Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

heidih · September 5, 2022

54 minutes ago, TicTac said:

That toro sushi roll looks awesome. Too bad they don't splurge on some real wasabi root to accompany that awesome cut.

As in many things perhaps we have been accustomed to expecting that green paste and would not appreciate fresh grated or be willing to pay the differential.

liamsaunt · September 6, 2022

@TicTac It's a pretty casual restaurant. I am not sure that people would appreciate the fresh wasabi. I could be wrong!

So, we tried to go to the Beachcomber yesterday, and as I predicted, it was full again. I offered to cook a couple of different dinners, but nobody could agree on what they wanted, and I was not in the mood for the usual short-order chef routine, so we ended up going out again. But first, my husband and I went on a beach walk by the house. There was a swell approaching, so surfers were out at LeCount Hollow

The sky clouded over just in the short time it took us to walk from LeCount back to the house.

We all wanted to go someplace different, so we decided to try Caroline's in Eastham. We arrived just after happy hour ended, so we had our pick of tables. We decided to sit inside in case it rained.

Menu

Drinks. My husband got a bee's knees and my sister and husband's brother each got a Paloma

Niece wanted the vegetable tempura roll

My husband and his brother got steamers (they were huge!)

and we all shared some halibut ceviche

My niece wanted a steak

My husband's brother chose fish and chips

I got the sweet and spicy shrimp bowl. It was packed with vegetables and shrimp, and so many noodles!

My husband and my sister each got the fish tacos

Nobody wanted dessert. The ocean was pretty stirred up by the time we returned to the house

It's pretty miserable here today, weather-wise, so I don't think we will be doing much of anything until this evening when we have a dinner reservation at Mews in Provincetown.

Edited September 6, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

TicTac · September 6, 2022

20 hours ago, heidih said:

As in many things perhaps we have been accustomed to expecting that green paste and would not appreciate fresh grated or be willing to pay the differential.

23 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

@TicTac It's a pretty casual restaurant. I am not sure that people would appreciate the fresh wasabi. I could be wrong!

I would think that if one is willing to pay the costs of what I recall Mac's seeing - it should more than cover a smidgen of real wasabi root.

I would also hope that if one appreciates Toro (and orders it!) they would hope for real wasabi as well.

Could be wishful thinking - who knows....

liamsaunt · September 7, 2022

22 hours ago, TicTac said:

I would think that if one is willing to pay the costs of what I recall Mac's seeing - it should more than cover a smidgen of real wasabi root.

I would also hope that if one appreciates Toro (and orders it!) they would hope for real wasabi as well.

Could be wishful thinking - who knows....

I can only speak for myself and the members of my family group, but none of us use the green wasabi paste. We don't dip the fish into soy either, so I guess I never really gave the real vs. fake wasabi much thought.

Yesterday was a complete washout. We did drive into Provincetown to keep our reservation at Mews. The town was extremely quiet, and many places were closed. Menu:

Drinks. I don't know what my sister or my husband ordered. The short one in the center was my husband's brother's choice, an old-fashioned made with mezcal

My niece wanted the breadsticks with citrus honey butter

We ordered some oysters to share

I wanted to try the pickled peach and burrata salad. It was delicious. I shared it with my niece and my sister.

My husband's brother wanted the lobster wontons.

For entrees, both my sister and I wanted the roasted cod with citrus beurre blanc. It was exactly what I was in the mood for. The piece of cod was huge, so I shared some with my husband.

My husband wanted the lobster vindaloo. He said it was very spicy! It came with rice and naan on the side

My niece ordered the shaking beef. This also came with rice on the side. She loved it and cleaned her plate.

My husband's brother ordered the seared sea scallops with farro and vegetables. He said it was very good. I think he secretly wanted to order the cod that I had but did not want to get the same entree.

The desserts here are very good, and I would have shared one, but my niece was too full and wanted to head home, so we skipped it.

weinoo · September 7, 2022

image.png.6fb291bb75a1c881c7518ec954fc628f.png

I'd be embarassed to send out a shucked oyster looking like the one at 7 o'clock.

Edited September 7, 2022 by weinoo (log)

liamsaunt · September 8, 2022

21 hours ago, weinoo said:

I'd be embarassed to send out a shucked oyster looking like the one at 7 o'clock.

It does look kind of mangled, doesn't it?

Yesterday was another washout day, so we did not do much. It was my niece's birthday, so we let her pick the restaurant. You will be shocked to hear that Mac's Shack was chosen. Drinks for my sister, husband, and his brother

My niece wanted the spicy tuna mango martini again.

The rest of us shared some oysters Rockefeller

Niece (no surprise) wanted sushi

Husband's brother chose the seafood zarzuela. It had swordfish, clams, calamari, and mussels. He said it was very tasty, and perfect for a cold, damp day

My sister ordered a linguini Verde with clams and mussels

I got broiled swordfish

and my husband ordered a special lobster fettuccine

We did desserts and presents back at the house. I gave her a stack of 21 books since it was her 21st birthday. She was quite happy with her haul.

Homemade carrot cake

Everyone has now headed home except for my husband and me. I'm not sure what we will be doing for food. Both of us are kind of sick of dining out, so I might just cook at the house.

Edited September 8, 2022 by liamsaunt (log)

Anna N · September 8, 2022

24 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

I gave her a stack of 21 books since it was her 21st birthday.

What a great birthday gift and each of them wrapped separately? Sort of like an advent calendar.

heidih · September 8, 2022

As always I would happily eat ay of your dishes - home or restaurant. You husband's lobster fettucine looks quite decadent.

Maybe you have answered this before but I ca';t remember. The tuna mango martini that appears frequently looks like a poke ort of bowl. What makes it "martini" - is there a boozy martini memic

element?

Sweet neice elected to spend her 21st with family. And that you 2 have that book bond

gfweb · September 8, 2022

That is a load of books! You brought them with you? @liamsaunt

**Shelby** · September 8, 2022

I'm hoping she changes her name to Shelby's Aunt and I get books like that....except it would be like 48 books...... 😬

liamsaunt · September 8, 2022

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

What a great birthday gift and each of them wrapped separately? Sort of like an advent calendar.

Yes, separately wrapped. I had been collecting them for months! It was a lot of fun picking them out.

2 hours ago, heidih said:

As always I would happily eat ay of your dishes - home or restaurant. You husband's lobster fettucine looks quite decadent.

Maybe you have answered this before but I ca';t remember. The tuna mango martini that appears frequently looks like a poke ort of bowl. What makes it "martini" - is there a boozy martini memic

element?

Sweet neice elected to spend her 21st with family. And that you 2 have that book bond

No booze is involved. It used to be served in a martini glass. The bottom layer was spicy tuna, then guacamole, then sour cream. It's evolved over the years and now just comes in a bowl, which is probably easier for the kitchen. My niece actually likes it better this way because the sour cream is only on part of it and she hates sour cream.

43 minutes ago, gfweb said:

That is a load of books! You brought them with you? @liamsaunt

Yes, I did! I started buying them months ago. Her favorite genres are fantasy and science fiction, so there were many of those, but I also threw in some classics and a volume of poetry to nod to our shared English major. I splurged on some editions from Folio Society and Suntup Press as a special treat mixed in with the standard other volumes.

liamsaunt · September 9, 2022

Yesterday was sunny but quite windy. The surf was starting to get stirred up--nothing like today--it looks angry out there right now! A company came by and took down the flagpole from the edge of the cliff in preparation for the big storms we get in the fall and winter.

My husband and I were out exploring all afternoon and got hungry, so we decided to just eat out. We went to the Bookstore in Wellfleet. I took pictures of the menu. Beer specials

Food specials

Menu

Husband ordered a martini flavored with tarragon and lemon. He liked it.

We decided to share the Belgian mussels since we had not really had any mussels yet. They were tasty. There was lots of broth under there to dip the mussels and fries in.

I ordered some shrimp tacos

and husband chose the baked seafood medley. It was a very large portion.

We went to the sunset last night. We had some company while watching it

After sunset, we decided to get ice cream

We went for their famous black raspberry/coffee soft serve twist. It was very creamy and a bit too big. We should have shared one.

heidih · September 9, 2022

Cute shot of your friends. Seals and sea lions are so nosy/curious.

liamsaunt · September 10, 2022

Yesterday my main request was to go to Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown for the sunset. I let my husband pick the restaurant. He said he really wanted to go back to Pepe's on the Wharf so we could sit on the deck and enjoy the views while eating. I agreed. Here's the restaurant

and the view at low tide.

Husband ordered a frozen aperol spritz. It looked refreshing.

We ordered the scallop crudo to share (it needed a bit of salt but that was easily fixed)

and a crab cake (fine, but nothing special)

I ordered a special of pasta arrabiatta with shrimp added (very good, and quite spicy)

and my husband got a pan-seared halibut with haricot verts and rice pilaf. He said the fish was perfectly cooked and the beans were too. I was a bit jealous because I had considered ordering that dish, but I knew the portion would be too big.

We stopped by Lewis' Brothers Homemade Ice Cream

I chose almond joy and my husband chose mudslide.

We brought the ice cream over to Herring Cove beach for the sunset

It was pretty spectacular. There is smoke high up in the atmosphere from the wildfires out west and that impacted the color. Here are a couple of shots

and finally, the moonrise, taken from the deck of the house we are renting.

We were supposed to head home this morning, but the weather is supposed to be beautiful, and the owner of the house is allowing us to stay for the weekend, so we have a few more days to enjoy the beauty of Cape Cod.

Anna N · September 10, 2022

Beautiful sunset as always but that moonrise…. How nice to be able to stay a few extra days. Enjoy.

weinoo · September 10, 2022

2 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

We brought the ice cream over to Herring Cove beach for the sunset

Did you get there before it melted?

liamsaunt · September 11, 2022

21 hours ago, weinoo said:

Did you get there before it melted?

Oh yes. We knew we wanted to bring ice cream to the beach, so I brought along lidded corkcicle mugs to transfer the ice cream to and wooden spoons for eating it. It worked out splendidly.

We spent yesterday at Gull Pond, a lovely natural kettle pond, great for swimming. Many tourists have gone home, and most Wellfleetians were at a special town meeting, so we shared the spot with just one other family.

After the pond we stopped for a gelato. My husband got a double shot affogato and I had a small fudge ripple gelato.

Back at the house, the surf was up

We were lazy at dinner and just went back to Mac's Shack. Here were the specials last night

We decided to try most of the specials. Husband got the sake-tini but I did not take a picture. It looked like a martini 🙂

We got the halibut turadito and jalapeño yellowtail sashimi to start

and then husband got both sushi specials, and I got the salmon. He overestimated his appetizer and had to leave behind most of the rice in the poke bowl

as well as a few pieces of the maki roll

I ate most of the salmon dish. It was very tasty, and the salmon was cooked perfectly.

It was another lovely sunset last night too

Today is (really, truly) our last full day. We had planned to sit on the beach in front of the house for most of it, but the surf is even higher today, and the waves are coming right up to the edge of the dune, so we might have to come up with another plan.

**TdeV** · September 11, 2022

Thanks, again, for taking us on this lovely trip. I never open your posts unless I have time for a good, long look.

Duvel · September 11, 2022

4 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

We decided to try most of the specials. Husband got the sake-tini but I did not take a picture. It looked like a martini 🙂

I was wondering about that … what would be the resulting temperature of that drink ..? I mean they chill the vodka and soju and then top it off with the hot sake ? Or is it a warm drink ?

liamsaunt · September 12, 2022

19 hours ago, Duvel said:

I was wondering about that … what would be the resulting temperature of that drink ..? I mean they chill the vodka and soju and then top it off with the hot sake ? Or is it a warm drink ?

It was a chilled drink, just like a standard martini. That confused us too, but he decided to take a chance and order anyway. All we could surmise was that the menu had a typo, and it was supposed to say "chilled sake."

Yesterday the surf was way up. You could feel the house shaking from the waves hitting the dune. I went out to take a picture of the staircase to the beach, and noticed that the stake that holds the owners' beach chairs had washed out to sea. It looked like the chairs had washed out too, from the amount of sand piled on them. They had all been reclaimed and stacked higher on the dune, opposite the staircase. Some guys were surfing down there this morning, and I guess they moved them, which was kind. This photo shows the water hitting the bottom of the dune. At high tide, the water was crawling up the side of it.

Here's a photo of the houses near us. The little cottage with the new shingles was pushed back from the dune about a year ago. If the owners are lucky, I'd guess it has five years left before it goes over. They currently have it on the market for $1.5 million. Any takers?

Later we went to Ballston Beach in Truro for a walk.

The surf was large here too. This lady was standing much closer to the waves than I would be inclined to.

We went to the Pearl for dinner. Cape Cod margarita for my husband (basically a standard margarita with cranberry juice in it)

Oysters to share

Banging shrimp appetizer

My husband had fried scallops

and I had grilled swordfish

We are heading home this morning. It's raining, so I am not sure that we will stop anywhere along the way for a meal or a beach walk. Just in case we don't, here's another sunset photo to close things out until the next time we visit--which probably won't be until next year. See you on the dinner thread!

**Shelby** · September 12, 2022

Thanks for another lovely trip!! I'll probably never get over that way....the seafood, the ocean. Just wonderful!

rotuts · September 12, 2022

money-mouth.gif.6442585451edd87dc19d2b1ed0604961.gif

I hope you can get back soon .

anywhere .

Im going to have a withdrawal Sx soon

but I know what to do :

drunk.jpeg.4d521fc2880837bd48fc7df8ae9699a8.jpeg

thanks again for putting so much effort into your blogs,

for everyone here . Mostly Me .

Edited September 12, 2022 by rotuts (log)

weinoo · September 12, 2022

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

but I know what to do :

Oh - you can get yourself a lobstah roll!!

rotuts · September 12, 2022

@weinoo

and remortgage ?

missing the ' dip ?'

weinoo · September 30, 2022

Our trips to the outer cape are fewer and farther between than @liamsaunt's trips...but we do have a great time whenever we go. This year, our trip to Provincetown was a mere 3 days, simply because where we stay had no rooms for what would have been another night; next year, 4 or 5 nights will be booked way in advance, as there were evidently weddings up the kazoo in Provincetown over the past few months, and the small inns book up.

In any event, our "tradition" is to stop here on the drive up...

for lunch. Which we did. Two 6-oz. very good lobster rolls, and a cup of very good Fisherman's stew set us back close to $100, but that's the way it goes lately. As can be seen, the sky is that great, overcast, gorgeous grey color. Meaning, that when we checked into our room, and stepped out onto the deck at pretty darn low tide, it looks like this:

We did take a walk into town; well, at least as far as Perry's, a wonderful little wine, spirits and goodies shop at the bend of Commercial St. and the US Coast Guard staton, Provincetown. It's a lovely little town, especially (imo) the west end, with all sorts of cute houses and great landscaping...

Dinner was at Balena, the restaurant at The Crown & Anchor, in the heart of town. Chef - Raina Stefani, has earned her reputation, as has her sous, Jake. They've both worked in some fine places, and the food here was good, especially the small plates/apps. After dinner, we stayed for a while, listening to Bobby Wetherbee, a real townie who has been doing his schtick for like 60 years. But then, we moved on...

To the Old Colony Tap, or as it's known, the OC...

Where the night continued...they pour a stiff bourbon here, so the walk back down Commercial Street to the Red Inn was a bit crooked...

I have no idea if someone was up late working at town hall, or if they just forgot to turn out the lights. Breakfast/Lunch the next day at Pop + Dutch, of course. We not only had great sandwiches (they bake their own focaccia, the best in town), but I found something quite nice amongst their offerings...

We took a drive to Wellfleet, and dinner at PJ's Cape Cod, where we had a couple of nice, big, juicy lobsters...$41 for 1.5 lb lobster dinner was pretty great. And messy. BYO made it even better (and me not having to drive - priceless). No bars or anything Monday night - we were all kinda looking for a good night's sleep at this point.

A little more walking around, nothing getting me on that jetty...

Lunch on Tuesday was in town at Rosie's, a real Mexican cantina type place...

\

Tacos for me...

Enchiladas for Sig Eater...

Good stuff and after lunch we took a drive over to Race Point, where...

I tried to warn her and tell her we had a big night ahead, but...

It was just gonna be me, until I stepped in and dragged her back from certain death and annihilation.

Oh, the night started with happy hour at The Red Inn...

Continued with dinner at Sal's Place, where the food is good if served in slightly gigantic portions...

Linguini with clams, enough for like 3 people! Then the fun started, with a drop in to Tin Pan Alley, to check out Scream Along With Billy, and Billy Hough. Billy heavily advertises in the WC...