I have to admit, living with a vegan hasn't been easy in the last year after she took it upon…read moreherself to change her entire eating and restrict any living animal content. While vacationing down in the carribean and dealing with limited WiFi and time constraints at each port while our ship was at dock, I made it a priority to at least score on one eatery in her favor.
Yes, kudos on Yelp for pulling this one off which actually turned out to be a fun adventure. Let me explain, we had just got done eating at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Charlotte Amalie and for what ever reason after my phone had been on overdrive searching for WiFi and depleting my battery life, I finally got my chance to Yelp LMFAO.
Did a search for vegan restaurants and actually found a handful. Sweet Life was the only one to answer and the person who took my call was the owner (Akashaa). I told him our situation and would be arriving via taxi. That must have struck a chord because he literally coached me to walk away from the tourist zone and flag down a cab to save a few bucks and also get away from traffic delays considering, two large cruise ships had flooded the port with travelers including us.
In trying to understand his heavy cool accent, it was on once we got a taxi. Another fun fact, our taxi driver was a female driver first day on the job who didn't have a permit to operate in this zone. She was minding her own business trying to turn around and go the opposite way. Comedy, we all shared a laugh because no one really moves fast around here for anyone, it's completely laid back.
Locating Sweet Life Café required over the phone navigation between two locals from the island, the dialogue was complete comedy trying to locate this address that literally took us to an alley brick road across town. There was the sign alas with Akashaa waving us down. I looked at Rosario and saw her eyes gleam in pure excitement.
Menu, what menu Akashaa said, I tell what the menu is for today. I don't remember exactly what he said but the rasta pasta remained embedded in both our heads and settled. He told us his kitchen is 100% vegan and won't find, anything outside of that criteria. Our rasta pasta consisted of a bed of brown rice, veggie pasta (egg free) tofu, avocado, local seasoning and olive oil in lieu of tomato sauce. He also gave us complimentary Lentil balls coated in a raw flour base in the shape of meatballs. Our experience and stimulating conversation actually slowed down the clock for that duration as we both shared a meal and conversed
The restaurant is as generic one can make it, very open air, no air condition, no ice, no WiFi, drinks served at room temperature. We decided to move from the corner table and sit at the counter after we felt comfortable and we're glad we did because that's where we got to know Akashaa better.
He walked us to the first street and pointed in a direction with a specific target to make a left and continue walking. Approximately 3 miles back to the port as we jetted across town looking like lost tourist and me having to go to the restroom :)
Pura vida or was it "waa gwaan"
:)
