Yet Another Question on Importing Food

[ToonMann]

Does it really make sense for us to bring refrigerated food (meats) to STJ?

Are prices that much higher there than here in DC? Seems to us that by the time we buy a cooler and pay to ship or check as baggage, there's minimal cost savings, if any.

Or is it there a food-quality issue there? We've never noticed a problem with the groceries on STJ.

Thanks!

TM

[PA Girl]

I am part time cooler person. My thoughts on the subject:

Is quality an issue? It is for me. We are fussy about meat. We get it straight from the farm so I really don't want to buy at the grocery store.

Along with quality, I do it for ease of meal planning. When I do take a cooler, I have meals planned for each packet of meat. I have an overall master shopping list ready to go. (I hate grocery shopping and consider it a waste of vacation-time)

It doesn't save us money but I have no doubt it can be a cost savings for some travellers even after the checked baggage fees.

[jimg20]

We bring meat with us when we go. A 12 pack Polar Bear cooler does the trick for the two of us for 10 days. We have carried it on some times and stowed it in our dive bag and cecked it other times.

We noticed that a rib eye steak at Lilly's in Coral Bay was $13/pound last spring. The price was high and it didn't look like that great of a piece of meat.

Since there is a 50 pound weight limit on baggage, and we are all trying to take half as much clothes and twice as much money, I offer this suggestion for checking the food as luggage. Take a megga bag with the clothing you would take in the roll-aboard bag. Then fill the remainder of the bag with the food. Then you will not get an additional checked bag fee.


JIM

[northerngal]

It is just me or did anyone else not understand the "fill the rest with food" line? We are leaving in January and I'm still trying to decide if we should bring food down or not...

[ToonMann]

northerngal,

I think Jim's suggestion was to:

- lay out the clothes you'd pack in a small suitcase

- put them in a large suitcase

- fill the leftover space in the large suitcase with food items

TM

[northerngal]

but you wouldn't put frozen food in with your clothes would you?

[waterguy]

You would pack it in a soft side cooler like a polar bear and put that into you big suit case

[lark22]

For us it's a quality thing as well! I've been less than thrilled with the quality of the chicken that's available (borderline-fresh chicken really grosses me out), so we bring a few pounds of frozen-solid chicken in our carry-on in a really cheapo soft-sided cooler, which doubles as a lunch bag for the beach once we're on island. Then I stretch the chicken into lots of meals (think grilled one night, leftovers in a salad the next, chicken salad sandwiches, etc.)

We don't go overboard with cooler stuff -- we buy a majority of our groceries on-island, but this has really worked for us so far.

[Ksea]

We bought a soft sided rolling cooler from WalMart for $20 and packed it with frozen food and checked it as luggage. Back then there was no charge to check a bag. I would do it again and pack the clothes in carry on bags. We also ship sunscreen, shampoo, etc ahead. Free postage once in a while is a perk I receive at work. The $20 cooler is still in good shape after 2 years.

[lark22]

I have meals planned for each packet of meat. I have an overall master shopping list ready to go. (I hate grocery shopping and consider it a waste of vacation-time)

Me too! I'm general not a super-organized person, but I plan out a bunch of meals and then make up a shopping list broken down by aisle (I can "walk" through Starfish in my head). Guess I'm sort of obsessed when it comes to this, but I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible!

[northerngal]

I would LOVE to have a couple of your geat, easy recipes for meals down there. It just seems a shame to eat just every day meals when you are at such a great place!

[lark22]

I would LOVE to have a couple of your geat, easy recipes for meals down there. It just seems a shame to eat just every day meals when you are at such a great place!

My vacation recipes aren't really worth sharing -- I'm into super-simple and easy for villa meals. Simple food is okay with me as long as I'm in paradise!

But there are lots of talented chefs on the forum who have great villa meal ideas. Check out the 'Off-Topic' section of the forum, and look for the "food porn" thread -- lots of fantastic recipes!

[PA Girl]

I would LOVE to have a couple of your geat, easy recipes for meals down there. It just seems a shame to eat just every day meals when you are at such a great place!

There are many of us who love the St. John Spice rubs.

STJ Spice Grill Rub or Jerk Rub are both great on chicken or beef. Both would repurpose well for beach salads or sandwiches. I add chicken to pasta salad for the beach. Our group likes flank steak marinaded in Grill Rub.

[jimg20]

It is just me or did anyone else not understand the "fill the rest with food" line? We are leaving in January and I'm still trying to decide if we should bring food down or not...

Sorry, I was trying to get that posted during lunch time and was probably not as clear as I could have been.

The larger suitcase will have a correspondingly larger volume. Place the 12 pack cooler that I mentioned at the beginning of the post in the large bag. Then pack the clothing around it that you would have placed in the smaller bag. With that plan you will probably still have a single bag that is under 50 pounds and the same bag check fee. When you get there you will have your frozen meat and a cooler to take to the beach. Some fill the soft sided cooler with alcohol to take home that they purchase on the island. Some will also fill remaining space in their bags on the way to STJ with boxes of pasta and snacks. When you find yourself paying $7.50 for a $4 package of cookies, you may not think that's such a far out idea.

There have been threads regarding bringing our stateside provisions verses buying from the local businesses. It is important to support the businesses of our hosts. We do buy a good deal of food at the local stores and eat at restaurants several times while down there. Even if a person wanted to bring most of their food to STJ it is terribly impractical or outright impossible to bring most foods to STJ. Some foods don't travel well and others simply must be fresh.

JIM

[tjwgrr]

You would pack it in a soft side cooler like a polar bear and put that into you big suit case

That's what we do too- I pack a roll aboard carry-on for my clothes, and pack a large wheeled duffel to be checked containing our snorkel gear and the soft-sided cooler. Never had a problem with Techni Ice as checked luggage, but I think as a carry-on it could be an issue.

We're usually pretty content to let villa gravity take over and cook something there, so we pack food not so much as a cost savings measure- though it does- but more so for convenience and quality.

The end of the month we plan to bring (all frozen) chix breasts, a couple beef filets, sliced deli-ham for sandwiches, a small pork tenderloin roast which should be good for leftovers, and then throw in a couple packs of cheese on top to stay cold.