Yes, yes, yes, there is something incredibly decadent about staying at a great hotel, ringing up room service for a felony-rate breakfast and then carelessly taking it all into bed with the morning paper – crumbs be damned. However, in Punta Mita this weekend, I discovered something equally indulgent: lunch a la playa. (Does everyone know about this?) Too lazy to drag myself off the beach to go find food, I scanned the menu tucked under my cache of icy water bottles. Okay, I thought, let the mountain come to Mohammed, whereupon I ordered lunch and dove into the ocean. When a waiter showed up with my order twenty minutes later, I immediately had second thoughts. Wet, hot, dusted with sand, and sweaty in direct sunlight – who wants to eat like this? Yet before I could open my mouth in protest, a new chaise longue was being prepared under a shaded palapa, a cool cloth was on offer to wipe my hands and face, and suddenly I was reclining like a melodramatic 50’s housewife taking to her bed. Water was poured, chips were set within easy reach and a bountiful bed tray was perched across my lap. How very civilized. How very unexpected. How very – dare I say it? – Four Seasons.
Mahi Mahi Ceviche, in a tomato-citrus broth, with avocado and pico de gallo to start. Followed by the Ketsi Salad – a mix of greens topped with almonds, jicama, grilled chicken, tamarind vinaigrette and my now new-favorite way to eat watermelon and cantaloupe, chili-dusted. Far from the grueling picnic in the sun I feared, lunch was a refreshing respite that cooled me down. If only I knew then what I know now I would have gone and ordered that half-bottle of Pinot Grigio, too.
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