liamsaunt

I am coming back with just my husband in November, so I will get to do whatever I want then. 😀 It was per taco, but that's a pretty typical price for down here. Everything is pretty expensive. The most common advice to new tourists considering a visit is "bring half the clothes and twice the money you were planning." We are home now. We had some very island time delays getting back. First, the plane had too much fuel to take off from St. Thomas, so we had to sit on the jetway and burn off enough to be able to clear the mountain at the end of the runway. Then, they burned off too much fuel, so we had to refuel. Then we had to wait for a crew change in San Juan, where we had to stop to refuel again (because you cannot put enough fuel in the plane in St. Thomas to fly direct to Boston, because of the whole mountain thing). It took 14 hours door to door, which was definitely not our record (26 hours). We stopped by Irie Pops one last time, to try the orange cone None of us picked it as our favorite, but it was still good. We spent the day at Trunk Bay, and then went to town for another dinner at La Tapa. Menu for Friday night Drinks. Husband had a martini, I had a very exciting club soda, sister had a gimlet, and my nephew got some strange drink with pepper vodka and coffee. He was not a huge fan, but it's his fault for ordering a drink with pepper vodka and coffee in it. La Tapa oil and bread Sister and husband shared a special appetizer of scallops in a lobster broth Tuna tartare for the table Nephew had the lamb meatballs, but the picture came out blurry. I chose the salad of grilled eggplant, roasted beets, arugula, mozzarella, and pine nuts. This was delicious. I am going to try and replicate it for dinner one night this week. My sister, niece and I all ordered the mahi mahi with green curry sauce. It was delicious Husband got the tuna again. He said it was even better than the last time he ordered it. and nephew got the veal schnitzel special, which he very much enjoyed We ordered some desserts this time. Niece chose the bread pudding with raspberries and saffron ice cream. She loved this Husband and I shared the flan. Everyone else stole some of it, but I got three bites and it was delicious Nephew chose the apple tarte tatin, which he devoured And that's it until next time. Here's the obligatory photo of the parting view of downtown from the ferry back to St. Thomas. See you on the dinner! thread.

The ice cream is a chocolate and vanilla soft serve twist. Everything that Irie Pops makes is vegan. I believe the ice cream is a coconut base, but I can ask when I go back there today. The cone is a blue corn flavor. My niece and nephew thought it was a little salty. I thought it was very good with the ice cream, but they prefer the pink cone, which is a vanilla flavor. There's also an orange cone which we have not tried yet (but I am getting one today). Yesterday we spent the day at tranquil Francis Bay. For lunch/dinner, I wanted to go to Coral Bay to try out a BBQ place and then go to the Windmill Bar for drinks and pictures, and then to town for ice cream, but I was overruled (again, a theme of this trip) in favor of just eating at the Windmill Bar and then possibly going to town for ice cream. I was skeptical about this choice, but majority rules. As I expected, the view from the bar was stunning. Those white roofs you see are part of the ruins of the Caneel Bay resort. Beyond it, Henley Cay, then the big one is Lovongo Cay, with Congo Cay behind it. Then, right to left, Grass, Mingo, and Thatch Cays. All but Lovongo are uninhabited, and Thatch Cay is currently for sale, for, I think, $15 million if you want to own your own private island 😂 The bar. It's called the windmill bar because it is on the grounds of an old sugar plantation, and the ruins of the windmill and sugaring house are still there. The food is not really the draw here, it is all about the view. Buffalo dip ordered by my nephew Fish tacos (cheese, sigh) burger Chocolate sea salt Irie Pop from the stash behind the bar, purchased when it became obvious that we were not gong to town for ice cream after all. My niece had a pina colada one, which she enjoyed. and one more of the view

So we did get to the floating taco bar yesterday. We went around 3 so we could make it our main meal of the day, and that turned out to be a good idea. Normally it is packed out there, but we almost had the place to ourselves. The fact that it's August also has something to do with that. The island is really starting to empty of tourists. You have to charter a boat to take you out to the bar and then swim in for lunch. There are a couple of shuttle companies also, but since we had five people, it was only a few dollars more to just charter a boat, which is more convenient because you can then leave all your stuff on the boat. If you take the shuttle you have to bring everything with you to Lime Out. Lime Out floating taco bar The menu. Between us we tried the seveche, the tuna, the cauliflower, the rum rib, and the short rib. I only got a picture of my plate, so no pictures of the meaty ones. We each ordered three tacos. My nephew commented that he thought he should have ordered seven, and my niece thought five would have been a more appropriate serving size. I thought they were just being silly, but when we got back to the house, they grilled more food. 😂 After Lime Out, we stopped by Trunk Bay for a swim. I love going at the end of the day when the beach is basically empty. Dusty sunset

So despite the prediction of bad weather for yesterday, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. The storms were around, but they all passed to the side and went over to neighboring St. Thomas. We spent the day at Hawsknest beach Dinner that night was at Morgan's Mango The restaurant. We were in the first seating, and I took this picture as soon as we got to our table. The whole place was full about five minutes after I took this. You need to call about six weeks in advance for a reservation on their lobster nights. Menus. Drinks Appetizers Mains Drinks. One is a gimlet, and the other is the no way jose We ordered some appetizers to share. Tuna tostones Snapper seveche, with tuna tartare in the back ground Nephew wanted a house salad. He declared it "the best salad he had ever eaten in his life." I do not know if that was actually true or if he was just starving For entrees, my sister, nephew and I all got the same thing, the catch of the day (wahoo) served voodoo style with island salsa. Nephew had to pass on the salsa since it has pineapple in it and he has a sensitivity to that, but he just dipped his fish in the bean sauce and enjoyed it that way My niece got the pork tenderloin and husband had the lobster Desserts We shared a piece of their famous key lime pie (unfortunately the picture came out blurry), and a piece of the pineapple caramel bread pudding Today is our rescheduled visit to the floating taco bar, if the weather holds. It's pretty windy right now, so we will see what the day brings.

Not too many pictures from yesterday. We drove all the way out to the east end of the island to hit up one of my favorite snorkeling spots. It has a very healthy reef, and we've seen all kinds of great stuff here, like spotted eagle rays, octopus, sharks, and turtles. We knew there was a chance that we might not be able to get in because of sargassum. Luckily, most of the island is not affected by sargassum, but there are a few places that face in the right direction to be impacted, and this is one of them. We hiked in and..... Booo!!! It's OK. I am coming back in November and the sargassum will be gone by then. Plus, there was lots of wildlife around on the shore and I got four new birds for my life list 😀 We went to the south facing side of the same bay to find crystal clear waters. The snorkeling here is not as good as the north side, but we did see some decent stuff. Time for "lunch" I got overruled on my scenic bar visit in favor of coming back to the house for pool time. I've been promised we will go later this week. We'll see... Dinner was the most basic at the house. Nephew and husband had burgers and hot dogs, niece, sister and I had chicken sausages with peppers, plus a salad. My nephew's plate Today was supposed to be a wash out weather wise, but it's looking pretty sunny out there so we might get to the beach after all. In any event, we have a fancy dinner out reserved for this evening.

Bugs, no bathroom, and sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag sum up the terrors of camping to him. One of the St. John cays is now offering glamping in the on season, and he is considering my request to try that out. The "tents" have real beds, ac, wifi, and indoor bathrooms! It's like a hotel, but up in a tree. Sounds pretty great to me. Lovongo Cay Sure. We've been in here for over a week, so sorry for anything messy or out of place. This is the great room leading to the kitchen. We hang out in here at night Here's a fun feature of the primary bedroom. The shower is outdoors. You have a great view of the bay while getting cleaned up. I think the other bedrooms have indoor showers, but I have not really looked. This is the lower covered terrace area. The path to the beach is off here. There are kayaks and SUPs behind this area. The upper pool deck area. My husband and I sit in those green chairs to look at the stars every night The outdoor dining area And my favorite outdoor spot, the gazebo where I read every morning while waiting for everyone else to wake up. Here are some more garden photos too. The view from the front door heading towards the driveway, which is out of sight Heading into the gardens. There are fruit trees back here. Yesterday morning we went in to town looking for caffeine. Two stops, St. John Scoops Caffeination Station for drinks and Downtown Sips for baked goods. I forgot to take pictures of everything. We spent the day at Maho beach We did snorkel and saw some turtles, rays, and various fish, but overall visibility was not great because we have been having rain showers, which is stirring things up. It was still nice to get out there. Nobody wanted anything fancy for dinner so we just went to the Beach Bar (logo: home of some of the greatest times you'll never remember) View from our picnic table on the beach. The sunset is obscured not by clouds, but by Sahara dust. Bad for asthma, good because it suppresses development of tropical weather. This is the dustiest I have ever seen it here. Margaritas for the drinkers Conch fritters! Blackened tuna with wasabi sauce tuna down now (wrapped in nori and flash fried with soy dipping sauce) My niece wanted these pasta balls. They are cheese stuffed mac and cheese deep fried. I did not know that anything like this existed. If I never try it again, that will be ok with me. Sister's second drink was the local IPA Goodbye sun And, of course, ice cream for dessert. Nephew's two scoops (guava and strawberry) in a waffle cone Today, more snorkeling, hopefully a trip to a bar I have wanted to visit for a while, (not for the drinks, for the views. If we get there, you will see), and another home cooked dinner.

it is beautiful. It is also a National Park beach, and it offers camping, everything from bare sites to newly refurbished cottages. I think it’s pretty great, but camping of any kind is a hard no for my husband.

The red sauce is a local hot sauce that I love mixed with sriracha that I brought from home. The white sauce is just yogurt mixed with a little mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar, all purchased at the grocery here. Here’s the local hot sauce. It’s mildly spicy with curry in it. Delicious. Not traditional for shawarma, but you use what you have 😀

That's an interesting perspective. The island is trying to bury the power lines in areas that are deemed to be at very high risk during storms, such as right next to the shore, but it is a very slow moving process, and the island's power system is really unstable for other reasons that underground lines won't help with. I won't get into that here. We spent the day at Cinnamon beach It was really windy, so we could not snorkel, but it was fine for swimming. I stopped for the obligatory scenic overlook picture of Trunk Bay and then we headed back to the house, because we were planning on just hanging out and cooking dinner there. I like the way the house is almost hidden down a lush path short after we arrived to the pool, it started raining again. We did get a rainbow Cooking dinner was a bit of a challenge. The kitchen is really under equipped for such an upscale house. I'll be leaving some feedback for sure, since we are already booked to come back here. Nephew grilled some chicken we had marinated in advance, I struggled to make flatbread in the only large skillet available on one of the two working burners on the stove, and my sister made a salad from delicious local greens. Viola, chicken shawarma of sorts.

We were planning on getting dessert, but we ended up being just too full, even with taking half of everything home. Yesterday we planned to spend the day at Hawksnest Beach. We arrived, got all set up in our favorite secluded cove, starting reading books--and then it started looking like this Rain on the beach is never a problem, but there was thunder. Lots of thunder. When the lightning started we left very quickly and went back to the house. It cleared up in a couple of hours, but we decided to just stay at the villa and relax until it was time for dinner at La Tapa. Menu Drinks Restaurant view We ordered a special of tuna tartare and another of pork belly and I really wanted a salad Nephew got the soup of the day too, which was a tomato mozzarella. He's been getting this since he was a kid, every time they have it. Four of us had the tuna entree (excellent) and my nephew chose a special entree of Iberico pork with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts dessert options We were way too full for dessert though. The sunset last night was stunning

I have seen pictures of stingray city and friends that have been there have said it is a good experience. I have actually never been to the Bahamas. We were thinking of going to Little Exuma in November, but the house we would stay in was only available for six days, so we are just coming back here instead. Not that I am complaining. Yesterday we had a boat charter booked to take us to the floating taco bar, but our captain got into a car accident early in the morning, so asked if we could reschedule. I think we might be going Sunday instead. It turned out fine, because weather moved in and we had some pretty heavy rain off and on through the afternoon. My nephew asked if we could go out to eat again, and also asked if he could choose the restaurant since he had no real choice on what to eat the night before. I do feel bad for him. He has not been back down here since the hurricanes in 2017, and his favorite places, all of which were good with his allergy, were destroyed and did not rebuild. So we are in a bit of uncharted territory with his allergy this visit. He decided he wanted to go to Lovongo Rum Bar since they have no crustaceans on the menu at all. Pizza again, but OK. The view in town while we waited for a table to open up The menu Drinks. A martini for my husband, and I am not sure what my nephew got, actually. Something with rum I am sure. We decided to deliberately overrode and bring half of everything home to eat after our rescheduled boat to the taco bar. Nephew wanted the meatball appetizer. Niece wanted the cheesy bread and the chicken wings Restaurant view Too bad the power pole is in the way of the sunset. We ordered the fun guy The mermaid margarita the pig overboard (this was my nephew's choice, but we all stole his arugula. It's grown on St. John and it is delicious) We all enjoyed our pizzas and are looking forward to the leftovers, so it turned out to be a good take. One quirky thing did happen with the bill though. When they brought it out for review, it was itemized with included 20% gratuity, which is fine. When they brought it back to sign off on, it had another tip line, with suggested gratuities underneath it based on a percentage of the total bill that included the already added 20%. If we had not noticed, and added the gratuity again, it would have been a 44% tip, which is kind of nuts for a pizza place! I'm sure it is a quirk of the software they use, but it was odd. Today, beach, and our first upscale restaurant of the trip.

Trunk Bay is in the National Park, so it is illegal to feed any of the wildlife. Some tourists do it anyway, which is probably why this stingray was hanging around. Yesterday we spent the day at Cinnamon Bay My sister wanted to go to Longboard for dinner. I did not, because they have an extremely small kitchen and I thought they would not be able to deal with my nephew's allergy, but she was insistent, so off we went. As I suspected, he could not have most things on the menu. In addition to the obvious no gos, they were running a fried shrimp special which is not normally on the menu, so anything that touched the fryer was off limits. After some discussion with the waiter, he was able to find a couple of things (literally two) that he could eat and was interested in, and he liked the cocktail menu, so we stayed. Cocktails Food Drinks. Left to right, my herb n' legend mocktail, nephew's sailor's warning, sister's sun shower, and husband's mi boi lilikoi. Niece stuck to plain water. niece ordered chips and queso sister wanted fried calamari (too salty) nephew ordered a cheese quesadilla My sister, husband and I all had fish tacos (again, too salty) Nephew had beef tacos and niece had a poke bowl My husband and nephew had a second drink. My nephew got the same one my husband had on the first round, and my husband got this froserita, which was apparently a margarita with a frose float. Sounds weird to me but he liked it. After dinner it was time for dessert at St. John Scoops Cookies and cream, chai tea latte and coffee. I had a scoop of mango and my sister had a scoop of coffee in a cup that didn't make the picture.

We got a fairly late start again yesterday. I am an early riser, but most other people get up a few hours later. Oh well, it is a group vacation I guess. We had agreed that we were going to have lunch at Miss Lucy's, which is almost as far away on the island from our house as you can get. I timed it, and the drive took 45 minutes. They are only open a few days a week, and are closing for the season soon, so we figured we should get there while we could. The view The menu is quite small. For appetizers, they have fried plantains, conch fritters, and callaloo soup. For entrees, they have a burger, chicken fingers or a hot dog for little kids, a fried grouper sandwich, a grouper reuben sandwich, or a West Indian fish fry plate with seasoned grouper, rice and peas, fried plantains, and whatever vegetables they have that day. We got the plantains the conch fritters (our favorite on the island) then the guys got the crunchy grouper sandwich and my sister, niece and I got the West Indian fish fry plate It was all tasty as usual. It's a very slow experience though. They only have one cook and one waiter for the entire restaurant. I think we were there for about 2.5 hours. After lunch we stopped by beautiful Trunk Bay for a swim When we went to get out, there was a stingray patrolling the shore. Everywhere we walked to exit, he would swim over and block our move. This went on for about 10 minutes. He was trying to make us stay all night haha. The picture is not great since I just stuck my camera underwater in its general direction. Back at the house, my nephew wanted "a light meal" so he raided the cheeses and meats we brought from home. Oh to have the metabolism of a 24 year old again 🤣 Here's his plate And finally, a picture of last night's supermoon over the bay we are staying on

Jet Blue Mint BOS-STT breakfast service. Not champagne and caviar, but acceptable 😀 Menu options Non-alcoholic grapefruit spritzer (quite tasty) Iced cappuccino Watermelon, frittata, chia pudding and bacon. Everything was quite tasty. (I did not have the bacon, I ordered it to give to my niece the bacon hound across the aisle). The frittata was custardy and nicely seasoned, the watermelon had a small kick from the espelette pepper, and the chia pudding was mildly sweet. Can't ask for much more on a plane.

That's funny. I downloaded the Merlin bird ID app a few months ago and have been having fun with the birds in my backyard. It's having some trouble down here with the sound ID feature due to lack of comparison data, but has been able to ID things I see that I can get photos of. Yesterday I was able to add a green heron that was sitting on the edge of the pool to my life list. The conch fritters were a bit dark, but its also the lighting. We were tucked away in a corner outside and it was dark out. I also only had my cell phone with me. I used to bring my DSLR to dinners, but got out of the habit a few years ago. It feels awkward to use it in restaurants now. St. Lucia looks gorgeous. Enjoy! Sunday was a recovery day. My husband and I did have to go to the grocery store. Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea of prices. That's pack of two paper towels... This is when you question if you really want that full sized jar of mayonnaise.... We basically spent the day at the house reading and going in the pool. We decided we were too tired to go to the beach. We also decided we were too tired to cook, so went in to town again for dinner. I let my nephew pick the restaurant, and he wanted to go to the brewery. We are here for two weeks, so even though this is not where I would have chosen to eat, everyone will get their choice. The brewery has been very successful. They make all of their beers and sodas on the property. I grabbed a picture of the menus, but I forgot the beer menu! They have about six beers on tap at all times, then four or five that are temporary offerings. Here are the drinks. Nephew chose the mango pale ale, which he really liked, my sister had a margarita (not sure why at a brewpub since she does like beer), and my husband tried their latest permanent offering, Juicy Booty. That one's a hazy IPA. Nephew chose the appetizers. Pretzel Chicken wings (VERY spicy) Cheese garlic bread (so intensely garlicky that we all had to eat some to tolerate being around each other later) Niece had a pulled pork sandwich, which she devoured in about two minutes Sister had a mani sandwich Husband had mahi tacos, and nephew had a steak and cheese wrap. I don't seem to have a picture of those. I just ordered a pizza, which made nephew happy because he knew he would be getting at least half of it for lunches later. My sister, husband and nephew all wanted a second drink, so my niece and I left and went downstairs to St. John Scoops, where my niece got a chai tea latte ice cream in a waffle cone Yesterday we were still tired, but at least decided to go to the beach. Francis Bay The pelicans were out in force We did not stay as long as I would have liked because my nephew was starving and of course didn't bring any food with him. I used to carry food for him when he was a child, but he's a young adult now and responsible for hauling in his own snacks, darn it! 🤣 We went to town and by some miracle actually snagged a free 30 minute parking spot. I've been coming here for 20 years and have never gotten one of the free spots! Free parking is essentially impossible to find in town, and if you park in a non designated spot, you will get booted pretty much immediately. It's $300 to get the boot off. Better to just pay to park in one of the pay lots. 30 minutes meant we only had time for ice cream. Irie Pops Soft serve twist cone Vanilla twist with sprinkles (already melting because it is HOOOOOT) We cooked at the house last night, but just made tacos with grilled steak and chicken, so I did not bother with photos. I'll try and do better going forward 😀

techni ice It comes in flat dried out sheets that weigh basically nothing. You rehydrate it by squeezing it underwater, and then freezing it. I am happy to report that despite flight delays, it kept everything frozen. It was a very long day getting here. We had to get up at 3:30 AM to make our flight. I don't know who gets the good times for non stop flights, but it's not Boston! Every time we fly, the flight is somewhere between 6:30-8:00 AM. It always takes me the entire next day to recover. Once we got to St. Thomas, it was a quick taxi ride to the ferry to St. John. We were accompanied by this brown booby on the boat over The house is waterfront, but the area in front of the house is rocky, not sandy. We'll probably snorkel out there someday soon. The upper level of the house has a pool with a ledge for sitting and watching the boats go by. The residence management company left us a fruit bowl, which was nice. There's a banana tree in the yard that has about 100 bananas on it too, but they are pretty green. I am not sure if they will ripen while we are here or not. It's mango season right now also, so I'll be buying some of those once I get out and about. None of us felt like cooking last night, but we did not feel like going anywhere fancy either. The kids wanted to go to High Tide, since they associate that with arrival day. Menu Niece wanted chips and salsa Nephew wanted a quesadilla, thinking he could save half for lunch on another day and my husband, sister and I got the conch fritters. They had big chunks of conch in them, which was nice. Cocktails for my nephew and sister--a margarita and a mezcal guava cocktail. Niece had the tuna Sister and I got the mahi mahi Husband had a special of local lobster and nephew got the pasta alfredo with chicken We tried a piece of their key lime pie for dessert. It was decent, but not limey enough for me.

It all looks amazing! I would love those ginger cookies. The spicier the better. Most ginger cookies are too sweet for me. Last night, coconut rice bowls with chicken in peanut sauce and cucumbers.

All of the stone fruit in MA was killed this winter by a brief but extremely cold Arctic blast. I'm in a sweet corn and fruit share offered by my CSA, and typically the fruit part is large amounts of nectarines, peaches, and apples, with smaller amounts of other fruits. We got a note saying that due to the freeze, they were working on growing their own melons for later in the season, and they'd be supplementing with other fruits as they could, sometimes relying on nearby farms. The first delivery came yesterday. We got a quart each of strawberries and blueberries, and 19 ears of corn! It made me laugh because last year customers were complaining that there was not enough corn in the corn and fruit share. It does not seem like that is going to be a problem this year!

I have had good success in prior years with the techni ice, so I'm going to stick with that. The dry ice could be more trouble than it's worth. I don't know how I would vent it, for one thing. The biggest issue is just hoping all the bags make it to the island. I have only had a cooler go missing once in twenty years of visiting. They did find it eventually--the airline called me to try and deliver it three days later. I don't think even dry ice could have saved those contents! I told them to pitch it out without even opening it. I would not normally be planning to cook so much at the house, but my nephew is coming this time. I know I have mentioned his allergies many times before, but he has an anaphylactic allergy to crustaceans, and there are a number of restaurants on the island that cannot accommodate him. It's off season as well, and quite a few restaurants are closed for that, which limits his options even more. We will still be eating out at some of the places that are open that can handle his allergy. But, you really don't want to have a medical emergency of any kind on the island--unless you don't mind being medivacced to Miami--so we have to be careful where we go with him in tow.

Miso salmon with clear out the fridge fried rice.

We are heading back on Saturday for two weeks. This time I am planning on cooking dinner at the house about half of the time. I'm bringing down some food because quality and selection at the island groceries can be pretty limited. You can bring in anything you want. There are restrictions on what you can bring back out, so I always plan our meals carefully when I do this, to try and make sure everything gets used. Plus, you also can only bring as much as will fit in a regular freezer, with room leftover for ice. I prep and freeze everything at my house, then pack into Polar Bear Coolers with techni ice right before we go to the airport. On prior trips, everything has always stayed frozen. This time, we are leaving the house at 4:30 AM, and, if there are no delays, we will be getting in to the house about 12 hours later. It's so very hot right now, but hopefully stuff will stay frozen. Here's a picture of the house kitchen. It should be fine for the cooking I am planning on doing. There's a grill outside too.

Tuna with noodles, bok choy, and spinach

Spaghetti with zucchini and lemon sauce. A good use of three massive zucchini I got in my CSA box.

I like your recycled glass countertop. I was looking at those recently. Not that I am planning another kitchen renovation soon. A friend of mine just had her kitchen island resurfaced with a hand crafted mosaic of sea glass she has collected over the years suspended in resin, and it got me thinking about other similar looking options. Last night we just did a bunch of dips and flatbread. My sister made the hummus (too thick, but my fault because I forgot to soak chickpeas the night before, so she made it from canned beans), my nephew made the roasted carrot dip and the charmoula, and I made the baba ganoush and the flatbread. We could have used a salad too, but I didn't have any greens and we are trying to clean out the fridge before leaving for vacation. My sister also contributed this lovely fruit tart. We do not normally eat dessert, so I am not sure what possessed her to make it, but my niece and nephew were very happy!

Davio's brand hot Italian sausage. Exactly! Oh, me too. The worst kid-parent food battle I remember was a summer day when my mother gave me a hot dog for lunch. I hated hot dogs, and she had given me hot dogs for the prior two days. I flat out refused to eat it. I sat at the table for hours before she let me leave. At dinner, the hot dog was back. I still refused to eat it, and was promptly sent to bed. Breakfast was normal, but at lunch, the hot dog was back. I still refused to eat it. Things continued with the same drill as the day before including hours at the lunch table, the return of the hot dog at dinner and straight to bed routine. This went on for three days before she gave in. To this day, I have not eaten another hot dog. My childhood trick at large family dinners at my grandmother's house was to hide the meat under my mashed potatoes. It was OK to leave mashed potatoes behind, but not meat, so it got the plate into the kitchen without issues. Once the plate was in there, there was no proving which cousin did it. None of us would rat each other out. My oldest cousin had me beat for ingenuity though--there was a little drawer in the table by his chair, and he stuck his meat in there. He also put it behind the radiator that was behind his chair. Don't ask me how, but he didn't get caught for months. Last night, mutter paneer, naan and maharajah rice.