Thanksgiving in St. Maarten
(c) Copyright JMB Communications 2007 (www.jmbcommunications.com)


For some of us, being home in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Thanksgiving is what it’s all about. Thanksgiving was born here, Thanksgiving is what Plymouth is all about, and it’s part of our culture.
But long before Jimmy Buffett started singing “Christmas In The Caribbean,” some residents of Plymouth and elsewhere across the USA have headed South – sometimes, far to the South – to enjoy Christmas, Chanukah, July 4, and – yes – even Thanksgiving in the Caribbean.
I love turkey almost as much as I love sushi, to which I am irrevocably addicted, but I hate the onset of cold weather as much as I love either of the above.
That’s why, when the opportunity presents itself, my wife and I migrate south to St. Maarten to enjoy everything that island has to offer even as our home town (America’s home town) enjoys the festivities of America’s first home-grown holiday.

Turkey Aplenty
Visiting St. Maarten does not mean abandoning all that most Americans hold sacred about the holiday.
Although turkey isn’t exactly a staple menu item here in St. Maarten, nonetheless some restaurants go all out to make sure American visitors to this half-Dutch, half-French island aren’t disappointed as they suffer through Turkey Withdrawal.
Far from it.
Turtle Pier Restaurant, near the sparkling new Princess Juliana International Airport main terminal, roasts about two dozen big birds every Thanksgiving and is mobbed with Americans in search of an authentic taste of home. Owner Al Wathey, though a native St. Maartener, graduated from Bentley College in Massachusetts and his chefs know how to do turkey.

Other Choices
Although many other restaurants follow suit – and “Ric’s Place American Sports Bar” (owned by transplanted Californian Tamara Deutsch) always has American football on TV to ease the pain of sports fans who find themselves thousands of miles from home on one of the year’s biggest sports days – the fact is that for most Americans in the Caribbean, turkey isn’t where it’s at.
You can get turkey 365 days a year at home and have a Thanksgiving type dinner “whenever.”
Here, on an island with 400-plus restaurants, a place known as much for its gastronomic excellence as for its jewelry, friendly people, and clothing-optional beaches . . . here you can have extraordinary culinary delights instead of, well, turkey.
Let’s say you have breakfast at Mr. Busby’s Beach Bar on Dawn Beach or at the new Westin Dawn Beach nearby, then spend a few hours on the beach, buy some eye-popping bling at any of the dozens of fine jewelry stores in Philipsburg, the Dutch capital, then head back to the Gault Millau Award Winning “Beach Restaurant of the Year,” Daniel’s By The Sea, for some luscious grilled Caribbean Lobster. Put some Matouk’s Flambeau sauce on it and you get a dinner that quickly makes you forget turkey even exists.
International restaurants abound in St. Maarten . . . Italian, Creole, roadside “lolos” which grill lobster or chicken with “dirty” rice (including the famous Johnny B’s Under the Tree, which literally is under a tree), Rastafarian eateries, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and many Italian restaurants.
Two of the best Italian restaurants are Spiga, in the French Side fishing village of Grand Case, and La Gondola, one of a number of fine gourmet restaurants in the Atlantis Casino complex at Cupecoy Beach.
Located in a beautifully restored Creole home, Spiga (www.spiga-sxm.com) offers “creative Italian cuisine.” Everything is wonderfully home made, reflecting the many hours of daily preparation put in by Chef Ciro Russo. Spiga also offers one of the best “melt-in-your-mouth” beef tenderloins you will ever experience. It’s served with grilled portabella mushroom, potato, and grilled asparagas, and it could not possibly be more delicious.
La Gondola, perhaps the island’s most popular restaurant, started life as “La Raviolina,” where owner David Foini made pasta by hand every day and sold it wholesale to other restaurants on the island.
Today it’s ultra chique and sublimely creative. Chef Marco Ferrante not only still makes all the pasta from scratch, he does the same with half a dozen flavors of ice cream. . .and the sauces used for all the entrees on their huge menu are worth the price of a plane ticket.
Miss Thanksgiving? Nah. Cozy up to a table at any gourmet restaurant here in St. Maarten, and we feel right at home. . .