Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Yacht Week Food

A very delayed recap of Yacht Week food and festivities!


My first night in Split, I was dining solo as the rest of the girls were arriving the next morning. I hadn't done any research on what to see or eat in Split given I was only there for about 12 hours, so I quickly did a search on top rated restaurants. My search yielded a pizza place named Maslina. Oh yes, this was delicious. All the more delicious because I had only been eating kale and chia seeds prior to flying to Split, for Yacht Week Abs.

I ate this whole thing by.my.self.


If you are starting Yacht Week in Croatia, you will likely be based in Split. In any case, you and your crew will stock up on groceries somewhere in town, before sailing away. The most important thing is to add a few cases of champagne to your cart. Then, add a few more. You'll need to allot some for drinking and some for spraying all over. The 9 of us on the Salbunara went through a case in just a matter of hours on our first night.

There was a mini-kitchen on board, so we also brought real essentials: eggs, bread, fruit, cheese, some lettuce, pasta, pasta sauce, and ajvar. Blakely and I thought the ajvar was a eggplant based pasta sauce, based on the photo on the jar. No, we were totally wrong. Ajvar is made from red peppers and eggplant, and Croatians top it on many dishes. We did the same - from breakfast sandwiches to lunch to mixed in with pasta sauce. There is an option to bring a hostess on board to cook (and clean?) for you - but we didn't need one.

Breakfasts on board were pretty quick and easy. One of us would sautee some onions and peppers in one saucepan, and the other would stir up some eggs. If we had tortillas, we put together breakfast burritos with some shredded cheese.


{Chopping up some peppers}



{Breakfast burritos!}

Lunch was usually assorted cold cut sandwiches and bread. Or, several glasses of champagne. 

Here is a masterpiece meat sandwich. You can see I smeared some ajvar on the bottom and piled it high with every deli meat I could find. 


The making of a very delicious pasta salad lunch.



The making of one of the best cold pasta salads I have ever had (no, not just because I was half a bottle of champagne deep at only 2pm). The girls mixed the cold pasta with some cucumbers, peppers, ham slices, and topped it with some Italian dressing.


Dinners we usually ate out at various restaurants. To celebrate Svenja's birthday, we went to a seafood place in Hvar.



If you ever head to Hvar, make sure you go to Hula Hula for the sunset. And don't leave without a pitcher of the strawberry margaritas. 

A highlight was the restaurant our skipper, Xav, took us to in Vis, named Villa Kaliopa. The servers bring out the catch(es) of the day, you pick what you want, and they bring out plates of delicious, fresh, seafood. It was here that I learned that I also really like the Croatian liquor Rakia.


{Cheers to yacht week!}


The catch of the day, devoured by the Salbunara Week 29 crew.


Then it was time for all of us to fly back to the real world. I don't remember using the lounge in Split - I had basically left the Vanilla party (the last yacht week party for the week) and went straight to the airport and boarded after hugging all the girls goodbye.

Once I arrived in Frankfurt, I decided some post yacht week drinks were required in the lounge.


And on board too, of course.


I was exhausted by the time I made it onboard my Frankfurt >>> Newark leg, but I always have major FOMO when it comes to sleeping through airplane food.


Ugh, only ONE type of bubbles? Whatever, I'll take it.


Some kind of dumpling, some kind of satay. The service was better than I expected it would be - my glass was never left more than half empty, usually with a "More champagne, Miss Halarnakar?"



I really enjoyed this salad, though I would have preferred dressing on the side.


This shrimp curry was disgusting. I left it mostly untouched.


I think my favorite part of any United flight is when I am served the ice cream sundae dessert. Something about having ice cream at 30,000 feet is exciting and more yum than on the ground. 


After licking my ice cream bowl clean, I fell into a deep sleep until our initial descent back into NYC. I even left my refill of champagne untouched! As you can probably see by my photos, you don't go to Yacht Week for the food, you go for the adventure! 

As I sat in the taxi on the way home, I scrolled through the photos of our week of revelry. I was in post yacht week depression for about a week or so. Fun times with fun girls - some of the best stories to date! 

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