liamsaunt

Sunday night we cooked at the house. I took inspiration from the Mantoulin blog on the Food Traditions and Culture page and made a clipper ship cocktail for everyone. It was tasty. For dinner we had grilled swordfish and grilled mackerel, a loaf of bread from a local bakery and a caprese salad made with arugula, tomatoes and burrata purchased at the Cape Abilities farm store. Cape Abilities is a pretty cool operation, you can check it out here: https://www.capeabilities.org Last night we went back to Bistro on Main for dinner. Menu photos: Drinks Toro poke Clams balboa Cod and sweet potato fries Lobster roll Mussels in a white wine sauce Short ribs Pasta bolognese Tiramisu Creme brulee Sun setting on the beach by our rental house

Minor update. Snacks at Bistro on Main this afternoon after attending the Chatham Festival of the Arts. Raw bar. Oysters and littlenecks smoked fish dip

My husband said he is going to pick them up the next time we are in Provincetown, just for the cover art. I had already picked out six other books and I am the package sherpa when we shop, so did not want to carry anything else 🙂 We are now in the Chatham rental house. My husband did not show me any pictures before booking it and now I know why. The kitchen is vintage! It has wall to wall carpeting, eek. The stove is a "Magic Chef." I think there are going to be more restaurant meals this week than I had planned for. The house does have a small grill and a swimming pool and is walking distance to downtown and the beach so it is all good. We had linner in town yesterday while waiting to get in to the house. We chose the Impudent Oyster. It has a huge menu so there is something for everyone. Take a look: Blueberry lemonade Fried calamari, artichokes and banana peppers Broiled cod tacos Fried local cod with wasabi cream and Asian slaw Scallop roll. This was my brother in law's. I pointed out the burned part of the bun but he opted to just pick that art off and eat the rest rather than sending it back. No pictures of my nephew's Beyond Burger (verdict: he likes the Impossible Burger better) or my sister's fish burger, which came out burned and had to be replaced. They comped the replacement and a drink so no complaints. The restaurant--the whole town really--was so jammed and busy. Desserts for the teens: sticky toffee pudding strawberry rhubarb pie

Because we are in a hotel, we had to eat all of our meals out yesterday (we are moving to our first rental house this afternoon). We went to my nephew's favorite for breakfast yesterday, the Fairway. Nephew had his usual pancakes (they look flatter because they have to cook them in a special pan rather than on the griddle as they cook crab cakes on the griddle) Niece went for cranberry pancakes Husband had a garden benedict on foccacia I had a Nova benedict We entertained ourselves by playing hangman while waiting for the food We went to Provincetown for the day. It is Carnival week, which draws up to 100,000 people to a town with only 3,000 residents, so we were expecting a crowd. It really was not too bad, maybe everyone was sleeping in expectation of the evening festivities. A cruise ship was docked in the harbor, a very unusual sight The town was festively decorated for Carnival My niece and nephew know that I am sharing my food photos here, so they insisted I take a picture of their smoothies, purchased at Cafe Maria on the harbor. Espresso and blueberry-banana smoothie We went shopping for books to read on this trip, and got quite a haul. I know this might be a little political, but I have to include this picture of books we found for sale. My niece thought it was hysterical that people write political fan fiction. She is more accustomed to the Harry Potter variety 🙂 We stopped in to Mac's Fish House for a small snack. Drinks for the husband and myself. The one on the left is a strawberry-tequila fizz, and the right is a spicy margarita Oysters Toro poke Toro crudo with a guajillo chile sauce and crispy kale We had dinner at Karoo. It was very dark by the time we ate so I had to switch to my phone for pictures, and I did not get pictures of everything. Vegetable samosa Peanut soup Cape Malay stew Falafel Milktarte

I am back on the Cape through Labor Day. There will be lots of eating out, lots of home cooking, and some interesting stuff like a whale watch and a tour of an oyster farm to share with you. We came out last night to beat the weekend traffic and are staying in a hotel for two nights before moving to a home in Chatham for a week, and the rest of the time will be spent at our favorite rental house in Wellfleet, which I have mentioned here before. We made it out in time for dinner at Brine. This place is great for us because there is no shrimp, crab or lobster on the menu, so my nephew can have whatever he wants. The restaurant was pretty empty and I overheard a waitress telling another table that while weekends have been busy, this whole summer season has been pretty slow compared to other years. People are blaming the increased frequency of great white shark sightings close to shore. I blame the new short term rental tax that was instituted this year. Anyway, on to the food! Drinks Baked oysters with black garlic panko crumbs A pork belly with sambal chile glaze special that my niece and nephew split. They both said it was very good Steak tacos for my niece Shellfish scampi for my husband Pesto gnocchi for my nephew Scallops in a corn nage with bacon, turnips, and sugar snap peas for me Only my nephew could manage dessert. Chocolate mousse

Not Portland. Dockside Grill, Cumberland Foreside. It was very close to the house we rented. We ended up driving in to Portland for our other meals and had a much more enjoyable experience.

Your pizzas are always swoon worthy. If I lived near you I would be stalking your kitchen 🙂 Last night my husband and I shared a plate of Malaysian style ginger-garlic chile crabs. I used more crab that I brought back from Portland. So tasty, and they ship, which is dangerous!

Sandwich night. Husband had the leftover lobster salad in a pressed sandwich with prosciutto, tomatoes, and saffron aioli added I had a crab cake banh mi. We brought the crab back from Portland and it was incredibly sweet.

Home now. I tried to stuff two pounds of lobster picked this morning into five lobster rolls. I failed. More lobster tomorrow. That's cucumber, not celery in the rolls, by the way.

Last night we had a very satisfying dinner at Miyake in Portland. Three of us ordered the four course menu and my niece had three courses. Tuna three ways: sashimi, Zuke, and tartare Marinated salmon with capers, mustard vinaigrette and oba Maine oysters in ochocoko isobe age: tempura flounder with shiso tartar miso marinated and grilled black cod Maine crab cake with panko and togarashi mayonaisse a miso scallop special Mussels sakamushi steamed in sake and dashi with kasu wasabi Super toro roll: tuna and avocado topped with toro, rayu and scallions lobster roll broiled with spicy spicy mayonaisse in a black sesame soy paper wrap with tobiko and truffle oil ceveche roll: diced Japanese snapper with cilantro and oba, topped with tobiko NY strip sumibiyaki binchotan grilled with red wine teriyaki sauce And that does it for Maine. My niece decided to only apply to one of the three schools she toured, so I don’t know if we will be back up this way again soon, but if we are I would definitely choose Portland as my dining destination.

I did not make it. The bread is from When Pigs Fly bakery in Freeport, Maine. I’m up here for college tours with my niece. We got this bread, a baby spinach, garlic and onion ciabatta, a blueberry raspberry lemonade bread, a mango pineapple raisin toasted sesame bread, and some huge Bavarian pretzels. You can see all of their breads here. They ship too. https://sendbread.com/our-breads/

Tomato sandwich on toasted sun dried tomato and basil bread

We rented a (lovely) house in Cumberland Foreside. My niece is touring Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin. I have put last evening’s meal in the rearview mirror and booked some new dining plans. We decided to get pizza from Otto tonight and then are going to Portland for dinner Friday and Saturday.

I am in Maine with my niece, husband and sister to tour some colleges. I used to come to Maine often when younger but have not been back for about 20 years. We went out to dinner last night, and it was not good. I hereby present our regrettable dinner. Cocktails (received 30 minutes after arrival) a variety of oysters, plunked on the table without description regrettably overfried calamari a watermelon burrata salad that my niece enjoyed, so high point of the meal my sister’s lobster gnocchi, which was mushy my niece’s salmon, which was filled with huge bones and had a harsh curry sauce that tasted of uncooked cardamom and vast amounts of cinnamon my haddock, served with ice cold mushroom risotto that reeked of raw garlic. The fish was both over cooked and cold, and lacked the caper buerre blanc it was supposed to be sauced with. When I inquired about the sauce the waitress reported that the chef said it was under the risotto (it was not) I ate the asparagus, which was fine Husband had had a lobster, no pictures because it came out 15 minutes after the other entrees because “they thought the steamer was on but it was not.” Served with mashed potatoes that were so cold that the butter on them remained hard! We are here for three more nights. I cancelled most of our other reservations and am going to cook all but one of our remaining meals. Is it wrong to hope that my niece dislikes the colleges she is touring up here? 😑

Sunday family dinner I baked a couple loaves of bread I turned one into grilled bruschetta topped with homemade ricotta. The other went in to the freezer because two expected attendees dropped out last minute. Antipasto platter and grilled eggplant involtini stuffed with pesto and fresh cheese Last night we had a creamy corn and bacon pasta made with the local corn which is finally in and so very sweet

It's just shellfish, but you are right. The broiler can be an issue for him too...they have to scrape it before cooking his food and not all places are able to accommodate him. I think though, that if you are a vegetarian you would know to expect that there would not be a dedicated broiler in a fast food burger joint. I definitely have sympathy as an ex long-time vegetarian. You have to choose wisely, but temper your expectations too.

Last night we drove to Providence RI to see Hamilton. We had dinner beforehand at Circe. The adults all got a cocktail called the panty snatcher. Niece stuck to water roasted oysters fried calamari parmesean fries strawberry salad wild mushroom bolognese lobster and crab stuffed pasta seared tuna and scallop salad niece got got a berry summer pudding for dessert, the adults were too full the meal and the show were both very good.

Pasta with scallops

Linguini with olives and arugula

Last night for dinner my husband and I tried the Beyond Meat sausages for the first time. I do not not eat beef at all and as for pork, only bacon once in a while. Husband eats everything. That's just for some context. I did not realize that there are multiple flavors of this sausage available. I ended up with the "original brat" flavor. Poking around online revealed that many found this flavor a bit bland and the spicy Italian flavor was more highly rated. I found a recommendation to treat it like a regular brat and simmer it in beer before grilling for more flavor. I did that, and added some red pepper flakes to the beer. The casing for these sausages is made from algae, so when I took the sausages out of the beer bath they were sort of coated in a drippy slimy melty algae mess. I tossed them on a hot grill, where they crisped up immediately. There is a lot of oil in these sausages--I actually had a small fire start on the grill. I had sliced them in half to get more crispy surface texture, so I think a lot of the oil just dripped down in to the grill grates. I served them on warmed pretzel buns with local sauerkraut and grainy mustard. Verdict: not bad. The texture was firm and not unpleasant. You could definitely sense a little graininess from the pea protein, but it was a nice graininess if that makes sense. I did not think the sausage itself had a lot of flavor, but that was helped by the sauerkraut and mustard. Meat eating husband reported that these sausages bear no resemblance whatsoever to the taste and texture of a pork sausage, but he found it enjoyable anyway as a different and of meal, and said he would definitely eat them again. I am going to try and find the spicy Italian flavor next. It's hard to make a brat of any kind look appealing--it is all rather brown, but here is a picture anyway.

Last post for this quick visit. One final lunch at Jasmine Cocktails! Haha just kidding we have to drive home from the airport in the insane Boston rush hour traffic so we just had iced tea We we shared a margarita flatbread. Suspiciously missing any basil but we were starving so it all got eaten Caesar salad with shrimp salad with grilled wahoo, avocado and mango And that’s it until the next time. The flight home is less than two hours and we gain an hour with the time zone change so see you later on the Dinner! thread.

Hahaha! No it is just that I did not pay attention to what my husband ordered and the cocktail menu is not online. 🙂. I just asked him and he said it was a grapefruit martini and quite bitter and not very good. Yesterday we had lunch at the beachside cabana at our resort. We attempted to walk to Horseshoe beach next door for lunch at their rum bar but the cruise shippers had invaded. We took one look and turned around and went back to our resort. Horseshoe Beach on Saturday, with no ships in port and yesterday, with ships in port To start, we ordered drinks. I had wine and my husband ordered a frose because he was hot wahoo sandwich with remoulade and slaw on raisin bread with fries husband opted for for salad instead of fries he used the salad to justify ordering this frozen margarita For dinner we we went back to Mickey’s. View Drinks. A lemon martini and a Flora Dora (gin, lime juice, strawberry syrup and ginger beer) Wahoo carpaccio with black sea salt shaved zucchini and capers. We agreed that this was the best thing we had eaten on this trip, with the scallop seveche at Marcus coming in as a close second. Snapper seveche local tuna Seafood mixed grill (shrimp, scallop, bonito, wahoo, octopus) No room for dessert again.

Some scenic photos We had lunch yesterday at Jasmine. Cocktails. Left is a Pool, which was gin, aloe Vera juice, lime and cucumber. Right is a Crashing Waves margarita. It was described as a standard margarita but in reality it was insanely spicy. My husband had to send it back. They kindly removed it from the bill. coconut shrimp and we we split a snapper sandwich with pineapple salsa and slaw. This was very tasty. We opted for a side salad instead of fries. we returned to the Dock for a pre dinner drink. Husband sampled a locally brewed IPA and I opted for a blueberry mule. dinner was at the Waterlot. We were seated in the very dark wine cave so taking photos was difficult. Amuse bouche of tuna tartar Caesar salad for two prepared table side. Very old school bread service Local tuna steak Shared sides of creamed spinach and mac and cheese My husband’s dinner—grilled shrimp, ribeye and Wagyu strip steak way too full for dessert.

We are currently waiting out a passing thunderstorm so I thought I would update. Yesterday was beautiful at my favorite beach, Warwick Long Bay. After swimming to work up an appetite we twizyed over and had lunch at Henry VIII pub. Restaurant view Cocktails. The one on the left is a Pink Sands (vodka, cranberry and grapefruit juices, seltzer). The one on the left...I have no idea. Snapper sandwich.. The bun was over cooked but the snapper was fresh. We just ate the insides of the sandwich and left the bun and fries. Fish tacos. These were tasty and had some heat. We taxied in to Hamilton last night for dinner at Marcus. Restaurant view was yacht-o-mania Cocktails. Left was...no idea and mine is one the right. I know it was called Yes Chef and had gin and elderflower but I do not remember the other ingredients and the cocktail menu is not online. It was a bit too sweet for my liking. Bermuda fish chowder bites. We got these last year and I did not like them then. Husband remembered differently and really wanted them so we ordered. Sure enough, we both disliked them. Most of this went uneaten Scallop seveche. Now this was terrific. Slices of scallops in a watermelon and cucumber broth with crunchy kaffir lime bread crumbs. We we both ordered the crab tagliatelle for our entree. It had XO sauce, squid ink pasta, crab, shrimp, citrus bread crumbs and tomato sauce. It was perfectly pleasant but not nearly as delicious as the crab pasta we had here last year. We were too full for dessert.

I am back in Bermuda. Here is the view from our suite we we went to the Dock for cocktails last night. Left, a Ginny McCarthy (gin, raspberries, grapefruit butters). The drink on the right was my husband’s and it is not on the online menu so not sure what it was little snacky things dinner was at the Ocean Club. View from our table amuse bouche of compressed watermelon with whipped feta bread service Wahoo seveche tempura prawns Round two of cocktails, why not it’s vacation. Watermelon jalapeño margarita and a garden thyme spritz (gin, cucumber, thyme, elderflower, lemon, seltzer) Seafood mixed grill with wahoo, scallops, shrimp and calamari. The wahoo was over cooked but everything else was good complimentary key lime pie. I was wondering why my husband told them it was our anniversary as we celebrated our 22nd back in June. He reminded me it was the 27th anniversary of our first date. Aww 🙂