Pat Goldberg

In Brewster, a small restaurant worth considering is the Brewster Fish House. Everything is prepared with love and care. BUT they do not take reservations and, unless you are there when the doors open, the wait can be horrendous. For this reason, we usually limit ourselves to lunch there, when the times are a bit better and it is somewhat less crowded.

Fatguy, You talk about the ubiquity of fresh vegetables today -- that is a laugh. It is true that the vegetables are "fresh" - meaning not frozen or canned, but only in expensive restaurants in big cities (or in rural areas) are they possibly fresh, meaning 24 hours or less out of the garden.. I grew up in southern Maine in the late 40's and restaurant vegetables were local and as fresh as they needed to be. In the summer it was corn, peas, beans, summer squash in season (as well as rhubarb and blueberry pies). In the winter, it was root vegetables that kept - squash and turnips. I also spent a lot of time in more or less urban Massachusetts, and the situation was not different. Finally, I remember being allowed to go to the drugstore for school lunch occasionally when there was nothing in the house to pack (often crabmeant sandwiches, which were cheaper than tuna). For 25 cents, I could get two hot dogs and a coke.

Hmmm... This is a bit of a tall order. One place that has waitresses and is in your price range is Tips for Topsns, but it is hardly romantic. It does serve some Portuguese dishes that you might find interesting. At lunchtime, Fanizzi's in the East End has dazzling views of Cape Cod bay and has a number of sandwiches and burgers within your price range. I am less sure about their dinner menu. Perhaps someone else knows. For dinner, you could try the Mews restaurant, eating in the Cafe. There if you are careful, you can eat within your budget. In fact, if you split a salad and an entree, you will even be able to afford a couple of beers.

My favorite seafood place in Waltham is Ritcey's. Small unpretentious place with impeccably fresh fish.

Americans DO eat fish eyes, or at least fish cheeks. Codfish cheeks and tongues are an old New England tradition. They are getting harder to get, because the fishermen don't want to bother, but they are still available if you look.

I have two homes; ergo, I have two cooking systems. In Manhattan, I have a junky 6 burner Viking stove with two ovens and a builtin griddle, all gas. On Cape Cod, I have a moderately priced Thermador. The stovetop is gas with a builtin convertible electric grill/griddle. I have a separate electric oven, an arrangement I prefer. It lets me store pots and pans conveniently under the stovetop and puts the oven at a comfortable height. I use the griddles for quantity cooking: bacon, french toast, sauteed potatoes. Cleanup is pretty easy in both cases. The grill gets used for chicken, quail, fish, etc. I use it far more than the griddle in that particular arrangement..

As it happens, I was in Flemington, NJ, yesterday at the All Clad discount store. Typically, "irregulars" are discounted 40%. They are happy to look through a number of boxes for you, and I ended up with pots and pans in which the defects were virtually undetectable. In addition, if you buy 4 or more items, there is an another 20% discount. Furthermore, certain sets and individual items are on sale. If you are interested in bargain All Clad and live withing driving distance, thisis a good deal. BTW, I asked who buys the really dinged stuff. The answer" chefs.

What you say about all the places being mobbed in July and August is not altogether true. For example, the Tavern at Duck Creek is usually easy to get into. We sometimes go on Thursday nights to hear Nossiter play his sax. The food in unmemorable though. And while I have never been to Arnold's in the evening, at lunch time it is quite accessible. You lucked out at the Eastham Lobster Pool. I think their lobster roll is the last thing you can depend on. It is a pitty, because lunch in the bar was always a favorite of ours. The last meal I had at JP Finely's was NOT good. I assumed, however, it was an aberration, so did not report on it. This place IS mobbed during the summer. I have never eaten at Moby Dick's even though it is close to our house because I am not a big fried food fan. However, last summer we had a beloved Siamese who was dying, and pretty much refusing food. Remembering that she was a BIG fan of fried food in batter, Dick went off to MD's and got her a kid's order of fish and chips. Poor thing actually ate some. I think it was the last food she took. The clam chowder at the Lobster Pot is of the super-thick persuasion. I am not a big fan.

I guess it is roughly across from Cumberland Farms. I didn't actually see it myself. I was driving when my husband spotted it and remarked on it. I don't spend much time in Provincetown, so I have no idea what was there previously.

L'Uva is on Bradford Street, near Town Hall. We haven't eaten there yet. Ate again at Terra Luna in North Truro, still very good. Also at Abba's in Orleans, pretty good upscale (for the area).

I cook lobsters about a dozen times a year, and have been doing so for more than 30 years. Assuming you plan to steam them (boiling is a sin), then it is easy. Get a covered pot with an inch or so of water boiling so that steam is escaping rapidly around the cover, throw in the lobsters, and quickly recover the pot. The lobsters will be dead before the pot is steaming again. This works for large (4+ lb) lobsters as well as puny ones, and allows one to cook a variety of sizes at the same time by adding them to the pot at different times.

Simon, They are kings of different kingdoms. Barney's is a sit-down restaurant, with excellent sturgeon in its price-point. Murray's is a purveyor of smoked fish that aims for the very best fish with prices that match. When we want fish to eat at home or to send to our needy daughter in San Francisco, we head for Murray's. When we want nova and eggs (or a chopped liver sandwich for me), we head to Barney's. So I guess they both should replace the definite article with "a". Added after strolling by Murray's: I just passed Murray's. Nowhere could I find any reference on the outside of the shop to their kingly status. Unless there is something inside, I think this is a tempest in a pot of tea.

We get our oysters by the half bushel from our oyster man is South Wellfleet, MA, so we are rarely without them, but few of them get cooked. When they do, it is usually in a stew or in devils on horseback. When the DO get fried, cracker crumbs are definitely the preferred breading.

Twenty or more years ago, this was perhaps our favorite place on the outer Cape, but no more. The old couple that ran the Eastham Lobster Pool are long gone, even though their portraits remain. It has been taken over by their daughter and her husband who, from a food perspective, have completely mismanaged it. There are still one or two OK things you can get there, but most things are terrible these days. I stopped eating fried clams there years ago, when they began to taste suspiciously like canned clams. The very last time I was in, I ordered a scallop roll. Believe it or not, the scallops had obviously been frozen, because those golden nuggets were raw and still ice cold in the middle. Shortly thereafter, our son stopped in with his family. He complained bitterly about how bad it was and about our failure to warn him of this. In my opinion, the Eastham Lobster Pool has slipped to a "must avoid" restaurant.

I don't often go to Hatch's, in part because I don't often go into Wellfleet. But one great thing about them is that they sell cooked lobster bodies at 100% discount. At this price they don't stay on the counter for very long, but if you can snag some big ones, they provide the makings of a very tasty and not too difficult lobster salad. In Truro, I buy fish locally at Sonny's -- if he is able to open this summer with all the mess at Jam's. His selection isn't large, but he knows us, so we are always steered towards what is impeccably fresh. Otherwise, I buy my fish at Nauset Market in Orleans or, far less often, at Clem and Ursie's in Provincetwon.

Atlantic Spice is a great addition to the Cape, especially if you cook and live close at hand. Their spices are fresh and small bottles ar uniformly $2.00, although not uniformly filled. Larger packages are even more of a bargain - I paid $2.50 as I recall for humungous bags of mustard seeds and turmeric. Their retail setup includes books and other food-related supplies, in addition to spices. Unfortunately for me, it has become a bit of a tourist magnet, so that in the summer there can be fairly long lines waiting to check out. This can be a problem when I suddenly discover I am out of something critical and dash up to make a purchase.

My favorite Provincetown bakery is Connies, co-situated with Clem and Ursies. I go principally for the bread when I am too lazy to bake, but their sweet stuff is also OK. The bread from the Portugese bakery is terrible. BTW, Clem and Ursies usually has a special lobster night. It features large lobsters, typically priced at market price plus a small charge for cooking. Since I cook my own lobsters, I have never taken advantage of this, but friends say it is a good deal. If you don't mind doing some picking, a fabulous lobster deal can sometimes be found at Hatch's fish market in Wellfleet. Bodies - big bodies - for free. Of course, they go very quickly.

As the punchline of the famous joke goes: Greenberg, Goldberg, Iceberg, it's all the same to me. And you are right, it is Finely JPs. I believe it is a play on Finally JPs, because he had finally gotten his own restaurant. Sorry for adding to the confusion. I have remembered that when you call they will not only tell you how long the estimated waiting time is, they will also let you put your name on the list. However, if you do not get there by the time your name is called, you are simply removed from the list and have to go to the end again when you finally (finely?) get there.

The restaurant is JP Finely's -- not PJ's, the clam shack. It is in South Wellfleet and does not take reservations, but if you call they will tell you how long the wait is. At the height of the season, this wait (the restaurant is small) can be very long. A new addition for fine dining in Orleans is Abba's, a Thai influenced place. A copy of their menu can be found at http://www.pennyhouseinn.com/abba.htm. Reservations are essential. Also small. Another non-clamshack place in North Truro on 6A is Terra Luna. Small, but takes reservations. I'm not a clamshack person, so I can't help with these. But I would strongly urge you to avoid the Eastham Lobster Pool in North Eastham. For many years, this set a standard of excellence, especially for lobster rolls, on this part of the Cape. I have not eaten there in several years since it started to go seriously downhill. On the other hand, our son tried it last year and was grievously disappointed. I would also avoid the Lighthouse. The best that can be said about their food is that it is inconsistent. Their clam chowder is dreadful. BTW, signs of spring: I was on the Cape this past weekend and noticed that Clem and Ursies plans to open on April 10.

I have made the monkfish liver from Nobu's cookbook. It is excellent. I have also prepared it more or less like foie gras, based on a version I had at Esca, here in New York. It is important, as in the Nobu recipe, to remove the skin before you prepare it. I purchased monkfish liver at the Union Square Greenmarket two Saturday's ago.

I've eaten here two or three times and always enjoyed it. Two entrees I enjoyed were lamb in a red curry sauce and rabbit in a green curry sauce. Both really opened my eyes to the possible non-traditional uses of Thai spices. In fact, based on this, I have started cooking oxtails in green curry sauce. Delicious. I also had one dessert that I particularly remember. I don't recall how it was described on the menu, but when it arrived, it was cooked farina that had been breaded and fried, served with a slice of grilled pineapple and, I believe, some coconut ice cream. Once I saw it, I realized it was a takeoff on a German supper dish, where the fried and breaded farina is usually served with applesauce or stewed fruit. Of course I then remembered that Vongerichten was from Alsace. I plan to steal this idea as well.

I usually serve shad and shad roe together. The shad get broiled. The shad roe gets cooked slowly in butter, ala James Beard. Both are then served with steamed new potatoes or fingerlings and a sauce made with mayonnaise, a bit of Nance's (only Nance's) mustard, a drop or two of Maggi, dill, parlsey and onion to taste.

We were served testicles Szechuan style many years ago at a now-defunct restaurant run by New York's best, but not best known, Chinese chef, Mr. Tsui. It was part of an extraordinary banquet. They were quite good, but nothing to hunt out for another meal.

I am mostly lacking a sweet tooth and especially uninterested in chocolate desserts. Occasionally I will be attracted by something from the custard family or a fruit-based dessert -- but not often. I recall having dinner one night at Jean-Georges and opting to pass on dessert, even though it is a prix fixe menu. In spite of this, our server brought me a dessert anyway (something particularly odious) "compliments of the chef." I told him to thank the chef, but that I did not want dessert, and to please remove it. He refused. So much for concern about customer sensibilities. Cheese is another story altogether.

Thanks, we have been meaning to get to Inaho, but the drive has put us off. Do you know anyting about their off-season schedule? With your recommendation as impetus, perhaps we'll try it this fall or winter. BTW, for visitors to Cape Cod, it is worth mentioning that sushi-grade fish, including tuna, is routinely available. It is not marked as such, but is is sometimes possible to get excellent toro at standard tuna prices if you know what you are looking for. Of course, it is important to go to an excellent fish market such as Hatch's in Wellfleet or Nauset in Orleans.