liamsaunt

Yesterday we visited the Lime Out floating taco bar. You have to arrive by boat--no swimming up to it for safety reasons. We were not booking a private boat charter this trip so we opted to take the shuttle service from shore. The shuttle gets you very close to the taco bar and then you do have to swim to your seats. The shuttle makes you wear a snorkel belt regardless of your swimming ability, so I would say it's easily doable as long as you have a basic knowledge of swimming. Here's the taco bar on approach. You can opt to sit on one of the yellow "lily pads" or there are underwater bar stools along both long sides of the boat. I forgot to take a picture of the menu, but it's just eight types of tacos, and then mixed drinks plus non alcoholic options. All drinks are served in reusable Yeti cups and the tacos come in compostable containers. There are no napkins or silverware to cut down on waste and cleanup. The owners of the taco boat own two other restaurants on St. John, and that's where the food is prepared. The boat is basically a "keep warm and assemble" operation. I have to admit that I was very skeptical, but the overall experience was quite fun, and the tacos were tasty too. We opted to try the three fish options. Left to right, there's blackened shrimp with pesto, local greens and tomatoes; jerk spiced tuna with pineapple, cucumber-jicama spicy relish, and chipotle slaw; and grouper seveche with citrus, jalepenos, jicama, chili garlic passion fruit dressing, and chipotle slaw. View from our liliypad. The staff puts your food and drinks into a floating raft and pushes it over to your lily pad when everything is ready. The ceviche taco was my favorite, and husband liked the tuna best, but all were really good. I also really enjoyed the cucumber lime soda I ordered. It was not sweet all all and very refreshing. We are coming back in the summer with my niece and nephew, and I know they will love this operation. Later that night, we headed out to dinner at La Tapa. Menu Husband ordered a dirty martini, and I stuck to club soda with lime (we were the first table seated for the second seating, which is why the restaurant looks so empty--it was completely full five minutes later!) We ordered the tomato bread and a special of tuna tartare to share. We probably should have skipped the tomato bread. It was fine, but we didn't eat most of it. The tuna was very delicious, so we concentrated on eating that. For entrees, husband chose the langoustine pasta. I was surprised as he usually doesn't opt for pasta in restaurants unless it's Italian. He seemed to be regretting it when he saw my plate. I ordered the local tuna with crispy polenta and slaw. It was excellent. We decided to skip dessert as it was getting late. We have no dinner reservations today. Plans include hiking out to see a flock of wild flamingoes that is visiting the island, swimming at one of our favorite beaches in the afternoon, and probably just getting some casual food somewhere along the way.

Yesterday was pretty much a do nothing day. I got up in time to watch the sunrise. Here are a couple of pictures We went out twice to try and find a hiking trail we used to do. It seems to be gone. I think someone built a house where the start of the trail used to be. I did see lots of pretty plants on the walk around. I am terrible at plant identification, but here they are. If anyone knows what they are, tell me! Orange plant Yellow and purple plants This one I know: bougainvillea Green plant with red kernal flower stalk There are often funny signs leading to the homes in neighborhoods. Here's one After our failed hike we just spent the afternoon here Neither of us were in the mood for a big dinner so we went to Rum Hut and shared some stuff Conch fritters. Husband liked them. I thought they were undercooked in the middle Crab bao. Again, husband liked this more than me. Shrimp bao And Irie Pops vegan soft serve for dessert Today we are supposed to visit a floating taco bar for lunch, and then we have a fancy dinner planned, but those plans will depend on how husband feels when he wakes up. If he's sick we won't go anywhere.

Yesterday we went to dinner on Lovango Cay. When you make a reservation for dinner, you also make a reservation for their ferry (or you can arrive via private charter). Here's the ferry. That's St. Thomas in the background to the right. St. John is to the left, out of sight. View of boats in Cruz Bay harbor on the way to dinner We've been snorkeling off Lovango Cay for years, and have always been interested in the possibility of staying over there, but it's pretty isolated if you don't have a boat. Other than a couple of year-round residences and a few rental villas, this eco resort is the first time (that I know of) that anyone has tried to develop the land on Lovango. The owners also run Winnetu on Martha's Vineyard and the Nantucket Hotel on Nantucket. I am sure this place will be successful too. After seeing what they've done on Lovango, I wish they would consider redeveloping the still destroyed Caneel Bay on St. John. I think they would do a great job. We had a nice table on the waterside. View Drinks menu. I didn't notice the aguas frescas on the bottom or I would have ordered one. Husband ordered the Martha's Vineyard Castaway. Dinner menu Husband started with the lobster croquette and I had the tuna crudo For mains, husband chose the lobster schnitzel (I guess it was lobster night for him!) and I had the catch of the day, which was strawberry grouper. Both entrees were excellent. A large catamaran with about 40 guests from the Ritz Carlton over on St. Thomas arrived during our dinner. Everyone on the boat must have eaten quickly because they were all done and boarding before we left. Dessert menu We ordered the Lime in a Coconut to split. This was the only misstep of the dinner for us. The dessert doesn't mention chocolate, and as you can see, the coconut is made from a hard chocolate shell. (the lime curd was inside). Neither of us were in the mood for chocolate. Oh well, we ate it anyway! The sorbet was really good--intensely flavored. Here's a picture of the resort restaurant at night, taken from the ferry as we were leaving (random guests blurred out for their privacy). The glamping tents are up in the hills of the cay, and hidden from sight. Today's another "no plans" day. Husband is nursing a mild cold, so we probably won't do too much.

No, I cannot say that I have really. Almost everyone is adding a "credit card convenience fee" of around 4% if you use a card, but it's stated directly on the menu or at the door. Some places are also now including the gratuity directly. For example, when we ate at the Longboard, a 20% fee was included, and there was a line with options to circle if you wanted to add more, plus another line to add a custom add on gratuity. That was new. But, adding the gratuity is common in lots of tourist areas. Maybe some people are still wary of eating in restaurants post Covid. The tourist demographic does skew older in the winter. There are a lot of retired people here for sure. When we come back in the summer, it will be a lot of young families, and we will be the ones to feel old! We spent yesterday at our favorite beach, Francis. It was crowded (by St. John standards), so we set up on the rocky part by ourselves. We did not snorkel because of my toe injury, but we did swim, and I had a friendly baby fish take shelter with me. My husband got a picture. It stayed with me the entire time I was in the water. We drove into Coral Bay for lunch. The place we wanted to go was crowded, so we ended up back at Aqua Bistro. They got all new cooking staff, so I was hoping for a better meal than we had last summer. Restaurant view. Conch fritters. These were spicy, hot, and very good! I had a mani sandwich. The fish was nice and fresh. Husband opted for shrimp tacos. After lunch we stopped by one of the hidden beaches in Coral Bay so I could look for sea glass. I am obsessed with sea glass. My house is filed with jars of it from all the places I go. The beach: 15 minutes of searching led to a big handful. All the parking at the beaches was still full by the time we came back into the National Park, so we just went back to the villa to talk about, of course, what we wanted for dinner. Neither of us wanted anything fancy, so we just went to see what we could find. The place we wanted to go was closed for the day, and the Beach Bar was packed, so we decided to go get tacos at a new to us place, Greengoes. Terrible name. They make their own tortillas though, and it's cheap, so we figured if it was not good, no big deal. They are famous for a big wall of tequila They also have big tvs, so people come here for sporting events. Husband got a cucumber cooler. He said it was very refreshing. I chose shrimp tacos. I gave husband one to compare with his lunch shrimp taco. He liked this one better than lunch. Husband got mahi tacos Vacation calls for dessert, so it was off to St. John Scoops I got mint chocolate chip and he had toasted coconut in a waffle cone Later today we are taking a boat shuttle to a nearby cay to check out a new eco resort over there and have dinner. We almost stayed over there instead of on St. John this trip, but husband was leery of the glamping concept. Should be interesting! Lovango Resort

Yesterday was mostly a washout. It did clear enough in the afternoon that we were able to walk over and explore the rocky beach near the house. It looks like there might be some snorkeling offshore. We will possibly get over there later this week. Right now I am nursing a toe injury that occurred right after we arrived. I went to open a window in the house, and it popped out of the frame and landed directly on my big toe! It's just badly bruised, but it's swollen enough that I think putting my snorkel fins on might be uncomfortable. I think it will be good to go by tomorrow. Anyway, here's the beach. And the house we are staying in, seen from the beach. The house is by itself at the end of the point. There was another house nearby, but it was destroyed in the hurricanes five years ago and has not been rebuilt. All that is left is the foundation platform and a couple of roof supports. You can kind of see part of what's left of that house's roof behind our house. Last night we went to Morgan's Mango for lobster night. I forgot my reading glasses, so had to rely on my husband to tell me what was on the menu. Of course, then I got home and saw these pictures and saw other stuff I wish I had ordered haha. Drinks. Husband had a margarita and I just had club soda with lime. First course. We split the seveche and the cajun shrimp Mains I chose the coconut shrimp for my entree (but if I had seen the paella I would have gotten that!) Husband had the lobster of course We split a slice of key lime pie We don't have any reservations for this evening. It's interesting--the island is quite crowded, but the restaurants are not nearly as busy as when we were here in the summer. Not sure if everyone is cooking at their rental villas, or brought prepared foods from home...or maybe everyone's on a diet!

One tasty sea vegetable item we have locally is sea beans, or sea asparagus. They grow in the salt marshes near the ocean. They have a crisp, crunchy texture and a pleasing salty flavor. I've harvested them myself when staying on Cape Cod, and sometimes you can buy them in the store too. They cook by just lightly blanching. Here's an article about them: sea beans I found a couple of pictures I took in restaurants. A raw oyster topped with pickled sea beans Wahoo topped with blanched sea beans

Well, here we are, back again. We were supposed to go to Turks and Caicos last week for our winter trip, but my husband's passport renewal got held up for weeks longer than they estimated, so we had to cancel. Of course the passport showed up the day after we were supposed to fly. Oh well! I was surprised we were able to find a place to stay so last minute, but it all worked out. We had to rent a Jeep on St. Thomas and bring it over on the car barge, which was an interesting experience. It's raining quite hard this morning, so I thought I would start this report back up. Here's the view from the house we are renting (from yesterday, when it was sunny) Into the bay. I can see a couple of houses we rented on prior visits in this picture. Supposedly we can get down to the rocky beach nearest to us in the photo. Something to explore later. We were really tired and just wanted a quick meal, so we ate at the bar at Longboard. Menu Drinks. Husband had a sun shower, and I tried the Cruz Bay'n from the mocktail menu. It was quite good. I usually find mocktails too sweet, but this one wasn't Mahi mahi seveche Shrimp aguachile Fish sliders to share Fish tacos to share Husband's second cocktail, a pain-quila

More JetBlue food to share. Some of the menu options (I didn't take pictures of the cocktail and coffee menus): Welcome "snack" with an iced cappuccino for husband. I stuck to water. I chose the chia, strawberries, and avocado toast. Husband had the chia, strawberries, and crepe, plus the side of bacon Everything was quite edible, which is about all you can ask for on a plane. Husband said the bacon was very good.

Salmon again. This time miso marinated noodle bowls with summer squash noodles, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, cilantro, chiles and chili crunch.

Coconut, miso, spinach, and salmon curry. Recipe from the New York Times: coconut miso salmon curry

Haddock reuben

Boursin stuffed chicken, parsnip puree, and maple-roasted kabocha squash.

I use Sun Ramen brand, which I find in my grocer's freezer case. It does not come with a seasoning packet (they make a type that does, but I buy the plain ones and make my own broth). I am sure whatever kind you have will work fine. I am glad I am not alone with the cabbage glut! I don't know why we are getting so many this year. Last year the CSA gave us endless potatoes at this time of year, this year it is endless cabbage! Last night we had eggplant pizza with lots of basil.

Another use up the fridge ramen bowl. This one had zucchini and summer squash zoodles mixed in with the noodles, miso roasted cabbage, daikon roasted with sambal oleok (the daikon I had turned purple when roasted, which was interesting), and a soy sauce egg. Another cabbage down! Of course, my CSA delivered me two more yesterday afternoon, so the battle continues...

Pineapple fried rice and spicy cucumber salad.

I am making Thai pineapple rice for dinner tonight. I'll be sure to add extra pineapple. I hope you are feeling back to yourself soon @liuzhou Last night, a repeat from last month since their season is short: Cape Cod bay scallops on angel hair pasta with lemon sauce and crunchy panko-chive topping

Broiled blackback flounder dipped in a sorrel, garlic, and chive butter that I made over the summer, vacuum sealed, and froze, celeraic puree, and sautéed asparagus

Crab cakes and salad

Seared chicken over spinach and tomato orzo with creamy lemon parmesan sauce.

I definitely understand that, but the point of joining the fish share is that you are supporting specific fishers and their boats to help provide them with a stable income in a difficult business. You get whatever they hauled in that morning. Besides, the occasional mild disappointment of getting pollock (or the other fish they sometimes bring that I dislike: Acadian redfish) is more than made up for by the incredible freshness of the fish, and the knowledge that it is local and sustainably caught. Cape Ann Fresh Catch Fun fact for those who have seen the movie CODA: the boat operated by the family in the movie is owned by one of the CAFC fishers.

My CSA box has been loaded with the same stuff every week for about a month now: cabbage, daikon, celeriac, carrots, kale. I guess there is not much to pick from at this time of year. They do farm mushrooms so there is always at least one box of shiitakes as well. Last night I made a soup to use up some of that stuff. Daikon and mushrooms roasted with sambal oelek, carrots shaved and cooked with ramen noodles, cabbage charred and slathered with miso butter. I added an egg topped with chili crunch at the last minute and stuffed everything in a soup bowl with some cilantro and chiles. Only five cabbages left in the crisper drawer, with more coming today!

We were supposed to be flying someplace warmer this weekend, but my husband's passport is stuck in renewal limbo. Despite paying fees to have its processing and mailing expedited, it is now two weeks past the end window for when it was supposed to arrive. Of course, there are no available appointments at any passport offices on the east coast. He was told it was "moving along," whatever that means. I guess we will be staying in the cold for now, so I brought warm-tasting food to the dinner table instead. Mahi-mahi marinated in an island spice blend with pineapple-mango-black bean salsa, curried Caribbean rice, and sweet and sour red cabbage. The cabbage and rice recipes are from the At Blanchard's Table: A Trip to the Beach Cookbook by Bill and Melinda Blanchard, the owners of Blanchard's on Anguilla.

My fish share dropped off pollock yesterday. Nobody in my house likes it, so I always try to make something flavorful to go with (disguise?) it when we get it. Last night, I tried a spicy puttanesca sauce. We thought it was pretty tasty, for pollock.

Spaghetti and meatballs

Yes. I have their Bread Illustrated book, and am assuming it is the one you are thinking of. Last night we had a turkey dinner with the usual (for us) sides: mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, carrots, green beans, cranberries. I didn't get a picture of the plated meal, but here's the bird out of the oven and resting.