Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

[liamsaunt]

On 10/15/2023 at 11:54 AM, TdeV said:

That Chicken pesto alfredo penne WITH lobster and shrimp sure looks good though. Won't go to waste, I hope!

 

It did not go to waste.  My husband's brother took it home with him.  

 

Belated end to this visit.  Sunday we went back to Oysterfest to watch the shuck off finals.  It was a lot less crowded, which was nice.  The fellow who won was from neighboring Eastham.  

 

 

After the shuck off they had an auction to raise money for the local school.  This fisherman contributed a 16 pound lobster.  He said the winner could keep it, but he was hoping that he would be allowed to put it back in the water with a GPS tag so that it could be tracked.

 

 

It went for $3,000 to a vegetarian who wanted it back in the water.  

 

We didn't eat anything at the festival other than a shared special Oysterfest gelato from Gelato Joy 

 

 

 

 

Next day we went for a couple of beach walks.  At Fisher Beach in Truro, we saw our first shark fin from shore.  It was patrolling down by this bird filled jetty.  Pretty cool

 

 

Then we went to Provincetown for a visit to my favorite bookstore

 

 

and a long walk at Herring Cove beach

 

 

Followed by dinner at Ciro and Sal's.  It was too cold to sit out in their lovely courtyard

 

 

But the inside was cozy too

 

 

We shared an order of mussels in marinara

 

 

and then husband had shrimp scampi, which he did not enjoy.  He said the garlic was bitter and raw

 

 

My shrimp puttanesca was better, so we shared that 

 

 

Which brings us to Tuesday, and time to go home.  We stopped for one last hike at Fort Hill in Eastham to take in the views.  The foliage was starting to change

 

 

 

 

And then had lunch at Mac's in Chatham.  Warm lobster roll for husband

 

 

Shrimp fried rice for me

 

 

...and that's probably it for us on Cape Cod until next year.  

 

 

[rotuts]

@liamsaunt 

 

thank you for taking the time

 

to take us along.

 

and the menu's

[liamsaunt]

Another year, another return to the Cape.  We are not on the Outer Cape right now, that is coming later this summer, but I figured I would put this visit here rather than starting a new thread.  Instead, we are in Falmouth for the week.  We've never stayed on this part of the Cape before.  My initial impression is that the town is charming, but much more densely populated than the Outer Cape.  I imagine that in the summer it would be uncomfortably crowded.  

 

We arrived Friday night. The house we are staying in is right on the water, and not elevated up on a dune like the places we stay at in Wellfleet.  I would not want to be here during a big storm.  Here's the front yard.

 

 

We can see Martha's Vineyard right off shore (not in this picture though), and can watch the ferries going back and forth from Woods Hole to the island.  

 

My sister and nephew joined us for the weekend.  The rest of the week will be just my husband and me.  I'm planning on doing some cooking to amuse myself during the day.  This weekend, though, we are dining out.  Unfortunately, this area is not known for its dining options.  We are also working around my nephew's food allergy.  Last night we went to an Italian place called Villagio at the Regatta.  No menu pictures, unfortunately.   We ordered a couple of appetizers to share. Clams casino

 

 

Bruschetta

 

 

Calamari (no fried shrimp or lobster on their menu, so my nephew could have some.  He was excited)

 

 

For entrees, my nephew ordered the bolognese (no picture).  The rest of us had cod.  I ordered cod picatta

 

 

Sister ordered cod toscana

 

 

and husband had cod limone.  

 

 

The entrees were all massive.  If we had known we would have shared something.  None of us enjoy leftover cod, so unfortunately a lot of it went to waste.  I didn't even taste my pasta.  We were too full to even look at the dessert menu.

 

Yesterday morning, my husband and I went into town to check out the French bakery, Maison Villatte.  This bakery is run by the original baker at PB Boulangerie in Wellfleet, and our understanding was that the two places are fairly similar.  It did indeed look quite familiar.  I took lots of pictures.  Croissants

 

 

 

Muffins

 

 

Tarts

 

 

Quiches

 

 

Fougasse 

 

 

sandwiches

 

 

pastries

 

 

 

And our selections, back at the house.

 

 

 

It would be very dangerous to have a bakery like this at home!

Edited Sunday at 12:15 PM by liamsaunt (log)

[liamsaunt]

Saturday night we had dinner at the top rated Italian restaurant in town, La Cucina Sul Mare.  We could only get a reservation at 5:30 (a lot of the restaurants close at 8PM in this town).  It was absolutely packed when we arrived.  We ordered four oysters rockefeller to start (one each).  

 

 

And an order of the warm bruschetta at my nephew's request.  Unfortunately this was a soggy and not warm.

 

 

My nephew took a picture of his linguini with giant meatball and said to share it with you.  He said it was very bland.  It's rare for him not to finish a meatball, but he left about half of this plate behind.

 

 

I ordered the swordfish piccata, minus the shrimp garnish.  This was also bland, and oddly lacking in lemon flavor.  I think these purple flowers must be the official garnish of Falmouth-they were on all the plates yesterday too.

 

 

Sister had the linguini with clams.  She said it was...bland!  

 

 

Husband ordered a special of swordfish with clams and sausage.  It came in a tomato sauce that was not mentioned when the server described the dish.  Note the ubiquitous purple flower.

 

 

No dessert, as once again the portions were massive and much food went uneaten.

 

My sister and nephew returned home yesterday, so it's just my husband and me for the rest of the week.  Here's the kitchen at the house.  It has nice views of the water.

 

 

The beach on a gray Cape Cod spring day

 

 

After trudging along the cold and windy beach all morning, we decided the next best thing to do was to go to town and find some ice cream.  That's what you do if you are from New England 🙂

 

Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium looked promising.  I am sure we will try most of the options in town before the week is out.  

 

 

The options

 

 

I thought the lobster flavor was probably vanilla with chocolate lobsters in it or something, so I walked down the case to check the sign for it...

 

 

Um.....OK.  I got mint chocolate chip, which was nice and minty but had too many chocolate chunks for my personal taste.  I just ate around most of them.

 

 

All the fish markets in town are closed on Sundays, so we had to eat out again.  We chose Estia, a Greek place.  We started with calamari, which was large enough for about six people.  What we managed to eat was tender and well seasoned.

 

 

I had the shrimp saganaki for my entree.  I think there were 12 large shrimp in there and about three cups of rice.  It was tasty but much too much food.

 

 

Husband ordered the shrimp and swordfish skewers, which also came with grilled vegetables and fries.  

 

 

And both entrees also came with huge salads!  Next time we go out I think we are going to just share something.

 

 

 

[weinoo]

8 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

She said it was...bland!  

 

Well, this is called consistency in the restaurant business!

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday was another gray Cape Cod spring day.  I went out and did a little exploring while my husband worked.  This is the beach that you get access to with the house.

 

 

There is a lot of sand dredging happening in town right now to clear the channels for increased boat traffic and replenish the beaches before the tourist season starts.  The dredger was working directly behind the beach.

 

 

I found a handful of sea glass for my vast collection back home. I picked up a couple of shells too, though I usually only look for sea glass.

 

 

Here's a house under construction near the beach.  There is a lot of new construction happening in town, and all of the houses I have seen being built are quite large.

 

 

Osprey

 

 

I decided to try a different ice cream parlor.  

 

 

Peanut butter caramel.  Too sweet and not worth eating.  Oh well!

 

 

We decided to go out for Mexican food.  Husband had a margarita

 

 

I had cod tacos

 

 

And he had lobster enchiladas.

 

 

Post dinner walk on another beach in town

 

[lindag]

That house is massive!

[weinoo]

But problematically, at least to me, is building it right near the water.  

[rotuts]

not really.

 

the people who built it 

 

will be dead before the sea swallows it up.

 

being members of the Philosophy :

 

' More for Me , Right Now '  

 

common these day w zillion-airs.

 

willing to wager a Prop Bet :

 

as this is a cooking forum :

 

they have at least one , if not more Kitchens 

 

they will rarely use :

 

thus :  no Rational Combi ovens.

[weinoo]

I'm actually more surprised Massachusetts and/or Barnstable County hasn't prevented it.

[rotuts]

Taxes smooth all re-elections 

 

thus , more the to visit ' good eats 'places , w your campaign dollar.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I have to agree with the comments concerning that house (I first thought it was a seaside inn and restaurant) and the building site,

I can't see that building surviving a major storm with a significant tidal surge however lots of future work for local contractors. 

Nice photo of the osprey.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[gfweb]

perhaps a little telephoto compression in that photo

the house might be farther back than it looks