Sue Style
Food, Wine and Travel Writer
|
Quote for the month:
'A true gastronome should always be ready to eat as a soldier should
always be ready to fight.'
Charles Monselet
|
Fed up with the winter, and longing for some warmth? This month
we're off to Mexico for Semana Santa...
VILLA DEL SOL, ZIHUATANEJO,
MEXICO
(FT Weekend)
‘If
one is not inclined to exaggerate the importance of exactitude’, wrote Charles
Macomb Flandrau in his classic book Viva Mexico, ‘and is perpetually interested
in the casual, the florid and the problematic, Mexico is one long, carelessly
written but absorbing romance.’ If you’re into a little romantic absorption
this spring – or simply fed up with your own climate - Zihuatanejo,
north of Acapulco on the Pacific coast, could be just the ticket.
Not to be confused with Ixtapa (a newer, purpose-built resort next door which has mercifully siphoned away many would-be visitors), Zihuatanejo is a small, quiet, slightly scruffy place built on the foundations of a fishing village, not some sort of concrete implant. It has its own airport, or you can reach it by car or by bus.
Just out of town is the Playa la Ropa. Here in this beautiful bay in the mid-seventies, we used to stay at the deliciously seedy Hotel Sotavento, with its huge terraces stacked up like the decks of a ship. We would stroll down the beach and gaze curiously in at the small, discreet Villa del Sol hotel, owned and run by Helmut Leins, a Munich-born engineer who had stumbled on the then near-virgin Playa del Ropa in 1978.
In those early days, the establishment amounted to a central bar under a giant palapa (thatched umbrella) surrounded by nine rooms. Nowadays it is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World with more than 50 spacious rooms and a handful of suites. All are dragged in richly coloured paints and furnished with gorgeous Mexican fabrics, hung with hammocks, protected by mosquito nets and equipped with all the comforts required to enjoy a spell in the tropics.
An Alhambra-like arrangement of ducts brings running water down past the low-slung, ochre-washed rooms and reception areas. Golden orioles chatter from the treetops in the early morning and at dusk. Hibiscus blooms of vivid magenta bend low to the water. It’s just the place for second (or subsequent) honeymoons – often an improvement on the first. (You’re so much better at it, and expectations are not so absurdly high.)
Food at the Villa del Sol is ‘new Mexican’ – chef Fabrice is French, married to a Mexican, and is clearly familiar with and intrigued by the complexities and subtleties of real Mexican food. In the Restaurant Villa del Sol, there’s a cebiche bar and sundry meats, fish and shellfish from the grill. The lunch menu features a safe selection of hamburgers, club sandwiches, salads and pasta. At La Cantina Bar and Grill, there are some more original offerings like flour tortillas with shrimps and avocado, shrimp chimichangas with cilantro and tamarind sauce, or ‘Fish’n Chips’ with a coriander aioli. Mains include a steak salad with mushroom and chipotle aioli, and seared rare tuna (a rarity in Mexico – most fish is overcooked) with greens, potato and fennel salad and a lime basil vinaigrette.
And when Fabrice’s food begins to pall or you feel like eating out for a change, you can wander down the beach and see if Raquel is still at her beachfront shellfish restaurant La Perla. A remarkable woman, a survivor of hurricanes, earthquakes and family kidnappings, she has long been famous for her butterflied camarones al mojo de ajo (garlic shrimps).
Kiri the resident black cat stalks the Villa premises in her elegant, fuchsia pink flea collar, graciously submitting - if in the mood - to caresses from passing guests. The latter come mainly from the US, with some from Mexico and Europe. Friday nights open with a drinks party to enable/encourage guests to fraternise. Americans (observes Leins) are good at this, chatting easily and establishing contacts. Europeans, ever reluctant (even in the tropics) to divulge their names or any other piece of potentially compromising personal information, take a little longer to unwind and go with the flow.
The best times to visit Mexico are between November and April - don't go during the European summer, which is Mexico's rainy season. But whenever - and wherever - you choose to go, just do it. Forget about the lack of exactitude, and the occasional problem; the absorbing romance of the place may easily have you hooked.
Not to be confused with Ixtapa (a newer, purpose-built resort next door which has mercifully siphoned away many would-be visitors), Zihuatanejo is a small, quiet, slightly scruffy place built on the foundations of a fishing village, not some sort of concrete implant. It has its own airport, or you can reach it by car or by bus.
Just out of town is the Playa la Ropa. Here in this beautiful bay in the mid-seventies, we used to stay at the deliciously seedy Hotel Sotavento, with its huge terraces stacked up like the decks of a ship. We would stroll down the beach and gaze curiously in at the small, discreet Villa del Sol hotel, owned and run by Helmut Leins, a Munich-born engineer who had stumbled on the then near-virgin Playa del Ropa in 1978.
In those early days, the establishment amounted to a central bar under a giant palapa (thatched umbrella) surrounded by nine rooms. Nowadays it is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World with more than 50 spacious rooms and a handful of suites. All are dragged in richly coloured paints and furnished with gorgeous Mexican fabrics, hung with hammocks, protected by mosquito nets and equipped with all the comforts required to enjoy a spell in the tropics.
An Alhambra-like arrangement of ducts brings running water down past the low-slung, ochre-washed rooms and reception areas. Golden orioles chatter from the treetops in the early morning and at dusk. Hibiscus blooms of vivid magenta bend low to the water. It’s just the place for second (or subsequent) honeymoons – often an improvement on the first. (You’re so much better at it, and expectations are not so absurdly high.)
Food at the Villa del Sol is ‘new Mexican’ – chef Fabrice is French, married to a Mexican, and is clearly familiar with and intrigued by the complexities and subtleties of real Mexican food. In the Restaurant Villa del Sol, there’s a cebiche bar and sundry meats, fish and shellfish from the grill. The lunch menu features a safe selection of hamburgers, club sandwiches, salads and pasta. At La Cantina Bar and Grill, there are some more original offerings like flour tortillas with shrimps and avocado, shrimp chimichangas with cilantro and tamarind sauce, or ‘Fish’n Chips’ with a coriander aioli. Mains include a steak salad with mushroom and chipotle aioli, and seared rare tuna (a rarity in Mexico – most fish is overcooked) with greens, potato and fennel salad and a lime basil vinaigrette.
And when Fabrice’s food begins to pall or you feel like eating out for a change, you can wander down the beach and see if Raquel is still at her beachfront shellfish restaurant La Perla. A remarkable woman, a survivor of hurricanes, earthquakes and family kidnappings, she has long been famous for her butterflied camarones al mojo de ajo (garlic shrimps).
Kiri the resident black cat stalks the Villa premises in her elegant, fuchsia pink flea collar, graciously submitting - if in the mood - to caresses from passing guests. The latter come mainly from the US, with some from Mexico and Europe. Friday nights open with a drinks party to enable/encourage guests to fraternise. Americans (observes Leins) are good at this, chatting easily and establishing contacts. Europeans, ever reluctant (even in the tropics) to divulge their names or any other piece of potentially compromising personal information, take a little longer to unwind and go with the flow.
The best times to visit Mexico are between November and April - don't go during the European summer, which is Mexico's rainy season. But whenever - and wherever - you choose to go, just do it. Forget about the lack of exactitude, and the occasional problem; the absorbing romance of the place may easily have you hooked.
Hotel
Villa del Sol,
Playa la Ropa,
P.O. Box 84,
Zihuatanejo,
Guerrero,
Mexico
Tel. +52 755 42 239
Fax +52 755 427 58/755 440 66
e-mail: hotel@villasol.com.mx
website: www.hotelvilladelsol.net
Playa la Ropa,
P.O. Box 84,
Zihuatanejo,
Guerrero,
Mexico
Tel. +52 755 42 239
Fax +52 755 427 58/755 440 66
e-mail: hotel@villasol.com.mx
website: www.hotelvilladelsol.net
Sue
Style
Winchelsea, East Sussex and Alsace, France
contact: sue@suestyle.com
Copyright Sue Style 2001-2004 All rights reserved
|
|
|
|
|