Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

[Shelby]

Wow!!!   You guys get the best vacations.  I , too, am green, but I can't be too green since you take us with you!

[johnnyd]

Agreed: Cheese has no business even being near fish...

[gfweb]

17 minutes ago, johnnyd said:

Agreed: Cheese has no business even being near fish...

Agreed.

 

Except a tuna melt at the diner.

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, gfweb said:

Agreed.

 

Except a tuna melt at the diner.

Or Coquilles St.-Jacques. Oh dear. I’m guessing scallops are seafood but not fish?

Edited August 31, 2021 by Anna N
Additional information in last sentence. (log)

[rotuts]

for me :

 

Seafood == Fish

 

re cheese.

 

Bechamel  has Milk // Cream 

 

which isn't cheese

 

just yet.

 

re : Scallops :

 

https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/coquille-st-jacques-a-la-parisienne-julia-child/1981091

 

one of the finest dishes ever 

 

no cheese.  

 

so , keep that in mind.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by rotuts (log)

[weinoo]

6 hours ago, gfweb said:

Agreed.

 

Except a tuna melt at the diner.

 

Wife loves tuna melts. And patty melts, for that matter.  On rye.

[weinoo]

21 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Here is where we are staying this time.  It's an old house that is walkable to town and the beach.  I like it a lot.  

 

Do these tend to be airbnbs or people you know, friends of friends,etc.  Cause they're pretty nice places. We've only stayed in 3 different places in Ptown, and they're all inns/hotels. 

[liamsaunt]

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Do these tend to be airbnbs or people you know, friends of friends,etc.  Cause they're pretty nice places. We've only stayed in 3 different places in Ptown, and they're all inns/hotels. 

 

We rent from different sources.  Not VRBO/AirB+B because you can usually find the same places on other sites without the fees. It just takes some poking around online.  Once we rent a place, if we like it and want to rent again, we typically rent direct from the owner, as usually the owners will reach out after your stay and ask if you want to lock in again for the following year.    We rented this house from a realty company in town that reps vacation rentals as well as offering the usual realtor services.  

 

I made breakfast from stuff I brought from home.  An omelet stuffed with sautéed summer squash, zucchini and swiss cheese, a tomato from the farm box, and some bread that I baked to bring for toasting.

 

 

 

We spent the morning at Indian Neck.  This is a sticker beach on the harbor side, so not crowded.  It's a good walking beach because a lot of it is firmer sand.

 

 

We spent the afternoon at Lecount Hollow on the ocean side.   You can see the clouds starting to move in.  We are expecting weather from the remnants of Ida tomorrow evening into Thursday.  

 

 

Dinner was at Mac's Shack.  Halibut turadito and jalepeno yellowtail

 

 

 

Husband chose a seafood stew with calamari, monkfish, shrimp, mussels, and razor clams

 

 

I had grilled monkfish skewers on a farro, tomato and cucumber salad with a stone fruit compote.

 

 

We finished dinner in time to catch the sunset at Duck Harbor

 

 

And then went back for more gelato.  Tonight we tried the chocolate hazelnut and the coconut.  Both were very tasty, but we gave the edge to the chocolate hazelnut.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by liamsaunt (log)

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

We rent from different sources.  Not VRBO/AirB+B because you can usually find the same places on other sites without the fees. It just takes some poking around online.  Once we rent a place, if we like it and want to rent again, we typically rent direct from the owner, as usually the owners will reach out after your stay and ask if you want to lock in again for the following year.    We rented this house from a realty company in town that reps vacation rentals as well as offering the usual realtor services.  

 

Thanks - good ideas.  I'll be looking forward to seeing your place when you decamp to Provincetown.  We always stay at the far, far end (Red Inn, Land's End Inn, and once at the AWOL (nee Inn at the Moors - a little too hipster for me)) - away from the maddening crowds; though actually we only go when the crowds have, for the most part, disappeared.

[Anna N]

On 8/31/2021 at 5:41 PM, rotuts said:

for me :

 

Seafood == Fish

 

re cheese.

 

Bechamel  has Milk // Cream 

 

which isn't cheese

 

just yet.

 

re : Scallops :

 

https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/coquille-st-jacques-a-la-parisienne-julia-child/1981091

 

one of the finest dishes ever 

 

no cheese.  

 

so , keep that in mind.

 

 

 

 

Sorry but that recipe calls for 12 tablespoons of grated cheese - Swiss or Gruyere.  I always used Anthony Bourdain‘s recipe from Les Halles. 

[rotuts]

@Anna N 

 

CR*P

 

missed that

 

thank you 

 

still CSJaP

 

devine.

[Anna N]

47 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Anna N 

 

CR*P

 

missed that

 

thank you 

 

still CSJaP

 

devine.

No worries. I just cannot imagine the dish without cheese. Cheers. 

[liamsaunt]

Breakfast was more tomatoes from home.  Extra napkins required.

 

 

The day was pretty overcast with showers off and on, so other than a walk along the harbor, we just spent most of the day at the house.  Here is the backyard.  It's pretty relaxing back there.

 

 

My sister and husband's brother came out this evening, and wanted to go back to Mac's Shack, even though we were just there last night.  Twist my arm.  Oysters

 

 

Shrimp toast

 

 

Fried clams

 

 

My husband and his brother both got tonight's special: seared striped bass on polenta with confit tomato

 

 

My sister and I both wanted the seared scallops, served with quinoa and corn puree

 

 

Everything was delicious.  

 

 

 

[heidih]

Always a pleasure to share your seafood meals. I read "quince" and then yelped when I saw the quinoa image

[gfweb]

14 minutes ago, heidih said:

Always a pleasure to share your seafood meals. I read "quince" and then yelped when I saw the quinoa image

as you should

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I saw there was a tornado on Cape Cod.  Are you OK?

 

[liamsaunt]

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I saw there was a tornado on Cape Cod.  Are you OK?

 

 

Yes, we are fine.  The tornado was minor, and in a town about 10 miles from us.  It is my understanding that no one was injured from it.  The big tree in front of the house lost a large limb from the wind, but it landed in the lawn, right next to the house and adjacent to the driveway, but not on either.  The saltwater creek behind the house was very high but did not flood.  Your state took much more of the damage from this storm than MA did. I saw some of the tornado images from NJ and they were truly frightening.   I hope that you are OK as well.

 

After a rainy morning, the sun came out and we got in a good long walk.  We had dinner at the Wicked Oyster.  They built a nice al fresco area next to the restaurant in answer to covid, so that's where we sat.

 

 

 

Cocktails.  The pink one is a watermelon margarita and I am unsure what the other one is.  I guess my cocktail reporting has gotten kind of spotty since I stopped drinking any of them 🙃

 

 

Oysters

 

 

Shrimp egg rolls

 

 

Fried calamari

 

 

Husband's brother got a seafood stew with clams, mussels, flounder, and shrimp

 

 

I had a lemon herb risotto with a sun dried tomato pesto topped with shrimp

 

 

My sister had blackened swordfish with coconut rice and a canteloupe salsa

 

 

Husband ordered lobster gnocchi

 

 

We skipped dessert at the restaurant because....gelato!  Tonight's flavors: coffee, chocolate hazelnut (my sister insisted on ordering that one instead of choosing a new flavor, sigh), and sweet cream.  Husband's brother skipped gelato in favor of having a beer later.

 

 

 

Tonight's sunset

 

[heidih]

Oh my - I've hot heard flounder as the fish  on a plate in forever. Thanks.

[liamsaunt]

This morning my sister and I woke up early and decided to walk to breakfast.  There are two places in easy walking distance, and she chose the Fox and Crow.  She wanted the same egg sandwich she had there earlier in the summer.  I was hopeful that they would have the mezze plate I wanted to try that they were out of back in June.  Success on both fronts.  Egg sandwich

 

 

Jerusalem mezze plate.  It came with toum, goat cheese, mustard, roasted pepper spread, and cucumbers.  My husband was still asleep when we got back so I woke him up by breathing my toum breath all over his head hahaha.  That's what you get for sleeping late!  I made up for it by bringing him back an egg sandwich.

 

 

Dinner was at Winslow's Tavern again.  Drinks.  Crush and blush (sparkling rose and pampelmousse), Summer in a glass (lemonade, vodka, basil), Porch swing (St. Germaine, limoncello...and that is all that my husband's brother remembers from it.  It must have vodka or gin or something, like that too).  No photo of my boring sparkling water.

 

 

Tabasco lime roasted oysters

 

 

Lobster croquetas

 

 

Tomato and burrata plate with bacon jam

 

 

My husband's brother got the same swordfish I had the other night, so I did not take a picture.  My sister had cod with clams, a bouillabaisse sauce, olive relish and roasted fennel.

 

 

Husband chose tuna with roasted cherry tomatoes, fregeola, and pepper relish

 

 

Nothing was really appealing to me, so I went for the restaurant's vegetarian choice: braised zucchini and summer squash pasta with toasted pine nuts, golden raisins and parmesan cheese.  It was tasty.

 

 

We had to skip dessert in order to make the sunset

 

 

So, of course, gelato.  Tonight's flavors were mostly repeats, except for me.  I chose blackberry.  Other people chose salted caramel, coffee, and dark chocolate.

 

 

That's it for the gelato.  We decided to move to Provincetown tomorrow since Sunday's weather looks a bit iffy, so new restaurants and sunset locations start then.

Edited September 4, 2021 by liamsaunt (log)

[MetsFan5]

@liamsaunt is husband’s brother single? 😂 Amazing food as always. I miss dining out mainly because I cannot shuck oysters. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by MetsFan5 (log)

[liamsaunt]

We moved to Provincetown yesterday.  There are a LOT of people here, and no one is wearing masks.  I do not think we will be spending much time in town.  The house we are renting is completely off by itself, with no neighbors in sight.  It's quite overcast right now but I will share some pictures of the setting at some point.  

 

We were not smart enough to make dinner reservations for last night (I quickly wised up and booked tables for our remaining nights), so we tried walking in to Mac's Fish House at 5PM, figuring the earlier we got there, the better our chances.  They seated us at an outdoor table all by itself over in a far corner.  It was perfect for our paranoid selves haha.

 

Drinks.  My delicious sparkling water 😉, a gin spin for my sister, and both guys got a special drink of the evening that I forget the name of.  I do know it was tequila based.  Bad drink reporting again.  

 

 

Second drink for husband's brother.  This was a sweet heat margarita.  Basically a margarita with chiles.

 

 

For appetizers we shared a couple of things.  Shrimp and grits.  I liked the grits, they were very creamy.

 

 

Steamer clams

 

 

The biggest hit was the halibut and striped bass seveche.  This was terrific.

 

 

Husband's brother got lobster gnocchi.  He really liked this.

 

 

I got a special of blackened scallops over pea congee.  This was really nice.  The scallops were so sweet and tender.

 

 

My sister got a plate of fried clams.  This was huge.  Husband's brother helped her eat it.

 

 

My husband got the fisherman's platter.  I could not believe he ordered this.  It was gargantuan.  It had shrimp, scallops, whole bellied clams, and cod.  He managed to eat all of the fish, but most of the fries and the slaw was left behind.

 

 

After dinner we decided to drive to town.  The plan was to walk around for a bit while the car charged at the pier, but it was just too crowded for our comfort level as there is no way to keep your distance from others in town the way you can at the beach.  I guess I am just not ready to fully reenter society yet haha.  We did find a section of Commercial Street that was not too bad, so we walked down here a block or so before turning back.

 

 

We walked over to the town beach to look at the boats for a few minutes.

 

 

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

We did find a section of Commercial Street that was not too bad, so we walked down here a block or so before turning back.

 

Isn't it much more mellow down by the breakwater? And plenty of parking too?

[liamsaunt]

19 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Isn't it much more mellow down by the breakwater? And plenty of parking too?

 

Nooooooo.  It is JAMMED everywhere.  We drove by Herring Cove and the parking lot was full and there were over 500 bikes lined up along the road.  I think it is more crowded now than it has been when we have been here in peak summers pre-Covid.  We parked up by the school to go to dinner last night and got one of the last spots in the furthest auxiliary lot.  My picture does not capture how many people are here right now.  It is definitely not what I was expecting. If I had known we would have stayed in Wellfleet.  In any event we are going home tomorrow and we are not going all the way in to town for dinner tonight anyway.  At least last night there were a decent number of people wearing masks in town.

 

We went to Pepe's Wharf for dinner.  We had a table on the lower outside deck off in a corner away from other tables, which was nice.  Here's the view.  It never really cleared up yesterday.

 

 

Drinks with a side order of my sister's hand haha

 

 

Oysters

 

 

Clam flatbread.  More garlic would have been nice

 

 

Mushroom flatbread

 

 

Lobster ravioli

 

 

Cod provencal.  I thought this looked overcooked but husband's brother said it was fine.

 

 

Linguini with asparagus pesto and shrimp

 

 

Colossal shrimp with arugula salad

 

 

 

[weinoo]

5 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Nooooooo.  It is JAMMED everywhere.

   

I sure hope when we go in October (and mostly midweek) it's not crowded.

[liamsaunt]

Last installment for this visit.  Here is the house we rent in Provincetown.  It's really nice and completely by itself.  You can walk to Herring Cove from it, though there are no ocean views from the house itself.

 

 

Instead, there are views of the locally famous quaking bog.

 

 

Luckily, a lot of people went home yesterday morning, so when we went to Race Point for a long walk, the beach was not crowded.  The ranger was not even at their booth collecting fees for the day.  I did not take any pictures of the beach, just one of this buoy that I found.  I usually bring the buoys I find home with me (I have a display of them all under my deck), but this one was covered in seaweed and I did not have a knife to cut it all off, so it was too heavy to drag back to the car.

 

 

On the way back from the beach, the restaurant that we had reservations at called to say that they no longer had an outdoor table for us, but they could seat us inside.  I said no thanks and cancelled.  Irritating but whatever.  We ended up going back to the old mainstay Mac's.  Jalepeno yellowtail

 

 

Spicy tuna mango martini

 

 

Drinks.  

 

 

My sister and I both got the salmon yakisoba bowl.  The salmon was perfectly cooked medium rare all the way through.  I wish I could make it like that at home.  I always overcook the thin part a bit.

 

 

My husband got the seared halibut with lobster mashed potatoes

 

 

And husband's brother got the broiled blackened swordfish with jasmine rice and roasted vegetables

 

 

Another tasty meal.  

 

After dinner we ventured in to town.  It was pretty dead, so we parked and got some ice cream to close out the trip.  This was from the Nut House. Salty caramel, espresso, mint chip, and black raspberry. (sorry for the feet in the photo 😆)

 

 

We went to Herring Cove for the final sunset of this visit.  It was a good one.

 

 

See you on the dinner thread.