liamsaunt

I've talked about it on here before. It is an Andrea Nguyen recipe from her banh mi cookbook. Basically, you blend up onion, sugar, pepper, egg white, garlic, vegetable oil, cornstarch and baking powder, then add fish and blend it up some more. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so, then blend it again with the herbs of your choice (I just use whatever's around--this time I used cilantro, spicy chiles, and lemongrass) and some fish sauce. Shape it into cakes using damp hands, chill it in the fridge, and then pan fry and slice. Here is a link to the recipe on her website: http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2007/08/salmon-cakes-wi.html The ingredients are the same, but the instructions on the website call for steaming. In the book, she pan fries them, so I guess either way is good.

Impressive! Last night we had vegetable japchae with carrots, spinach, onions/garlic/ginger/cilantro, shiitake mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, and I added some fishcake I made from salmon to all but my nephew's plate. He had chicken. I meant to add sugar snap peas too but I forgot them. I forgot the sesame seeds too!

Clean out the crisper drawer coconut curry with onions, garlic, ginger, kale, swiss chard, green beans, carrots, loose curd cauliflower, curry leaves, tomatoes, cilantro and hake from my fish share.

Chicken shawarma

@weinoo is right, they are Wellfleet Massachusetts oysters from the east coast of the United States, grown in the harbour right down the street from the restaurant. They are excellent! Haha! We stopped at Nauset Lobster Pool on our way home yesterday because Mac's market was not open yet when we drove by. The people in front of us bought all of the lobster meat they had (7 pounds!!!) which squashed my original plan to make lobster rolls. See alternative results on the dinner thread 🙂 I agree that they have high quality product. Did you know that Sunbird was a food truck in Wellfleet before it moved to Orleans and became a brick and mortar restaurant? It was parked kind of near PJ's on 6 if I am remembering right. We went to it a couple of times when it was a truck. I tried stopping by the Orleans restaurant a few years ago when I was at Chatham Bars Inn for work but it was way too crowded.

Scallop roll and halibut cheek roll with oven fries

Last post for this trip. I am back home now. My nephew skipped going out to dinner last night because he had an online D+D session scheduled with his friends. The rest of us went back to Mac's Shack. Oysters Since my nephew was not present, my husband and I ordered a shrimp toast to share. It was tasty. My brother in law ended up eating most of it though as we were saving room for our entrees. My niece was not feeling 100% so just opted for a tuna poke bowl. No picture. My brother in law got roasted cod wrapped in prosciutto with crispy kale and creamy grits. He liked this. My husband got the Ritz cracker crusted bluefish with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. He said it was fine but not as good as some versions of it that he has had in past years. And my sister and I both got a special of roasted striped bass with ramen noodles and pickled vegetables. The striped bass was perfectly cooked and the vegetables were nice, but the ramen was quite bland. Luckily I had some sriracha in my purse 😉 So that's it for this visit. We are coming back in three weeks to spend a week in Orleans, which is a town two towns away from Wellfleet. We'll probably be going to all new restaurants to avoid traveling very far from the house. Cape Cod traffic in July is really brutal. We got home in under two hours today, but it will probably take us double that in July. And, we spotted an Alaska license plate on the way out. Nine states to go! Here are a couple of sunset pictures from other trips to show why it is worth the drive

Well, the menu was not at all descriptive, but just based on my experience eating it, I would say that the cod was well seasoned with salt, and dusted with something like potato starch or ground up dehydrated potato flakes, then seared in a hot skillet to get the crust and finished in a hot oven. The olive relish was not as "pickley" as a muffuletta topping. To me, it just tasted liked well seasoned chopped up castelvetrano olives with olive oil and a little pimiento mixed in. As for the beans, again I am guessing here, but I am thinking it was similar to this recipe from Leite's Culinaria, but blended with more chicken stock to make it looser, and roasted peppers instead of radicchio. https://leitesculinaria.com/96625/recipes-white-bean-puree.html The sauce was just a typical cacio e pepe sauce . As for the green sauce, I am not sure. I did not taste it and it is not described on the menu. It kind of looks like an arugula or basil cream sauce to me. PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet. Your friend can order online for next day pickup to skip the (long, slow) line. Here is a link to their website. Everything that is available inside the bakery can be purchased on this website. https://pbboulangeriebistro.com You can also let her know that the attached restaurant is excellent. Unfortunately, it is closed this season due to staffing issues--partly covid related, partly work visa related. They are hoping to reopen it after the summer. They do stay open year round. Yesterday we ate the food I had planned for Wednesday. Grilled bluefin tuna caught off Provincetown, pasta salad and some veggies. Last night's sunset It was raining earlier, but it is starting to clear up so it looks like a good time for a beach walk 🙂

They would probably freeze without that wetsuit! I think the water is 58 on the surface right now. Brr. I wear a wetsuit to swim in the Caribbean so I cannot imagine what I would have to put on to get in to the water here. Yesterday I picked what might be my final order from the bakery for this trip. Croissants. That's a creme brûlée bread pudding in the front that I picked out for myself but will probably end up being eaten by someone else. Blueberry danishes Dessert assortment We had planned to cook at the house last night, but after I already started gathered all of the ingredients at various markets and started dinner prep the owner texted my husband to say that she had a repairman coming to look at the refrigerator soon, so we had to go out to dinner (the fridge is right next to the dining table and it was too windy to eat on the deck). After some debate amongst ourselves we ended up back at Winslow's Tavern. Broiled oysters with tabasco lime butter Both my niece and nephew got the bacon pasta again My sister and my brother in law both got the scallops with corn risotto. No picture. My husband opted for the mixed seafood pasta. This normally also has shrimp but they omitted it due to my nephew's allergy I got a cod special with olive relish, roasted peppers and onions, bean puree, and roasted sun chokes. This was really good. I did not eat the sun chokes because they were very hard, but the cod, peppers, olive relish and bean puree were all excellent. My brother in law was eyeing my dish since I usually give him about half of whatever I order, but I informed him that the cod was all mine this time haha Dessert. It turned out that our waiter had been the pastry chef last year, so he told us that if we had any questions, he could answer them. My niece asked him what happened to her favorite dessert, the triple chocolate mousse. It was the only dessert that was no longer on the menu from prior years. He admitted that of all the desserts, that one was the most time consuming to make, so he took it off the menu last year when customers were fewer, and the new chef opted to do the same this year. Points for honesty I guess! Anyway, she got a chocolate strega instead Nephew opted for the tiramisu And the adults split half of this salted caramel tart with peanut butter ice cream. My niece and nephew finished it for us Only my husband, brother in law and I opted to go to the sunset last night. It was a good one. Fishing for striped bass We walked down to the far end of the beach to watch the sunset away from other people. A few years ago, we rented the house in the middle of this photo. It was a fantastic location, but the road to it was brutal! All of our cars needed front end alignments when we got home. The moon rose over the dunes, almost full. The string is to keep people off the dunes because there are endangered piping plovers nesting behind the beach right now. We had a nice view walking back to the parking lot post sunset And finally, a sunrise photo from the deck this morning

Monday it remained cloudy, so we just hung around the house and read books/played games etc. I made dinner of stir fried summer squash, napa cabbage, bok choy and cilantro topped with haddock that we did in a foil pack on the grill with some soy sauce and scallions Yesterday morning my sister went to Ceraldi early enough to get some of his breakfast pastries. She brought back sticky buns and dark chocolate-sea salt covered donuts. It was still cloudy with rain in the forecast, so that afternoon we went to the Beachcomber for an early dinner. My brother in law and nephew walked down the beach (the Beachcomber is about a mile or so from the house). The rest of us piled into my car and drove over. It is $30 to park in the beach lot, but they give you a voucher for that amount that you can trade in for food or merchandise (not alcohol per state law). Steamer clams Fried clams Cajun spiced scallops with remoulade sauce My nephew had a veggie burger, and my niece just got fries and mozzarella sticks. No pictures of those. My sister had an oyster po boy. This was huge. I think it had 15 oysters My brother in law and I each got tuna burgers My husband had oyster tacos from the specials menu Everyone was pleased with their choices. We walked over to the dune after dinner to check out the overcast view. This shark sign is at all of the ocean facing beaches. My niece overheard someone saying "I have seen this sign at every beach! Do you really think there are sharks here? I don't!" Download the Sharktivity app and you will learn otherwise lady... Here is the dune down to the beach. My niece decided to walk back to the house with my nephew and brother in law. You can only see her pant leg but she is there.

It is crazy. I have been on vacation for eight days, and in that time another house in my neighborhood went on the market and sold. It's still pending so I do not know how much it ultimately went for but it was priced $300K higher than any of the others that have sold recently so I am very interested to find out! There was a story in our local paper yesterday about how people are stalking yard sales and scouring obituaries to try and find available properties. We were really lazy yesterday and did not do much. My husband and I did go to the fish market to get some stuff for dinner. Sister, husband, and brother in law wanted striped bass, so I grilled some of that and made sandwiches. My sister crashed hers up to make it fit on the bun. I did not want striped bass, so I made myself a scallop roll My niece and nephew had the leftover ribs, some chopped up veggies and mac and cheese. My wisebutt nephew took a picture of his plate in portrait mode to share with the "food people" 🤣 Last night's sunset. This is not the beach in front of my house, by the way. Our beach faces the sunrise. You will notice I have not posted any photos of that haha I will try and be more exciting today but it is overcast and we are all well into the books we are reading, so who knows?

Yesterday, my sister, niece and I decided to go out to breakfast. My nephew skipped it to watch some car race. Husband and brother in law slept in. We tried a new to us place, the Fox and the Crow. I am not a big fan of going out to breakfast because you always have to wait for a table and I like to eat as soon as I wake up. We walked around town while waiting, so that was nice. The restaurant was out of everything we wanted to order, so these are our plan B plates. Niece and I ordered avocado toast with arugula salad and boiled egg My sister had a souffled egg sandwich with bacon and cheese and a side of some roasted fingerling potatoes We walked over to Ceraldi after to check out his breakfast offerings, but he was already sold out of everything but lunch pizza. I did pick up some squares of Grandma pizza to bring back to the house for the guys to eat later. We are heading back there on Tuesday morning to get some of his breakfast pastries. Thanks to lobbying from my sister, dinner was at Mac's Shack again. We shared a bunch of stuff. Nephew defaulted to his usual allergy burger. Spicy tuna mango martini Halibut turadito Street corn A sushi roll with toro, avocado, cucumber, and spicy scallop My niece's big kahuna roll (fried roll with salmon, avocado, and cream cheese) Ritz cracker crusted bluefish with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach A special of seared salmon with black and white beans, tomato salsa, and cojita cheese The great white sharks are officially back in town. Yesterday Truro had a beach closing. We have a pod of seals right in front of the house, but hopefully no shark visitors. I will try and get some video and pictures later.

Good morning. It is a breezy, cloudy and warm day here in Wellfleet. It is getting more crowded out here now. Every year we search for out of state license plates in the parking lots. For 2021 so far, we are up to 39 states, plus Diplomat, DC, and weirdly since the border with Canada is still closed, two different cars from Ontario. I have high hopes that we will at least find Louisiana this coming week, though I am not optimistic about South Dakota or Hawaii (we actually did find it one year!). I stocked up on desserts at the bakery again. From bottom left, almond cream sable, raspberry lunette cookie, chocolate bombe, raspberry tart, chocolate eclair, vanilla eclair, blueberry danish, citrus tart, chocolate pear sable. We cooked at the house again last night since we were not sure when my sister would arrive. I made my nephew grill again haha. He did ribs and chicken. I made a salad and baked some cornbread. Ribs. He made extra for another dinner the next time the rest of us have grilled fish. Grilled chicken for the non rib eaters (me, my sister, and my brother in law) on a mixed greens salad with some fruit that needed to get eaten An update on the anti-visitor signage I noticed: the "stop moving here" signs are still up, but not surprisingly all of the "go home" graffiti has been scrubbed away.

It's not just Cape Cod--the real estate market is crazy almost everywhere in MA right now. My neighborhood is nuts--four homes in my small immediate neighborhood have gone for sale in the past few months, and all sold for far over list with multiple offers to choose from within 48 hours. All sellers are families whose kids graduated high school this year. I assume they are downsizing as the kids go to college. We've gotten solicitations in our mailbox but are ignoring them 🙂 I personally do not think it is a good time to buy here unless you can pay cash and do not care about getting a return on your investment. My husband and I are thinking of buying a retirement property out here eventually, but not right now!! My nephew and I cooked dinner together last night. He grilled steaks and bluefin tuna for everyone but me as I do not eat red meat and am not a huge fan of bluefin tuna. I made a big salad and warmed up a baguette for them and then cooked my own dinner: roasted curried cauliflower and kale with a lime yogurt sauce topped with seared scallops. My husband and brother in law each filched a scallop and some of my kale from my plate. How rude! 😂 Beach shot of scallop plate Close up with better light And bonus sunset picture

She had to work this week because and cannot work remotely due to the nature of her job. My husband is working remote this week (he is 100% remote right now because of Covid and will only be going to the office a couple of days a month once they reopen). He has vacation time next week so we thought that would be the better week for her to join us 😀 Mentioning remote work (and still waiting for someone to go on a beach walk with me, sigh) leads to an interesting observation I have had this trip. Remote work opportunities have set the real estate market on fire out here on Cape Cod, and there is definitely some resentment from full time residents about this fact. People are paying double-triple the value for homes that would not normally be on the vacation rental market and either renting them out at a premium or moving in permanently to work remotely. I have noticed signs around that were not here in previous years. Someone put stickers on all the STOP signs so they now say “stop moving here.” Someone else added trash truck stickers yesterday (not sure what that means). Another example: “go home” is scrawled on the fence at the public beach near our rental. The tourist season starts this weekend so my guess is that everything will be removed/painted over soon. On a brighter note, here is a picture of my farm share box, picked up yesterday at a local fish market

Good morning. I thought I would update this thread while waiting for someone else to wake up and come on a beach walk with me. I have been awake since 6:30, sigh. Yesterday's breakfast on the deck of scrambled eggs and kale with local strawberries on the side We went in to Provincetown yesterday afternoon because my niece has been on a quest to find a copy of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Yesterday marked the 11th bookstore we tried without success. Luckily my sister is joining us tomorrow for the rest of the trip, and she is going to bring out my copy from home. Provincetown was a lot more crowded than I was expecting! The film festival is this week, so maybe that is why. I had planned to cook at home, but my nephew insisted that he was 'STARVING' and could not wait to go home and have me cook and he needed to eat 'NOW' so at his insistence we went to Mac's Fish House. Oysters Fried calamari Tuna poke My blackened swordfish sandwich Niece's sushi roll Husband's lobster roll Brother in law had salmon but I forgot to take a picture. The shocker of the meal, my nephew actually ordered fish! He got a coconut swordfish curry and completely devoured it. I guess he really was starving, haha

The dunes on this part of the Cape are quite tall and steep. If you tried to tumble down them you might break your neck! At the public beaches, the towns usually help to grade a pathway down the dune, packing the sand to make it safer for people to walk on, and also preventing too much sand from tumbling down to the beach and eroding the dune. Here is an example of a legal dune path at the public beach to the right of our rental house. Some people just run down the dune anyway, but if the cops see you you will get a ticket. We had to sign a waiver promising not to walk on the dune that this house is on before renting it. There is a legal packed path from the house to the staircase I posted a picture of a few days ago. We did end up going to dinner last night, and opted to head back to Mac's Shack for some sushi and a few other things. We went early, and it was a good thing we did, because there was a long line to get in when we left. I did not get pictures of everything because of the configuration of the table. My nephew's drink, a spicy mescalito. Halibut turadito Yellowtail jalepeno sashimi My niece had a salmon hand roll. This is the only thing of hers I have pictures of. She also had a poke bowl and a roll. They had a couple of toro specials, so my husband got those. Toro tataki Fatty Mac--a roll with toro Brother in law had a swordfish curry (no picture) Here is my nephew's allergy burger. He cannot have the fries because they are cooked in the same fryer as the fried shrimp. They offered him a side salad but he declined haha. I brought him some potato chips from home. I was hungry and wanted something hot, so ordered the blackened salmon yakisoba bowl. I asked for the salmon medium rare and they nailed the temperature. It was perfectly cooked and tender. I know salmon is not local but it was what I was in the mood for and we are here for two weeks so why not? (I did have sriracha in my purse this time and added some to my noodles haha)

We skipped dinner out last night in favor of scrounging in the fridge, so no pictures. This morning I made a four-serving frittata using up some of the stuff that I brought out from home. My farm share is delivering to Cape Cod this summer for seasonal residents, and one of the drop-off spots is a fish market in an adjacent town, so we will have even more fresh veggies when I pick that up tomorrow. This frittata has mixed greens, chive flowers, spring onions, and asparagus from my farm share box, plus grape tomatoes, swiss cheese, and a little bacon that was cooked and already in the fridge. Eaten with local strawberries that were also in the farm box. The weather is iffy today so we may or may not be going out to dinner this evening.

There is a rope to hold on to. Walking down the dunes is illegal except on designated paths because of erosion. Ceraldi is still in business! He opened for the season last week. This year he is serving coffee, pastries and pizza in the mornings as carry out in addition to the usual dinner service. We are heading over to check that out at the end of the week. Yes, we usually stay in Wellfleet. Our repeat rentals are direct from the owner. We do not ever use AirBnB for various reasons. Sometimes we use the agency weneedavacation.com or local real estate firms to find new to us rentals. We have never rented in Truro, but we have stayed at the same house in Provincetown a few times, including this past April, and will be back there again in August. The Red Inn looks great, but we usually bring family along so it is not practical for us to stay there.

Did you see the story about the lobster fisherman that got swallowed by a whale out here the other day? Crazy! He is the guy who gets the lobster for our favorite restaurant out here, Ceraldi. (For anyone who did not see it the whale spit him out and he is bruised up but OK). Yesterday my niece and I took the stairs down to the beach. They are...challenging. There are 95 of them and some of them are angled backwards. Yikes. Here is the house on the dune. I am expecting great muscle definition in my calves at the end of this trip 🙂 I stopped by the bakery down the street to get some desserts for the teens to enjoy over the next few days. You can place an online order with them and pick up the next day in a designated spot to skip the line, which is nice because the line is always long and slow. Starting bottom left, we have a chocolate tart, an opera cake with white chocolate, almond sponge cake and raspberry, a chocolate bombe, a coup de soleil with blueberries and vanilla marscapone, a hazelnut stuffed coronet, a blueberry tart, a strawberry tart, and a brownie with caramel mousse. The bakery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I had to get a couple of days worth. We tried to go for sushi last night but all of the outside dining was booked with reservations until 9PM despite their website saying they are not taking reservations. The hostess told us last night was the final night for reservations and they are going walk in only as of today, so we decided to come back another night instead of eating inside. Instead, we went to the patio at one of our favorites, Winslow's Tavern. Drinks. A Peeper beer on the left and a summer in a glass on the right (basically vodka, lemonade, and sparkling water). My drink is in the center. I am not drinking alcohol at the moment, so chose a shrub with raspberry, rhubarb, and hibiscus. It was kind of weird tasing (everyone tried it and thought it tasted like celery). I swapped it for sparkling water. I do not like most flavored drinks so should have known better 🙂 Appetizers. Foccacia and ricotta My husband and brother in law shared some lobster croquetas with saffron aioli. They really liked these. Niece ordered a burrata with prosciutto, roasted tomatoes, and olive tapenade. I ate her tomatoes and olives since she does not like those Niece had a bacon cacio pepe for her entree Nephew chose gorgonzola pasta with carmelized onions Brother in law had squid and corn pasta. The rings are the pasta. I thought it was a cute presentation. I had seared scallops with corn risotto Husband had swordfish au poivre with roasted cauliflower, roasted wood ear mushrooms, and romanesco and au poivre sauces Nobody wanted dessert as we were all too full, plus there were the pastries back at the house.

Hello from Wellfleet. I am back at the beach for the next two weeks. This time we are staying directly on the ocean side. Here's the view Winter storms erode the dunes on this section of the Cape quite badly. A few years back, a single storm took 30 feet off this dune further down the road. This house is currently set about 25 feet back from the dune edge. I'm estimating it will be lost to the ocean in 10 years or so. There is no room to move it back further from the dune edge as some owners do when erosion happens--the front of the house basically butts against the road. Last night we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, our first time dining out (not including takeout) since Covid started. We are all fully vaccinated, and sat at an outside table. I am not sure that we will venture to inside dining this trip, but you never know, I guess. The restaurant is called C Shore, and we have tried it a couple of times in prior years with mixed results. Last night everyone but me enjoyed their meals. My niece started with pork dumplings with a peanut dipping sauce My husband, brother in law and I tried the clam fritters and my nephew got the strawberry, goat cheese, strawberry and arugula salad. I almost got this for dinner and ended up wishing that I had. My niece and nephew both got macaroni and cheese for dinner (hey, it is vacation, right?). Niece opted for plain Nephew got his topped with linguica sausage My husband and brother in law got fish tacos. They said they were tasty. They came with rice and beans that my husband really enjoyed. I got a vegetable poke bowl. It came filled with pineapple which was not noted on the menu, and was far too sweet. There was no sriracha etc on the table due to covid (understandable) so I could not doctor it up. I picked out the veggies and left the rest behind. I'm adding condiments to my purse for the rest of the trip 🙂 Everyone was too full for dessert except my niece. She ordered cannolis, and ended up sharing with anyone who wanted some. I don't really like sweets so cannot comment on the taste. I'm heading to the fish market in a bit to see if they have anything I feel like cooking for dinner. If it is not too crowded I will get some pictures.

Chicken paillard topped with clean out the fridge salad

Eggplant and bell pepper stir fry with Thai basil and scallions and rice. The sauce was fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic, and ginger. I had to use regular basil for the garnish because I put all the Thai basil in the stir fry. My nephew hates fish sauce so he freezer dived and had a tray of black bean enchiladas and cilantro-tomato rice.

Grilled chicken skewers marinated in Moroccan flavors, tzatziki sauce, chopped salad, flatbread, and an Israeli couscous salad with dried apricots, pistachios, and mint

Miso salmon with noodles seasoned with oyster sauce and maggi sauce. The vegetables added were napa cabbage and choi sum, with mixed mushrooms cooked in sake, soy and mirin added to the adults' bowls (no mushrooms for my niece). I chopped up an entire large head of napa cabbage and an entire bunch of choi sum and as usual the greens cooked down to nothing. Next time I am going to cook a wheelbarrow full. My fish hating nephew had leftover Indian food from the other night.