liamsaunt

I usually mix it up. I recently did three weeks of vacation with no cooking at home other than toast for breakfast, and by the end I was so sick of restaurant food. More typically, I do about half dinners out and half cooking at home. I have a small Wusthof travel knife kit that I bring with me since rental house knives are universally terrible. I sharpen them before I go and they get the job done. If I am going somewhere that we are driving, I also bring along a skillet for cooking eggs, plus reusable straws and cups/travel canteens and a pepper grinder. If we are flying and checking bags I still bring the knives and cups/straws.

Hahaha. Maybe I should have said cauliflower cooked with shawarma style spices. Anyway, it was tasty. Yesterday we got the dreaded Acadian redfish in the fish share delivery, so after cutting out all the bony parts and stripping off the skin, I ground up the rest and made miniature Thai flavored fish cakes that we ate in lettuce wraps. I also made rice and a smacked cucumber salad. I added some bell peppers to the salad because I only had one cucumber for four people.

Cauliflower shawarma. We decided at dinner that making both rice and flatbread was too much food. Based at what was left on everyone's plates, next time I will skip the rice.

Sometimes my farm share gives me giant bok choy. I separate the leaves from the stalks, chop both (after rinsing about 1000 times, that stuff is sandy!), then stir fry the stalks first and add the leaves towards the end. It gets tender while still remaining some crunch, and my family finds it very enjoyable. I do not own a CSO, so nope! Last night, lemon linguini over arugula with roasted broccolini, garlicky breadcrumbs, and a frico egg.

Thanks! I was on vacation. It turns out that three weeks of restaurant food is too much restaurant food for me. I am not complaining but I am glad to be home and eating my own food for a while. The salmon. It is from the Andrea Nguyen cookbook The Banh Mi Handbook. Here is a version from her website. The version in her book adds fish sauce, and suggests cilantro instead of dill. I also added lemongrass and some spicy chile. https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2007/08/salmon-cakes-wi.html Last night, Indian spiced squash zoodles and chicken with herbed yogurt, mango, and naan

If you enjoy coffee or tea, make sure you have the equipment and set aside the space for whatever you need to brew that. I had a very, very tiny kitchen once when I lived alone, and was generally cooking only for myself, and my now husband when he was able to visit for an occasional weekend. Other than my stove and a dorm sized (!!!) fridge, I owned a dish strainer, two good skillets, a larger pot and colander for making pasta, a teakettle, three good knives (chef, paring, and serrated), one thick baking sheet (I did not bake bread or cookies back then), a blender, and two cutting boards. I wished I had a food processor, but could not afford it at that time. Even now, living in a home with two full sized kitchens, I don't own a lot of the gadgets that many people have. (I do have a food processor though!)

Salmon banh mi

Soy ginger haddock with (not enough) box choy and rice.

Here is the JetBlue Mint menu for the return trip. Options: I don't know what the welcome snack was--we were not offered anything. Rose and sparkling water pours. Both were unlimited if you wanted. Lots of fish on the menu, as you can see. I always think fish is an odd choice for airplane meals, but there was no avoiding it. I went with the beet salad, the mahi caesar, and the Jamaican vegetable stew The stew was extremely sweet and unappealing. I did not eat the mahi on the caesar. The beet salad was pretty good. Husband got the snapper plus the mahi and the beet salad. He said the mahi on the salad was fine flavor wise but very overcooked. The snapper was "OK." The best thing was actually the dessert--carrot cake Side order of Vieques

Now that I am home--back to the chaos that is three bathrooms being renovated at the same time--here is the final installment of our trip. For our last lunch, we drove out to our favorite, Miss Lucy's. The sargassum had abated a bit We shared an order of callaloo soup with crab and then ordered a grouper reuben and a crunchy grouper sandwich and split them We spent the afternoon at one of our favorite beaches, Cinnamon And had dinner at Rum Hut, where we split an order of mahi mahi sliders and tuna tacos One final sunset from the deck of our rental villa And then the next morning, the saddest view of all, the island's downtown from the water taxi to the airport We'll be back!

Nope! It should be though, we spend enough time there haha. Yesterday we basically punted on food. We did stop at a local deli and pick up a couple of sandwiches for lunch. I got a rock shrimp, remoulade and arugula one (bread is universally terrible down here, probably because of the humidity, so I just scooped out and ate the filling), and my husband chose a more traditional cold cuts style of sandwich. Shrimp Cold cuts I thought I would go a bit off topic and use this post to show why we keep coming back here over and over--the snorkeling. Here are a couple of things we spotted yesterday. Spotted trunkfish Feather duster worm Arrow crab pair Horse-eyed jack French angelfish Blue tang with porkfish Needlefish Barred hamlet Baby sea turtle Porcupinefish (when they are excited or threatened, they have big spikes that stick out everywhere! I've seen this in a mating pair once) Full grown sea turtle with remora attached The beach, post snorkel And dinner, a frozen coconut popsicle from Irie Pops in the pool with sunset It's the last full day of our visit today. Time to get out there!

Yesterday was our 25th anniversary, and our last "big" meal on this trip. But first, lunch at High Tide. I kept things lighter with a caesar salad with shrimp (I basically ate the shrimp and left most of the salad). Husband got fish and chips. Drink And we had to get some soft serve from Irie Pops We spent the afternoon at Trunk. Here is a photo from the scenic overlook. Trunk is consistently voted one of the best beaches in the Caribbean. Later that night it was off to Zozos at Caneel Bay for dinner. Here's a sailboat bringing a party in to dine. I meant to set something like that up for us, but never got around to it. The resort is still destroyed from the 2017 hurricanes, but the current leaseholder's option runs out next year, and someone new will be taking over, and hopefully restoring it to some form of its old self. View from the check in area The restaurant from the dock We had the table on the rail all the way to the left, with a nice view of the water and dock Here's the menu and wines by the glass list Husband got a cocktail named "Two Butt Beach" after one of the seven private beaches on the resort's property. The beach was definitely big enough for more than two people, but that was its nickname back before the storms. It was actually our least favorite of the seven beaches so I thought it was funny that he picked that cocktail. The menu is prix fixe and you chose one option from each section at the start of your meal. They bring out an antipasto to start. This is tasty and hard not to eat too much of it, knowing all the food that is coming. We both chose the wild mushroom pappardelle for our first course. And the mahi mahi for our main course. My husband added a butter poached lobster tail to his, but I did not get a picture. We picked two desserts to share., the vanilla cheesecake with blueberry compote and the chocolate torta. Neither of us were hungry at this point, so most of the desserts went uneaten, though they were both very good. We both agreed the ice cream on the chocolate dessert was our favorite part of either dish View of St. Thomas and the moon to end the evening

Yesterday we drove around the island--to a neighborhood we were considering renting a home in for a family trip next summer (turned out to be a hard no, the house is beautiful but the road to it is a horrible chore), and then over to one of the furthest spots in Coral Bay for some snorkeling. You need four wheel drive to get over here, so we usually have the place to ourselves. We had not ventured here since the storms, so were unsure what to expect underwater. The moonscape beach Unfortunately, this area has not recovered well from the hurricanes, so no underwater photos today. It was nice to snorkel for a couple of hours though. We stopped by a little bar/restaurant for lunch while on that side of the island, Aqua Bistro We got an order of the mahi tacos and the shrimp tacos. They were pretty paltry. Mahi Shrimp We had planned this to be our only meal for the day, but obviously plans would have to change! We encountered heavy traffic while leaving Coral Bay And then went for a late afternoon swim at Trunk Bay. There were cruise ships in port on St. Thomas yesterday, but we figured the cruisers would be gone by now. In prior years, the call for "Back to the Ship!" came at 3PM. We discovered that unfortunately that is no longer the case Back to the Ship! Is apparently at 4PM these days. After 4PM the beach was much nicer We got back to our rental house to see the sun set from the deck. It was a bit cloudy. We were hungry, so headed in to town to find something casual. Husband lobbied for the Beach Bar, one of his favorites. The bar was crowded so I did not want to take a picture of it and disturb anyone. It's very funky inside. Here is the area where we were sitting Menu. Typical bar food Husband's margarita Tuna down now Fried shrimp Fried mahi mahi. Our last fancy dinner of the trip is this evening, and I am hoping for a good sunset.

The mahi had a remoulade style sauce, and the shrimp had a spicy sriracha-mayo type sauce. Yesterday we woke up to a rainbow. It brought rain to the island in the photo, but not here unfortunately. By the way, the island in the photo is a private island that was owned by the disgraced and deceased Jeffrey Epstein. It is on the market and can be yours for the bargain price of $125 million. Creepy vibes and bad karma included for free! Yesterday was a big beach day for the locals and the tourists. Parking at the sandy ones was basically gone for the day by 10AM. I think a fight broke out for our spot when we left. We went to Cinnamon and walked down towards the end. The roped off area in the photo is a leatherback turtle nest that was laid a few weeks ago. I don't think there has been a viable leatherback nest on St. John since 2005 (there are lots of green and hawksbill turtles here, but the leatherbacks tend to nest on St. Croix). Hopefully it is viable. Beachy blues Last night we went to dinner at La Tapa Plage in town. We had a gift certificate from Christmas 2019 that was a gift from my parents to spend. Our 2020 visit to St. John was cancelled because of Covid, and then the restaurant closed for a couple of years to move to a new location. They just reopened on St. Patrick's Day of this year, and we were looking forward to eating there again. Here's the menu. It's quite similar to the one they had in their old location. They were out of the artichoke and the mussels last night. The restaurant (I took this photo right when we arrived. It filled up very quickly thereafter) The view from our table Husband's cocktail I really wanted to try the conch stew but the sun was shining right on me and I was pretty warm, so I went with the gorgonzola caesar to start. It was very good Husband chose the bacalao fritters. I tried to gently dissuade him from getting these. Every time we eat here, he wants to order these, and every time he gets them he says they have too much potato. He got them again, and guess what? He thought they had too much potato! He needs to listen to me haha For mains, my husband chose the mahi mahi. He said it was excellent I chose the tuna. It was fantastic, probably my favorite tuna dish of the trip so far We had a nice sunset with the main dishes We knew we still had some money left on the gift card at this point, but were not really hungry, so we decided to get a couple of ice creams to share. We tried the lemon lavender and the carajillo. We both thought the carajillo was spicier than we were expecting, but the lemon lavender was nice. By the way, it's hard to tell from the photo, but these are really small--less than a kiddie cup size. If we did not have the gift card we would not have chosen these at $15 each. But, as you can see, it worked out perfectly haha (the waiter got tipped in cash on top of the gift card of course!). We have no reservations today so not sure what we are doing for food, but I am sure we will think of something. 🙂

Yesterday we went back to our favorite Francis, just to swim. Husband was still babying his knee a little bit after bashing it. We got our usual spot at the end, away from almost everyone else We decided to keep food light yesterday, and went to town to eat dinner at the bar at Rum Hut, mainly because there's a nice view of the sunset there. Here's the menu Husband's margarita The view We split the blackened mahi mahi bites and the sesame shrimp from the snacks section of the menu And then shared an order of the tuna tacos Everything was tasty, but we both agreed our favorite thing was the salad with the mahi bites! I think we are officially veggie deprived by now, compared to how many we eat at home. Another shot of the sunset And of the bottles behind the bar in the afterglow. I'm curious what that big blue and white ceramic bottle is, but forgot to ask the bartender After dinner we walked across town to get some ice cream at St. John Scoops. I chose toasted coconut and husband chose guava Both were delicious. And one unrelated photo: I am a big reader, and love looking at all of the books the house owners and prior guests leave behind in the vacation homes we rent. I often leave the books have read while staying there behind too. (One time we rented a house down here for three weeks and left behind twelve books. When we rented the house again two years later, all but one of the books had been taken. I took the sad rejected book back home with me haha). Anyway, I always nominate one book I find at each rental house as the most unusual option. Here is my selection from this house 🤣

People harvest it to use for cooking and to make things like salt scrubs. I have never done it personally. I think we are going over to Salt Pond Bay tomorrow, where the largest salt pond is, and if we do I will take photos. It will depend on my husband's knee--he bashed it yesterday and it's about a 3/4 mile uphill hike back out of the bay. It seems to be doing OK, but we will see. Yes, it is imported. Almost everything is imported, other than the local fish such as tuna, wahoo, snapper, grouper, and lobster. There are other fish available to buy on the side of the road but it's not considered safe for people who did not grow up eating them because of the ciguatera risk. There is also one vegetable farm that grows greens for all of the restaurants on the island (you might have noticed "Josephine's greens" mentioned on almost all of the salads on various menus), and of course you can get fruit like mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, genips, etc. when they are in season. Neighboring St. Croix has a dairy farm and a beef farm, but those products do not seem to make their way here. Yesterday we went to a beach we had not visited in about 10 years, Hawksnest. Normally if we go here, we just dump our stuff and snorkel over to spend the day at neighboring Gibney (the beach you can see in the distance), but today we found a secluded spot and hung out for a bit People don't set up on this end of the beach generally because the reef comes up to the shore, and you have to walk to the other end to get in the water. Of course, that's why we picked this spot 🙂 Here are some snorkeling shots. The elkhorn coral is recovering from the storms five years ago, but still showing some bleaching Schools of blue tang were around Hello from Mr. Parrotfish! These fish eat the coral with their strong jaws, and their waste makes some of the sand on the beaches. True story. Last night, we had dinner at the Lime Inn. They recently changed to a prix fixe format. Four courses for $75, six courses for $95. We did the four course. Restaurant interior Here's the menu For the first course, we both chose the wahoo tiradito. This was very good! The fish was super fresh Second course, I chose the camarones nocturnos, and husband chose the curried Spaniard empanada. My dish was a salt lick. It was almost inedible. The plantain chips were good, and the eggplant puree under the shrimp was nice, but the shrimp itself was awful. It was too bad because the texture was good and they tasted fresh. Husband's empanada looked a bit sad just sitting there on the plate, but the flavors were OK. Third course, I chose the tuna dish and my husband had the whole fish. Both were....not good. As salty as the shrimp was, my couscous had no flavor at all! No salt, no sauce, nothing! The tuna was nicely cooked, but again, terribly bland. It had a dill coating, but nothing else. I ate about half of the tuna and a few bites of the couscous, just to eat something. My husband's whole fish suffered the same fate. No seasoning at all on the fish. Meanwhile, the broccoli with it was insanely salty! He also sadly reported that it was not the freshest fish he has ever been served, to put it nicely. The rice and beans underneath were good. The meal was redeemed by dessert. You had a choice of semifreddo key lime tart, brownie a la mode, or coconut tembleque. We both got the key lime tart, and it was absolutely fantastic. It was by far the best thing about the meal, and one of the best things we have eaten this trip! It was very tart and limey, just the way I like it. Despite the delicious dessert, this definitely counts as the most disappointing meal of the trip so far. Oh well, you can't win them all!

This morning we are waiting out some weather before heading out for the day Yesterday we hiked in the back way to one of our favorite beaches so we could go by some plantation ruins that we had not looked at in a while. There's lots of hiking on this island, but we did all the really arduous ones on our earlier visits. This one is easy. There's an interesting story to these ruins, but I won't put all that info here. Ruins You also get good views of the salt pond behind the beach on this hike. That dry area is normally filled with brackish water and a good spot for birdwatching. Right now the island is so dry that you can harvest salt from areas like this around the island. Beach For dinner last night we went to the Terrace, a fine dining restaurant in town that we had not visited in a few years. We got one of the two tables for two on the railing with a view of the sunset, which was a pleasant surprise. Cocktail menu Husband went with the Purple Rain. I thought the She's Royal sounded interesting, but of course stuck to water. Here's the Purple Rain And my waters, mostly for the view The main menus For starters, I got the greens salad and husband chose a special of tuna tartare For entrees, husband got the mani mahi and I chose the tuna. Both were very nice Dessert menu We decided to split a piece of the key lime tart. It was very good, and just the right size. The housemade ice cream was delicious One last sunset shot from our table

Other than fritters, I have not seen any yet this visit. Miss Lucy's used to have a conch chowder that was delectable and a conch roti too, but they were not on the menu anymore. The place we went last night had a conch salad on the menu but said they were out. I'm not really sure what is going on. I have another week here to find some though, because I like it too! So yesterday we had to get the the Jeep into town in the morning to get the oil fixed before we could go anywhere else, so we decided to go to breakfast. We chose Sun Dog cafe, which is on the opposite side of the downtown area from the car repair shop. Menus. We were the only table that did not have cocktails with their breakfast. I guess we are getting old haha I asked for iced tea and they brought me a carafe of the strongest iced tea I have ever drunk. After one glass it felt like my heart was racing, so I had to leave the rest. On the other hand, my husband ordered coffee, and he said it was the weakest coffee he has ever had! Weird! PSA before the food comes And indeed, we did have chickens all around us as we ate. They just sat there quietly though. In fact some of them napped. I went with the guacamole flatbread I did not really want the bread for some reason and left most of it behind, but the salad was nice. Husband got the triple bacon benedict. He enjoyed it. After we got the Jeep back we decided to have a villa gravity day and just lounge in the pool and read books. Boring, right? Sometimes those can be the best days. Eventually we got cleaned up and went to town in search of food. We stopped by a little bar named Drink! For, well, a drink. There's a new bar above it now, so the competing music from the two establishments was a bit annoying. We did not stay long but the view and breeze was nice. Husband had some sort of margarita, and I stuck with sparkling water. Neither of us was starving so we went to Meada's Garden for some sushi. They have a beautiful garden location, but suffer from being tucked back in a courtyard with very little signage. I do not think a lot of people know it is there. They added tents to cover the tables since our last visit, which will be nice when it rains (I have gotten poured on here before) Their menu is huge because they have a traditional menu and a sushi menu. I think they need to pare it down a bit, because every time we go they are out of stuff. Last night they had no crab cake, lobster avocado salad, conch seveche, grouper, and they ran out of the filet beef while we were there, much to the chagrin of the table next to us. Good thing we were ordering sushi haha Cocktail menu. Husband chose the Island-rita and I got the cucumber spritz from the mocktails menu. It was not sweet, which I liked. The traditional menu The first page of the sushi menu. I accidentally deleted my photo of the second page. There was other whole page of rolls. Oops. We ordered the tempura shrimp and vegetables The crunchy dynamite (this was our favorite) And two rolls. We should have just chosen one because we could not finish what we ordered. We got the Baja roll and the dragon roll from the deleted second page of the menu. We had a bit of rain and it was pretty cloudy overall yesterday, so no sunset pictures to share in this post.

Yesterday we drove over to the far side of the island for some exploring. When we got hungry, we headed to Miss Lucy's, one of the few places to eat on this side of the island. The bay it is on almost always has wonderful breezes. Unfortunately, it also has a tendency to fill with sargassum when it is floating by at certain times of the year. Now is one of those times. Sargassum in Friis Bay Luckily it was a recent arrival so had not started to dry out and smell bad yet. The restaurant is basically a stone bunker, a tent, and some tables under a tree. Here's a picture. See that big truck? That's a water truck. There is no natural freshwater source on St. John. Instead, you have to rely on rainwater collected in cisterns. When it is dry, like now, sometimes the cistern runs dry and you have to purchase water that is trucked in from the desalination plant. $$$. Menu pictures Drinks. Husband got a mimosa and I had iced tea We skipped appetizers. Husband got the crunchy fish sandwich I ordered a special of curried grouper with pigeon peas and rice. There is cornmeal fungi under the fish, but you cannot really see it. Another shot of Friis Bay After lunch, we stopped by for a late afternoon swim at what used to be one of our favorite beaches, Maho. You used to be able to get this beach almost to yourself. There was good snorkeling with lots of turtles offshore. Well, a few years ago, someone opened a beach bar on land that is across from the beach but not owned by the National Park. Now, the beach is crowded when the bar is open, you have to look out for tipsy people walking in the road, and snorkel charters drop people off to get drinks. At the end of the day though, once people start leaving, it can still be pretty. Plus, if I did not know what the beach was like before the bar opened, maybe I would think the bar is pretty cool too. Later that night we went back to Longboard to get some light bites. We both had drinks--essentially the same flavors, but mine was a mocktail. It had pineapple, lime juice, local honey, jalapeño, and smoked salt. Here's mine And husband's, with grilled pineapple tequila and Grand Marnier added to my flavors We shared a summer roll (spicy!) And some mahi sliders Last night's sunset was another good one, so you get two pictures It's really overcast today and raining off and on. We have to bring our rental Jeep in for maintenance this morning (the oil is at 4%!!!) so we'll probably skip the beach in favor of going out to breakfast and then hanging at the villa after we get the Jeep back.

It was expensive 🤣 I don't think that much more than a high end steakhouse at home though. Steaks are always expensive at places like those, and everything here has an "island surcharge" except rum. It was a shrimp chip. I guess it was to provide crunch, but everything had enough texture on its own. I tasted it but left the rest of it. We were not planning on visiting a beach yesterday, but on our way to run errands there was a spot available at the hardest beach to get a spot at, Gibney, so of course we changed plans and went. Here is the gate. There is parking for exactly three cars parked in tandem to the left side, No more! If you park anywhere else, especially if you park on the right side of the gate, the family that owns the left side of the beach has your Jeep towed. Fair enough, you cannot say you were not warned by the signage! The gate says "Oppenheimer Beach." That is because the right side was owned by Robert Oppenheimer. He lived there in a small cottage after WW2. His daughter left the part of the beach they owned and the cottage to "the children of St. John" upon her death. The beach. All the blue chairs, umbrellas, and the kayak in the center are owned by the family that owns the right side of the beach, and you are not supposed to set up near their stuff. They have two cottages that they rent out to tourists. They are charming and you cannot beat the location, but staying there is $$$ and they are very small (one is one bedroom, one bath, and the other is two bedrooms, one bath). It is almost impossible to find truly beachfront accommodation on a sandy beach on St. John since so much of it is National Park, so they are very popular. Boats lined up for one of the official Instagram shots of St. John. There's a little pocket beach over there to the right of Gibney, just big enough for two people, and only sandy at low tide. You can snorkel to it in five minutes from Gibney so I have no idea why people spend their expensive boat day waiting in line to take a picture there. To each their own. The reef is still mostly dead post hurricanes, but this part looked OK Hello turtle! (Taken with an underwater camera and a zoom lens, not up close) Flounder! Dinner? Dinner last night was at Morgan's Mango for lobster night. I called for a table six weeks ago to be sure we could get in. Lobster night is extremely popular and reservations only. Menu pictures (that's not a camera flash on the menu, it's an overhead light that I could not work around on our small table) Husband's cocktail of the evening: Harley's margarita We started with the snapper seveche. It was really good. Maybe could have used a pinch more salt, and I would have left off that drizzle of whatever on the yucca chips. We also split a special appetizer, which was blackened shrimp in a plantain cup filled with avocado crema and fruit salsa over seaweed salad and microgreens. The plantain cups were made at the restaurant and maybe a little too thick. The flavors were nice though. I do not really like lobster so I chose one of the fish of the day served voodoo style. They had swordfish, wahoo, striped bass, and monkfish. I went with wahoo since it was the only one that was caught locally (the swordfish was from Puerto Rico which is pretty close). I really enjoy wahoo so was very happy with my meal. Husband got the lobster. He asked for 1.5 lbs. He said it was perfectly cooked, definitely the best Caribbean lobster he has had, and he orders it almost every time it is available. They are famous for their key lime pie, but we were stuffed, so got a slice to put in the fridge for later. Post dinner digestive walk pictures. I could not decide which red sky one I liked best, so here are two

We got a later start yesterday (still recovering from our 3AM wakeup Saturday), so went to one of the larger beaches where we knew we could get a sandy spot far away from any other people: Cinnamon This is a beautiful beach, and the National Park offers camping behind the beach here, both tent and cottage, if you are into camping. The facilities are all new post Irma/Maria--the cottages just opened up last month., and from what I can see, it looked really nice for a camping setup. Here is our favorite spot, way at the end, shady, away from the crowds and the people with their (illegal and annoying) bluetooth speakers on the beach For dinner we went to Dave and Jerry's Island Steakhouse. Menu pictures I forgot to take a picture of the cocktail menu again. Husband's chose the margarita of the day, which was guava We got two appetizers to share. I chose a special, which was three scallops seared and served with a basil puree, with grapefruit and crispy prosciutto And husband got the smoked salmon caesar salad because he was not going to order any veggies with his steak They did not have any fish specials last night, so I just got the same tuna I had back in January. It was very good again, so I was happy with it. Husband chose the ribeye steak and a six ounce lobster tail (offered on special). He ate the lobster tail and a little less than half the steak, plus he had a glass of wine. I guess their wine by the glass list is pretty bad, so he had to order a bottle to get something that he wanted. You can take unconsumed alcohol with you from the restaurants here, so we brought the remaining wine home for another day. The steak came back with us too and I will make it into a breakfast for him. We were both way too full for dessert. We got home in time to catch the last colorful skies from the sunset over St. Thomas from our deck.

We were still really tired yesterday, so did not do too much. The house is comfortable with a pool and views, so it was easy to just stay here and relax for most of the day. We did get out in the afternoon and went to the beach. If you do not get to the beach in the morning on Sundays in the summer, parking at the sandy ones can be limited to non existent, so we just drove out to one of the furthest ones, Francis, parked at the trailhead, and hiked in about 1/2 mile to the beach. Easier than fighting for a parking spot. The rocky side of the beach is always uncrowded even if the sandy part is more crowded For years, we would have this beach to ourselves, but the secret of St. John is definitely out. I am not really complaining (at least not here haha). I am sure people complained when my husband and I showed up for the first time in 2003. Last night we had dinner at Extra VIrgin Bistro. This restaurant, along with a few others on the island, recently went to a prix fixe format. Here's the menu. I remembered to take a picture of the cocktail menu tonight, but my husband did not order one because he did the wine pairing with his food. I decided to try and order two lighter dishes because I knew I wanted the mushroom pappardelle for my second course, and having had it before, I knew it was incredibly rich. I chose the burrata salad for my first course. I was so happy to have a salad, but was not expecting such a huge piece of cheese! I ate about half because I had to pace myself. I saw a lot of other tables ordering this. Husband went with the other popular starter, fried calamari I tried it and thought the oil they fried it in tasted a little old, but he did not notice that taste. Maybe I was just really not in the mood for fried food. Next course we both got the pappardelle. It was so delicious. The fried golden beet garnish really made the dish. We both finished this course. Third course, I got the catch of the day, which was mahi mahi. This was perfectly cooked (you know how mahi gets dry if you cook it too much), the coconut beet puree made a delicious sauce for the fish, and I really loved the pickled cabbage and apple salad. Husband got the shrimp and langoustino risotto. I think it was a bit too rich after the pasta. He said it was delicious but he could not finish it. He tried to get me to try it but I did not want any. We were both way too full to even think about dessert and it was not included in the prix fixe anyway so there was no pressure to order one. Overall I liked my meal more than my husband liked his, but we agreed that we probably would go back on a future visit.

I'm back!!! My husband and I are back in St. John for two weeks to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We usually bring family with us, but it's just the two of us this time. We have a ton of dinner reservations, including some new places. We got to the island really early yesterday, too early to pick up our Jeep or get into our rental house, so we of course went to find food while we waited. We had our luggage, so ended up just going to High Tide since they have a place to stash your bags while you eat. Restaurant view Lunch menu. Pretty standard stuff We got the the blackened fish tacos and blackened shrimp tacos to split, and one of us got fries and the other got salad so we could split those too. Shrimp Fish While we were at lunch we got a text that we could get in to our house four hours early. Since we had been up since 3AM, this was most welcome news. Here's the view from our rental house After a nap, we headed in to town for some light bites. The restaurants were not crowded, but there was nowhere to park! I have no idea where everyone was. We ended up having to park in a really expensive lot that I had vowed to never use again, which was annoying. We did not want a full dinner, so ended up at Longboard, which had small plates you can share. Menu pictures I forgot to take a photo of the cocktail menu. They have some really interesting choices here. My husband's sunshower cocktail (grilled lemon vodka, elderflower liqueur, basil, cucumber, house lemonade, bitters). We split the shrimp seveche the shrimp tostones and the spicy tuna lettuce wraps It was all light, fresh and tasty, just what we needed. The end of last night's hazy sunset from the house

Breakfast on JetBlue Mint. (The flight took off on time! I really, really hope they get it together and fix whatever is going on with them lately because JetBlue is the major domestic line at my airport) Menu pictures. I forgot to take a picture of the cocktail menu, but you could get them (included in fare). Considering that our flight took off at 6:30AM, that was not happening! Welcome snack was a (smushed) warm croissant. Husband had an iced cappuccino and I had a sparkling water with mint and cucumber from the non photoed cocktail page I got the blueberries, avocado toast and yogurt. The syrup on the blueberries was too sweet but when I drained them out of the syrup and mixed them into the non sweetened yogurt they were tasty. I was just grateful for the fresh fruit. The avocado "toast" was actually really spicy! I was surprised. That chili oil was not needed. Husband was brave and got the french toast and bacon (neither of us were brave enough to try the poached egg haha). He said that it was the best meal he has ever had on a plane, and he flies first and/or business class to Europe regularly for work (well, he did pre-pandemic) so that is saying something. It is still plane food though 🙂

This looks so great! I have some banana leaves in my freezer and am going to try this sometime soon.