A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean
by Melinda Blanchard, Robert Blanchard
List Price:
Our Price: $4.72
You Save: $20.28 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Melinda Blanchard, Robert BlanchardEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-10-10
ISBN: 0609606948
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Book Reviews of A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean
Book Review: Wonderful summer book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. I love Anguilla, and this book made me feel like I was back there again. I can't wait to go back now and hopefully meet some of the people in the book!
Summary of A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean
This is the true story of a trip to the beach that never ends. It's about a husband and wife who escape civilization to build a small restaurant on an island paradise -- and discover that even paradise has its pitfalls. It's a story filled with calamities and comedy, culinary disasters and triumphs, and indelible portraits of people who live and work on a sliver of beauty set in the Caribbean Sea. It's about the maddening, exhausting, outlandish complications of trying to live the simple life -- and the joy that comes when you somehow pull it off.The story begins when Bob and Melinda Blanchard sell their successful Vermont food business and decide, perhaps impulsively, to get away from it all. Why not open a beach bar and grill on Anguilla, their favorite Caribbean island? One thing leads to another and the little grill turns into an enchanting restaurant that quickly draws four-star reviews and a celebrity-studded clientele eager for Melinda's delectable cooking. Amid the frenetic pace of the Christmas "high season," the Blanchards and their kitchen staff -- Clinton and Ozzie, the dancing sous-chefs; Shabby, the master lobster-wrangler; Bug, the dish-washing comedian -- come together like a crack drill team. And even in the midst of hilarious pandemonium, there are moments of bliss.
As the Blanchards learn to adapt to island time, they become ever more deeply attached to the quirky rhythms and customs of their new home. Until disaster strikes: Hurricane Luis, a category-4 storm with two-hundred-mile-an-hour gusts, devastates Anguilla. Bob and Melinda survey the wreckage of their beloved restaurant and wonder whether leaving Anguilla, with its innumerable challenges, would be any easier than walking out on each other. Affectionate, seductive, and very funny, A Trip to the Beach is a love letter to a place that becomes both home and escape.
On a vacation with the family in Barbados, Mel and Bob Blanchard (of the Vermont-based Blanchard & Blanchard specialty foods company) stumble upon a tiny restaurant/shack on a Caribbean beach:
I marveled at the ingenuity of the set-up. A secluded spot, sand like flour, customers arriving in bathing suits. The guy barely lifted a finger, cleared at least $35.00, and gave us a lunch we'd remember forever.... The man had sold us a frame of mind.So begins the Blanchards' 10-year pursuit of the illusory notion of "island time." In a literary heartbeat, they abandon the "concrete jungle" that was Vermont and open a restaurant on a little-known island in the British West Indies called Anguilla ("rhymes with vanilla"). Narrated by Mel Blanchard, A Trip to the Beach dispels tired notions of the Caribbean--the steel drums, the lush landscapes, and acres of swaying palm trees--and instead focuses on the understated elegance and easy rhythms of the sublimely "flat, and scrubby" island. Though lacking the richness and finesse of Frances Mayes, and the wit and wisdom of Peter Mayle, Mel Blanchard nonetheless forges a new path in travel writing as the Martha Stewart of the Caribbean. A remarkably intuitive and inspired chef, Mel writes poignant passages on running a kitchen in Anguilla. Here she exposes the meat of the story, sharing her many outrageous adventures--how to cater to pampered and demanding guests, how to cook for a full restaurant in the darkest of island night with no electricity, how to prepare for recurring and utterly devastating hurricanes that wipe out your business. In these chapters the writing is as good as her cooking--inspiring, colorful, and easily digestible. Although she sometimes relies heavily on well-worn clich?s and expresses na?ve and rather privileged assumptions--"Why would anyone choose to live surrounded by concrete and traffic rather than fishing boats, water and palm trees?"--discerning readers will see the true nature of this tiny island--a place of simplistic beauty that struggles to maintain its independence while it depends on tourism for its livelihood. With a strange concoction of anecdotes, island politics, recipes, and sweet memories, the Blanchards seduce readers with the allure of "island time," bringing Anguilla home to the rest of us. --Daphne Durham
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in So you want to move to the Caribbean
Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earthby Jack Williams, Bob Sheets
Vintage; Published: 2001-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Caribbeanby James A. Michener
Fawcett; Published: 1990-12-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.59
Price in other shops:
Porter-Cable CTE300 3,000 Watt Generator with 6 HP EnginePorter-Cable; Tools
Price in other shops:
Hamilton Beach 52204 Blender/ Food ProcessorHamilton Beach; Hamilton Beach; Kitchen
Omni Castaway Rope HammockOmni Swings n' Things; Omni-Swings 'N Things; Omni Swings n' Things; Lawn & Patio; Lawn & Patio
Price in other shops:
Opus 25153 Expeditions Copper Hummingbird FeederOpus; OPUS; Opus; Lawn & Patio; Lawn & Patio
Price in other shops:
![Don't Stop The Carnival [ENHANCED CD] Image](/images/Dont-Stop-The-Carnival-ENHANCED-CD-B000006DI6-X.jpg)
Jimmy Buffett - Don't Stop The Carnival [ENHANCED CD]Buffett,Jimmy; Release date: 1998-04-28; Music CD
Best price: $59.99
Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novelby Herman Wouk
Back Bay Books; Published: 1992-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbeanby Melinda Blanchard, Robert Blanchard
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2000-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.24
Price in other shops:
Desiring Paradise... a true story of succumbing to the dreamby Karin W. Schlesinger
Conch Pubns; Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $70.85
Similar Books and other products
Island Wise: Lessons in Living from the Islands of the Worldby Janis Frawley-Holler
Broadway; Published: 2003-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $47.04
Cook What You Love: Simple, Flavorful Recipes to Make Again and Againby Robert Blanchard, Melinda Blanchard
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2005-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.28
Price in other shops:
Hurricanes & Hangovers: and other tall tales and loose lies from the coconut telegraphby Dear Miss Mermaid
BookSurge Publishing; Published: 2008-11-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Flirting With Mermaids: The Unpredictable Life of a Sailboat Delivery Skipperby John Kretschmer
Sheridan House; Published: 2003-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.57
Price in other shops:
Seasoned by Salt: A Voyage in Search of the Caribbeanby Jerry L. Mashaw, Anne U. Macclintock
Sheridan House; Published: 2007-02-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.65
Price in other shops:
Live What You Love: Notes from an Unusual Lifeby Robert Blanchard, Melinda Blanchard
Sterling; Published: 2005-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.93
Price in other shops:
Changing Your Course: The 5-Step Guide to Getting the Life You Want (Live What You Love)by Robert Blanchard, Melinda Blanchard
Sterling; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops:
At Blanchard's Table: A Trip to the Beach Cookbookby Melinda Blanchard, Robert Blanchard
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2003-03-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.80
Price in other shops:
Don't Stop the Carnival: A Novelby Herman Wouk
Back Bay Books; Published: 1992-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interludeby Ann Vanderhoof
Broadway; Published: 2005-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.60
Price in other shops: