"I wish I were sitting on San Angustinillo beach watching the sun go down over the waves, sipping a margarita and waiting for our plate of freshly caught prawns, writes Michelle Dermody.
My boyfriend and I were in Mexico for six weeks and ended up at this beautiful sleepy seaside village. We spent our days in the water or catching a battered minibus to the nearest town to wander through the food markets. Every evening we made sure we returned to the beach just before sunset and ordered our meal. We had tall glasses of ceviche - seafood marinated in lime juice - then plates of chipotle prawn served with piping hot corn tortillas, rice and limes. Chipotle is a Mexican sauce made from toasted chillies. The restaurant was a wooden hut, but the girls working there cooked with the best and freshest local ingredients. The setting, the food and the company were the best.
BUT I'M NOT . . . SO
I will be sitting on a warm, sunny Irish beach this summer, weather permitting. I enjoy recreating our holiday but with the best Irish ingredients, which involves veg from our local community garden, salad leaves and radishes from our backyard and the catch of the day from Kish, a great fish shop in Smithfield, near where I live in Dublin. I love wrapping fish in parchment, adding a flavoured butter and popping it into the oven. It is the ultimate fast food.
Michelle Dermody is the proprietor of the Cake Cafe in the Daintree Building, Dublin 2. www.thecakecafe.ie