GASTRONORMOUS

I spent the entire week of Thanksgiving with my family at an all-inclusive resort, the Barcelo Maya Palace, on the Yucatan Peninsula, mercifully far south of rowdy Cancun. I must say that while I knew this was probably the most relaxing option for us, and certainly the best idea for the kids (my nieces and nephew, all under age 9), I still wasn’t totally sold on the all-inclusive idea. When I travel, I really like to experience the culture, and especially the food, of the place I am visiting, and the idea of eating at French and Japanese restaurants at a secluded resort in Mexico seemed a little odd to me.

While I must admit that the culinary offerings weren’t the highlight of the stay, I hasten to say that this all-inclusive experience was amazing–I couldn’t have been more wrong in my misgivings.  There was so much to do on-site: several pools, a beautiful beach, great snorkeling (on clear days) in crystal water, shuffleboard (I swear, it is actually fun!), bocce ball, tennis, ping pong, and of course lounging in a hammock with a margarita is a possibility in time of day. Plus, there are tons of things to see off-site, from eco- and water-parks to Mayan ruins. It was a really great week for everyone, adults and kids alike. Perhaps it wasn’t the most culturally enriching vacation, but it was exactly the sort of relaxing, stress-free trip we needed—I would return in a heartbeat.

As to the food: In general, all-inclusives are not renowned for having great food (my sister suspects this might be because the unlimited free alcohol leads to less discerning guests!). I think anyplace that must serve thousands of people a wide variety of eatin’ options at every meal is not going to have the best food. That said, the food at Barcelo Maya Palace was better most institutional-level eateries out there. And strangely, where they seemed to cut corners was at the formal sit-down, table-service restaurants (like the Caribbean joint, left).

The Barcelo Maya Resort group offers nine “a la carte” restaurants in all (in addition to buffets and snack bar/grills, which were open for longer hours), and we ate dinner at four of them: The French, Caribbean, Brazilian, and Mexican. All the meals got mixed reviews from our group. Some people in our twelve-person posse preferred the Mexican and Brazilian places, others put those two in last place. We all liked enough things at the buffets and snack bars to keep us happy, and the kids (well, okay, the Hubs and I included!) probably liked the buffets the best. It was much better than I expected it to be, though not every dish hit it out of the ballpark.

There were tons of fresh fruit, cereals, pastries, made-to-order omelets, and anything else you might want in the a.m. at the breakfast buffet. The biggest hit for breakfast I think were the chillequilles, which were prepared without eggs, but that you could top with a red or green-sauce poached egg. Yum!

We ate most lunches at the grill, which was actually a smaller version of the buffet (the buffets also had made-to-order grilling stations), but had a more outdoors-y setting. Again, the lunch and dinner buffets offered some good and bad things, but enough good to keep us full and happy, though most of us were not big on the mayonnaise-based prepared salads featured at lunch. But there were plenty of other lunch and dinner options, from pizza and pasta for the kids, to soup, salad and sandwich fixin’s, and custom-ordered fajitas. There were Mexican specialties at every buffet, and I loved that I could have guacamole at every meal, including breakfast! It was good guacamole, too.

At all of the table-service restaurants, some of the details were off. For instance, the delicate piped stars that we were told was flavored butter, was actually flavored margarine, or maybe Crisco—it had that mouth-coating greasy feel that even most margarines these days lack (the buffets featured real butter, oddly). Also, all the restaurants seemed to have issues with serving food at the right temperature. Many things meant to be hot were served lukewarm or cold. Service in general was unpredictable; it was great at the French restaurant and at the buffet for dinner, but not as good at the other restaurants or the buffets for breakfast or lunch.

Our first meal at a table service restaurant was at the French Brasserie. As with the other restaurants, this got mixed reviews from my family (as there were 12 of us, I suppose this is to be expected). The boulliabasse looked spectacular (left), but tasted a little less so. Some of the other dishes, like the surf and turf, and a fish entree were bigger hits. We were there the night of my sister’s birthday, and the staff gave her the most memorable (and loud) happy birthday greeting I have ever seen, with one waiter cracking a towel somehow to sound exactly like firecrackers. It was hysterical. She was mortified. Everyone else, of course, was delighted. This was the Hubs favorite table-service restaurant, and my bro-in-law’s too.

We had Brazilian on Thanksgiving, and it was, I guess, an appropriate celebration of all things meat (served on those weird Brazilian meat swords seen exclusively at Brazilian restaurants). The turkey (on a sword!) was the biggest hit of the night, appropriately, though one piece was undercooked (um, ick). Other complaints were that the cuts of meat were not top-notch. But I’d say a good half of us enjoyed this meal. It was among my brother’s favorite places.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures at the Brazilian or Mexican meals, or any of the buffets (I know! I don’t know what was up with me—I guess I was too much into vacation mode even to blog!). But you can get the flava of our meals from the mini photo essay below. P.S. Included are pictures taken by my nieces and nephew, ages 6 through 9, which accounts for the picture of the fish sticks and some other cool photos.

Tomorrow: Our daytrip to Playa del Carmen.