liamsaunt
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Posts posted by liamsaunt
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Friday we did not have diner because I ended up having to go to the hospital equivalent on island. I'm fine now.
Saturday was our day to transfer from the house we were renting over to Lovango Cay. This time, we rented a "treehouse" instead of a glamping tent. The treehouses have air conditioning of a sort. It can only work so well because the slots in the floor are open slats. Here are some pictures.
We hung out by the pool while waiting for our cabin to be ready. They upgraded us to a pool cabana and comped a bottle of some sparkling wine that my husband had a glass of.
Dinner was at the Sandpit. There's live music and various other entertainment, but we were pretty tired, so just had dinner and were shortly asleep. Menu
Tuna nicoise (I really liked the pickled okra)
Lobster pizza
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1 hour ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:
What is the wrapping on the 'St. John sushi wrap'?
It's a pink soy paper wrap.
Yesterday we went back to Cinnamon Bay, and i actually remembered to take a picture of the beach!
We did not snorkel, just floated around.
Here's another fruit tree on the beach. This is a lime berry. You can eat this one in drinks and desserts.
We had to go back and get cleaned up for dinner, but first some pool time with Irie Pops. Today's flavor was chocolate sea salt.
Dinner was at Zozo's at Caneel Bay. This restaurant is closing for the season June 14th, but I think it might be closing permanently at this location. The National Park has (finally!!!) won the lawsuit to take control of the Caneel Bay property from the investment banking group that has been holding the grounds in limbo since the hurricanes of 2017. The ruling is being appealed by the investment group, but the National Park has already been doing improvements and access work. My understanding is that part of the beach grounds will be opening to the public in just a few weeks, including the beach directly in front of Zozos. People that live down here are ecstatic--they've been basically banned from the grounds for decades (five of the seven beaches on the property were reserved for the exclusive use of resort guests).
My understanding is that part of the property will still be a private upscale resort run by a vendor of the National Park's choosing, but at least part of the grounds area and more of the beaches will be public now. Speaking as a prior frequent Caneel Bay resort guest, I think this is a good balance. There were definitely people who wanted the entire resort area turned into unspoiled National Park land, but that was never going to happen. The resort is too much of a money maker, and just as importantly, was also one of the largest employers on the island when it was open.
Anyway. Restaurant setting
Menu for the evening
Drinks. Husband had a martini and I had the hydrate mocktail
I started with the burrata appetizer (meat donated to my husband haha)
And he had the steak tartare
For entrees, my husband ordered the osso bucco but swapped in the tenderloin and added a lobster tail (you can always swap tenderloin for the osso bucco and add also can local lobster to all the entrees here). The owner came out and said that the tenderloins did not look as good as they should, and suggested he order something else. He got the porchetta instead
I had the scallops. I was reluctant to order them since i can get them so easily at home (a lady in my town even owns a scallop fishing boat and does door to door deliveries!) They were the best thing I have eaten on this trip! I finished my whole plate, which is unusual for me.
We watched the sun setting with dinner. I could not decide which picture I liked better so you get two
The owner brought over a comped dessert to apologize for the tenderloin not being available. It was a molten chocolate thing with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. It's not something we every would have chosen on our own, but my goodness was it delicious. We managed to finish most of it.
Another great meal at Zozos.
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We went to Haulover North to try and snorkel the sea fan garden that is offshore there. We encountered a yellow crested night heron on the walk to the beach
Sargassum along the shore, but we decided to try anyway.
Unfortunately the visibility was terrible. There was lots of decaying sargassum on the sea floor and the particles were breaking up into the water. We swam really far out but could not get a clear look. We are going to come back this summer when we have a boat captain for the family group. They can drop us further offshore than we can safely swim. We don't tend to hire captains when it's just the two of us.
We went over to Haulover South across the street, which was clear, but not as interesting. Baby squid
I usually spend my time snorkeling at this location looking at the various corals and encrusting sponges. I find their colors and patterns fascinating.
Back to pool beach for an Irie Pop.
Then into town for sunset and dinner. Neither of us wanted a big meal so we went to Longboard. Menu
Drinks. Husband had a frozen blood orange margarita and I had a mocktail made with hibiscus tea and orange
We shared the St. Thomas sushi wrap
and a couple of fish tacos
We went to St. John scoops for dessert. I had mint chocolate chip and he had toasted coconut in a waffle cone.
The sunset
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Another exciting breakfast! At home it is plain greek yogurt and multigrain bread with fruit, but you have to work with what you can get.
Yesterday we went to Maho to go snorkeling. This used to be one of the least busy, most peaceful beaches on the island. Someone developed the area across the street from it and put in a beach bar, kayak rentals and so on. Now it is always jam packed with day drinkers and cruise ship passengers visiting from St. Thomas and I rather hate it. However, the snorkeling is still good, and despite the crowds on the beach, relatively few people actually go in the water past their waists, and even fewer bother snorkeling, so we usually go and head straight into the water, then leave immediately after we are done. There were some pretty significant rain storms right before we arrived on Saturday, so the water was still stirred up. Here are a couple of pictures. French angelfish
Coral with christmas and feather duster worms
The bay always has lots of turtles because of the abundance of sea grass
After snorkeling we went over to Cinnamon to swim. I forgot to take a picture of the beach again, but I did take a picture of one of the fruit bearing trees that grow along the beach. The noni fruit
Also known as starvation fruit. It smells like rotten cheese when you cut into it. Generally not recommended to eat, it is sometimes used in bush remedies.
Then we went back to the house for a small snack and swimming in the pool
Dinner was at Morgan's Mango. The set menu never changes here, so I didn't take pictures this time. My husband's margarita
Cajun shrimp appetizer
And a special appetizer of tuna wrapped in nori and tempura fried
Husband had the Caribbean lobster
And I had the fish of the day, local whole snapper
Both entrees were terrific. We shared a piece of their famous key lime pie for dessert.
Today we are hanging at the house in the morning, then heading over to the other side of the island for more snorkeling this afternoon. Food for the day is TBD.
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23 hours ago, Smithy said:
What are the crisp, roughly translucent slices atop your salad?
Thinly shaved and fried yucca root. It was really tasty. I've been meaning to try and make yucca fries at home, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Here is my exciting breakfast. If you ever wonder why I rarely post breakfast pictures, this is why.
Yesterday we went to one of our favorite beaches, Francis. The water was like glass. You can see how green the island is right now. They have been getting a lot of rain recently.
We encountered some curious deer at the entrance to the beach. They were not bothered by us at all. In fact, we had to wait for them to move out of the way.
The beach was quiet, which was nice. Trunk Bay was just voted the #1 most beautiful beach in the world on one of those annual polls, so I guess everyone was over there. Fine with me.
After beach we had to go to the grocery store to get stuff they were out of when we shopped Saturday. There hadn't been any deliveries yet, so they were still out of everything we needed. Island time. We'll try again today. The gelato store is in the same shopping plaza as the grocery store so we stopped in to see what they had. They make everything in small batches and the flavors change every day, so it's luck of the draw as to what (if anything) they have.
Did one of those make it back to our villa to share? You know it did.
For dinner we decided to try the Lime Inn. They had recently switched their menu over from a prix fixe multi course menu (we tried it a few years ago, and really disliked it), to an all taco menu. You cannot go wrong with tacos in my opinion. They have all the same tacos that you can get at the Lime Out floating taco boat I have posted about before, plus some additional options. Here's the menu. And yes, those prices are per taco. Food is pretty expensive here.
Our drinks. Husband got the harbor cooler and I had the dane juice.
We shared the grouper seveche to start. Very tasty!
My tacos. I chose the tuna matata and the g'day mate
Husband also had the g'day mate and the Mr. Worldwide
Restaurant
We split a dessert taco too. Why not, it's vacation. It was stuffed with frozen key lime filling. They had a chocolate one stuffed with salted caramel filling too, but we thought we could only manage one.
And now it's off to the beach for some snorkeling. If I see anything interesting I will share the photos.
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21 minutes ago, rotuts said:
I know I need glasses , for sure
sorry for being a pest
having visuals issues w this :
looks Alien or possibly Infectious ?
Oh hahaha! That was a taro chip. Sorry I missed that!
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We are back on St. John. This trip is a rescheduled visit from last November--we had to cancel then because my husband was sick. The property management company, airline, and jeep rental all let us push our dates to now without any penalty, so it's kind of like a free trip. Except for all of the money we are about to spend on food haha. We arrived Saturday, and are staying in the same house as the past two times. We had to get up at 3:30 AM to make our flight, so we were both exhausted on arrival.
We had some time to kill before being able to head to the villa for check in, so went up to the Windmill Bar to take in some views
All that haze you see is Sahara dust. I don't think I have seen it in May before, it's usually more of a summer thing. The bad news with the dust is that it makes it hotter than normal (and it is indeed hot!), and it's also bad for allergies. The good news is that the dust suppresses development of tropical weather. If it's this hot and dusty now, I cannot imagine what it is going to be like when we come back in July.
Menu cover. I was so tired I forgot to take a picture of the rest of it. Sorry, @rotuts! It's a small menu--just a few kinds of tacos, taco bowls, and burgers/hot dogs.
The bar. It was around 2PM when we got there, and it doesn't start filling up until happy hour and live music starts at 3.
We just ordered a plate of shrimp tacos to split. Pretty basic but did the job.
After getting unpacked at the house, we headed out to find something for dinner. We were just really tired and neither of us felt like eating much. We ended up at Rum Hut. Menu
Husband's cocktail. I believe it was a ginger martini.
And our selections to share: the Cruz Bay roll and tuna tartare tacos
And dessert. Irie Pops of course!
Yesterday we spent the day at Cinnamon Bay. I did not take one picture of the beach! It was lovely. We went over to the food truck to get some cold water. They basically sell sandwiches, nachos, and ice cream
For dinner, we decided to try a new place, The Refinery. Menu
Cocktails. I ordered a no-jito and my husband ordered a Singapore Sling. The bartender came over to deliver the drinks and to confirm that he had made mine without alcohol. I thought that was nice.
We ordered a couple of appetizers: the peppered shrimp--this was spicy! I could have gone even hotter but my husband said it was at the upper level of what he enjoys for spice.
And the crab and corn fritters with pineapple salsa. The fritters were essentially a jumbo shrimp wrapped in crab fritter batter. They were delicious but I could only eat one.
I just ordered a salad with more shrimp on the side for dinner
And husband had the coconut poached wahoo with cassava cake.
I really wanted to get the Caribbean ice cream sandwich for dessert, but the heat is slaying my appetite and I could not even finish my dinner food. We brought home most of my dinner shrimp and half of the fritters to eat today.
And yes, we are eating lots of shrimp since we normally cannot have it at home because of my nephew's allergy. He's coming with us in July so we have to get all the crustaceans we want to eat into this visit. 🙂
Not sure where we are eating today, but our plan is to find as many new to us places as we can.
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23 hours ago, rotuts said:
its always disappointing to get sub-par food at a restaurant.
What is the triangular item next to the tuna ?
than you for taking us along.
Ive been to that bakery , in the off-season few times.
it really fantastic. love the aroma's of bakeries and patisseries .
to that far from Woods Hole and the WHPA
The dish was whipped tahini sauce, the tuna, a slaw, and the last thing on the plate is an orange slice.
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Last installment for this trip. Our last meal for this visit was at Bleu, which is one of the best rated restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, it was by far our least favorite. Cocktail for my husband. I checked their online menu, and whatever this is was not listed. He said it was really unbalanced, both too sweet and too bitter.
Cotuit oysters.
Tuna tartare. This was fine, just a little bland.
Halibut with asparagus and rice in a pineapple beurre blanc. The piece of halibut they gave me was the folded over tail, so naturally it was overcooked. For almost $50, I would have appreciated a better cut of fish.
However, it was better than my husband's roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots. I think they cooked the chicken the day before! It was completely dried out. The carrots were wildly overcooked too. We considered sending it back, but I knew I was not going to finish my dish and my husband liked it enough to have some, so he just ate the thigh off the plate and then we swapped.
A lady at the table behind us ordered the chicken too, and I heard her saying "the sauce is delicious, but the chicken is horrible!" So I guess it was just an off night.
We ordered a trifle to share for dessert. It was....fine.
We won't be back to Bleu if we return to this area. Falmouth is very pretty, but the Outer Cape is where I like to be.
Sea glass haul for the week
Menauhant beach
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Yesterday was pretty gray all day. I managed a few beach walks, but didn't take any pictures. Dinner was at another Italian restaurant in town, Osteria la Civetta. The menu is pretty small.
The interior, kind of cave like. I took this picture as we were getting ready to leave. The restaurant had been full earlier, but it emptied out rather quickly as we were finishing up, for reasons we would soon discover...
We shared some olives and whipped gorgonzola cheese
Husband had the swordfish pasta
and I chose the eggplant pasta.
We shared an affogatto for dessert
We heard rumbling in the sky as we were heading to the car. Luckily, our house was not too far from town, because about five minutes after we got home, the sky lit up and it started roaring thunder and slamming lightning down. There was golf ball sized hail! I had been offline all day and had no idea that the weather was coming. When I opened my weather app, the area we were in was purple surrounded by red on the radar! I had never even seen that before. Luckily we did not lose power and it was over in about an hour. Crazy weather.
It's back to calm today. Here's a couple of pictures from my morning walk.
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Another note of possible interest about the huge house I posted a picture of yesterday. I was wondering if perhaps it was an old home that was being restored, which is why it is so close to the beach, so I did some research last night. It is not, it is new construction. The current owner tore down the old house that was there (an 8,000 sqft house!) and replaced it with this one. It's essentially in the footprint of the old house (though the new house is even larger), which is why the town approved it. I cannot imagine building new construction so close to the ocean in this day and age, but I guess people can do what they want with their money...
Yesterday was actually a sunny and warm day, so exploring was in order. We went to Woods Hole and visited Nobska Lighthouse
There was a pretty lookout point across the road
with a good view of the ferry to Martha's Vineyard
Beach walk
and then an ice cream stop. Coconut macadamia and coffee heath bar
Which necessitated another beach walk, so we drove to the largest beach in Falmouth, Old Silver.
People were swimming! That's just crazy
For dinner, we went to town for silly sushi. We decided to pick two share plates and two rolls to split.
Tuna carpaccio
Crispy rice with spicy tuna
And then I picked a jalapeño toro roll and husband chose a tempura shrimp roll with tuna and pineapple
It's back to gray and rain today, but the sunny day was an unexpected treat.
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Yesterday was another gray Cape Cod spring day. I went out and did a little exploring while my husband worked. This is the beach that you get access to with the house.
There is a lot of sand dredging happening in town right now to clear the channels for increased boat traffic and replenish the beaches before the tourist season starts. The dredger was working directly behind the beach.
I found a handful of sea glass for my vast collection back home. I picked up a couple of shells too, though I usually only look for sea glass.
Here's a house under construction near the beach. There is a lot of new construction happening in town, and all of the houses I have seen being built are quite large.
Osprey
I decided to try a different ice cream parlor.
Peanut butter caramel. Too sweet and not worth eating. Oh well!
We decided to go out for Mexican food. Husband had a margarita
I had cod tacos
And he had lobster enchiladas.
Post dinner walk on another beach in town
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Saturday night we had dinner at the top rated Italian restaurant in town, La Cucina Sul Mare. We could only get a reservation at 5:30 (a lot of the restaurants close at 8PM in this town). It was absolutely packed when we arrived. We ordered four oysters rockefeller to start (one each).
And an order of the warm bruschetta at my nephew's request. Unfortunately this was a soggy and not warm.
My nephew took a picture of his linguini with giant meatball and said to share it with you. He said it was very bland. It's rare for him not to finish a meatball, but he left about half of this plate behind.
I ordered the swordfish piccata, minus the shrimp garnish. This was also bland, and oddly lacking in lemon flavor. I think these purple flowers must be the official garnish of Falmouth-they were on all the plates yesterday too.
Sister had the linguini with clams. She said it was...bland!
Husband ordered a special of swordfish with clams and sausage. It came in a tomato sauce that was not mentioned when the server described the dish. Note the ubiquitous purple flower.
No dessert, as once again the portions were massive and much food went uneaten.
My sister and nephew returned home yesterday, so it's just my husband and me for the rest of the week. Here's the kitchen at the house. It has nice views of the water.
The beach on a gray Cape Cod spring day
After trudging along the cold and windy beach all morning, we decided the next best thing to do was to go to town and find some ice cream. That's what you do if you are from New England 🙂
Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium looked promising. I am sure we will try most of the options in town before the week is out.
The options
I thought the lobster flavor was probably vanilla with chocolate lobsters in it or something, so I walked down the case to check the sign for it...
Um.....OK. I got mint chocolate chip, which was nice and minty but had too many chocolate chunks for my personal taste. I just ate around most of them.
All the fish markets in town are closed on Sundays, so we had to eat out again. We chose Estia, a Greek place. We started with calamari, which was large enough for about six people. What we managed to eat was tender and well seasoned.
I had the shrimp saganaki for my entree. I think there were 12 large shrimp in there and about three cups of rice. It was tasty but much too much food.
Husband ordered the shrimp and swordfish skewers, which also came with grilled vegetables and fries.
And both entrees also came with huge salads! Next time we go out I think we are going to just share something.
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On 5/3/2024 at 1:41 PM, Dejah said:
I had picked up a bundle of Ong Choy / Water Spinach. It was SO fresh and I loved it when we had it on our trips to Asia. But I have never been able to cook it properly. It always seems to come out stringy. Would appreciate any suggestions on technique! @liuzhou @liamsaunt and anyone who cooks this lovely vegetable.
I don't think I have ever cooked water spinach. Sometimes my CSA box gives me greens (pea shoots come to mind) that get stringy when you cook them up, and I do find it frustrating. After having to struggle through eating big clumps of them in various soup bowls and stir fries I now usually end up mincing them really fine or blitzing them into a pesto or something. If anyone has better ideas for this type of green I would also be very interested!
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Another year, another return to the Cape. We are not on the Outer Cape right now, that is coming later this summer, but I figured I would put this visit here rather than starting a new thread. Instead, we are in Falmouth for the week. We've never stayed on this part of the Cape before. My initial impression is that the town is charming, but much more densely populated than the Outer Cape. I imagine that in the summer it would be uncomfortably crowded.
We arrived Friday night. The house we are staying in is right on the water, and not elevated up on a dune like the places we stay at in Wellfleet. I would not want to be here during a big storm. Here's the front yard.
We can see Martha's Vineyard right off shore (not in this picture though), and can watch the ferries going back and forth from Woods Hole to the island.
My sister and nephew joined us for the weekend. The rest of the week will be just my husband and me. I'm planning on doing some cooking to amuse myself during the day. This weekend, though, we are dining out. Unfortunately, this area is not known for its dining options. We are also working around my nephew's food allergy. Last night we went to an Italian place called Villagio at the Regatta. No menu pictures, unfortunately. We ordered a couple of appetizers to share. Clams casino
Bruschetta
Calamari (no fried shrimp or lobster on their menu, so my nephew could have some. He was excited)
For entrees, my nephew ordered the bolognese (no picture). The rest of us had cod. I ordered cod picatta
Sister ordered cod toscana
and husband had cod limone.
The entrees were all massive. If we had known we would have shared something. None of us enjoy leftover cod, so unfortunately a lot of it went to waste. I didn't even taste my pasta. We were too full to even look at the dessert menu.
Yesterday morning, my husband and I went into town to check out the French bakery, Maison Villatte. This bakery is run by the original baker at PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet, and our understanding was that the two places are fairly similar. It did indeed look quite familiar. I took lots of pictures. Croissants
Muffins
Tarts
Quiches
Fougasse
sandwiches
pastries
And our selections, back at the house.
It would be very dangerous to have a bakery like this at home!
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Greek flavors roasted chicken with carrots and watermelon radishes that roasted in the chicken pan, lemon roasted potatoes, and tzatziki.
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I am very interested in following along! Hawaii is on our short list of potential places to visit, but the long flight has been a deterrent for me so far. Maybe your report will change my mind 🙂
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Miso salmon ramen bowl with roasted cabbage, purple daikon radishes, and the first bunch of chives from the garden
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Seared scallops with spinach, sweet potato puree and lemon brown butter
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Ground chicken tacos
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Busy week with no pictures taken until yesterday, when we went for round two with the Ooni Karu. Better results than last Saturday, but still on a learning curve. Pepperoni
Margharita
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Spinach malfatti pomodoro.
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My husband gave me an Ooni Karu 16 for Christmas, and this weekend it was finally warm and sunny enough for my nephew to build it for me. We tried two flavors, simple pepperoni and wild mushroom with mushroom pesto and arugula. I am definitely at the start of a learning curve, but I am sure the results will improve with time. I'll attempt again next Saturday. Here are some quick phone snaps of my first effort.
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chicken tortilla soup
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St. John VI restaurants
in Caribbean, USVI & West Indies: Dining
Posted
I went in an ambulance, so no choice. I have an exciting medical life haha. I seem to be fine now and will follow up with my care team once I am home.
And yes, that is the Lady Lynsey out of the Ritz Carlton on St. Thomas! Lovango is a pleasant sailing distance from where the Ritz is located on St. Thomas. They do sailing excursions to St. John for dinner as well, though I am not sure if that is a coordinated thing with a particular restaurant or just a shuttle service to get people over to the town.
We spent the day snorkeling at the two swimming areas on Lovango. The front of the island doesn't have a beach per se, you get into the water from a dock. The back of the island has a rocky beach. We spent today at the rocky beach, called Crescent. Here are some pictures.
It's pretty rare that anyone else from the resort comes by when we are there. Once you are finished, you text them and they come get you in a golf cart. You can walk back up too, if you want to....but why? Here are some underwater sights.
Trio of permits
Corals
Dog snapper
Blue Tang
For dinner we ate at the resort.
View
Specials
Menu
Husband got the tuna noodle appetizer
Followed by the lobster schnitzel
I had the special tomato salad
and the shiitake tortelloni
We shared some mint ice cream for dessert.