This post is not about practical nutrition tips. It’s about enjoying your food on vacation!

We’ve been on sunny warm–actually humid–St. Pete beach in Florida this weekend, and nothing is better to eat around the water than seafood.

On Saturday, we drove to St. Petersburg (a 15 minute drive) and walked down the Pier area. The birds in that area (by the way) are super amazing to watch!  Looking for a place to have dinner, we passed by a restaurant called Cassis–bingo! Great menu, great atmosphere, and we were hoping the food would be the same.

It was phenomenal.

My husband had the grilled grouper on vegetable ratatouille, topped with black olive tampenade. I ordered the roasted beet salad with arugula, goat cheese croquettes, and added grilled salmon to make an entree. Delicious! And to our surprise, they served olive and sun dried tomato bread baked in house.

The next day, we asked the hotel concierge in St Pete to suggest their favorite local seafood restaurant. Snappers Sea Grill was its name. The atmosphere was nice and the service was great. My husband got the wasabi crusted tuna that came with potato-stuffed puff pastry and sauteed vegetables. I ordered the cashew and coconut encrusted mahi mahi on top of mango chutney and grilled banana, which came with potato-stuffed pastry and  julienned red beet.

Delicious. Great choices!

Heading back home today, I’m excited to grocery shop, fire up the grill, turn on the oven, and get some fish cooking. I’m already planning how to recreate these dishes at home. Roasted beets–that would be a fun experiment!

When you travel, do you try to find a local popular restaurant, or do you head for chains you already know?

Do you ever try to make something you had in a restaurant at home?