Cooking with Oscar and Moises

We have felt ripped off by so many shore excursions. Carnival seems to be the worst offender. I'll never forget the trip to Chichen Itza where the tour operator added 40 minutes to the two-hour bus ride so they could stop at a souvenir stand so everyone could have the opportunity to buy tacky stuff. (Like there's no gift shop at Chichen Itza?) Then to add insult to injury the tour operator provided us with a boxed lunch to eat on the bus - a mystery meat sandwich on stale white bread, a banana that should have been turned into banana bread days before, and a bag of crispy hydrogenated oil. Oh yeah, and a bottle of water that was no longer cold.)

Royal Caribbean seems to be on board with the stopping for souvenirs or drinks. (You just know these places are owned by relatives of the tour operator.)

So when we wandered down to the shore excursion desk, we explained that we didn't want to stop for shopping and that we would prefer to have a decent lunch. We were just about set for the excursion by boat to Passion Island (famous for Corona commercials) when the young lady suggested that we might like the "Mexican Cooking Experience". It was a bit pricey - but I'm going to put it up there as the best shore excursion we've ever taken.

Playa Mia was a short bus ride (10 or 15 minutes) from the pier. Our group was small - fewer than 20 people. Oscar and Moises were entertaining and informative. We made a three course lunch - shrimp and chipotle sauce served in a thick tortilla, garnished with shredded lettuce - grouper with a tamarind sauce and fried plantains with a chocolate-tequila sauce. It was absolutely the best lunch I've ever had on a shore excursion. We all used the same spices, but we didn't measure. Everyone used them to their own taste. Perfect.

We also learned how to decorate plates using chocolate, cream and toothpicks. And to keep it all straight, we did put our names on the plates.

After the best shore excursion lunch ever, we were free to use the beach for a couple of hours. There were the usual chairs and umbrellas as well as floaty things in the water and kayaks.

I'd recommend this one to everybody who likes food.