding food in the afternoon is a challenge in San Padro (the main town on the caye). Lunch ends at 2:00pm and dinner doesn’t start until 6:00pm. We walked down the sandy roads doing our best to dodge the zooming golf carts and bicycles and explored the various store fronts.  We passed what looked like a hallway with two fly-covered wooden tables and noticed a hand painted sign out front. LOBSTER BURRITOS, CONCH TACOS. I was intrigued but P.P. wasn’t confident. He said something along the lines of “I’d rather get a recommendation on a place like that from a local, you know?” I agreed and we walked in the direction of a place that was mentioned in my tour book that had conch fritters on the menu. Â

Turns out our fritter place was closed until 6:00pm. We asked a nearby store owner for a recommendation. ” It’s hard to find something open right now but there is an awesome Mexican place that looks like you wouldn’t eat there if your life depended on it. It looks like a hallway with a table in it.”  That’s all i needed to hear and we were off.Â

I got the conch buritto and P.P. got shrimp with a coconut sauce. Both were absolutely delicious even if it took half an hour for them to make  them from scratch.Â

The Final Dish: This place is conch-tastic! Lobster normally dominates most menus but since it’s off season right now conch happily replaces it for most items. I’m fine with this. Yum-a!