Food in Puerto Rico- Day 1

Our first day in Puerto Rico was filled with awesome food, and I was happy to have stuck with my diet so closely.

Lunch was very tasty and healthy. We had a late lunch once we got to the hotel and ate at the poolside restaurant, Solera. My husband and I split a plate of Nuevo Latino Chips and Guacamole, which was a wonderful spin on the traditional dish. The chips were made of exotic vegetables (plantains, taro or yucca- not sure-, and some other root veggies), and the guacamole had some olive oil in it and peppers, onions, and tomatoes.

We then split a salad that was full of avocado, kalmata olives, tomatoes, field greens, onions, and cucumber with a passion fruit vinaigrette on it. The chicken on top was grilled perfectly. I had this salad almost every day we were there it was so good- as well as the Chips and Guac. I was constantly craving this meal!

For dinner, we ate the fine dining restaurant at the hotel, Perla. The meal was nothing short of perfect. The waiter and chef were very receptive to my food restrictions and accommodated my needs wonderfully. The waiter even found some wines I could drink without having any bad reactions from the sulfites. He gave me tastings of two wines for each course so I could see if I would react. For dinner I ended up going with the Chardonnay from Chile and it was wonderfully fruity and not dry at all.

For dinner I had a perfectly cooked sea bass on top of a bed of shoestring cut parsnips, fingerling potatoes, shallots, and asparagus in a light butter sauce. The flavor was so light and healthy, and very refined in flavor. I couldn't have been happier with the meal selection-- which was actually a compromise from two different dishes (the fish from one and the vegetables from the another). I had too much flash on the pic, but you can see how lovely it was still.


The restaurant had a dessert of berries that I knew would be "gallbladder diet friendly" without having to alter the dish at all, so we had that for dessert. I particularly liked the strawberry portion of the dish, but it was all perfectly flavored. You can see that I already started to break in to it before taking the picture.


Since I was doing so well with the wine, I decided to have a glass of port (from Portugal) with dessert. It had a wonderful light cherry flavor with a chocolate undertone. I could drink a whole bottle of that for dessert by itself. Of course, my husband doesn't care for port and you can see him in the background making faces at it, telling me how gross it is. I think he's missing out.

Even after all that food and wine I had zero gallbladder issues. No nausea, no nothing. I was so excited!!!