Provincetown, the "Outer Cape," and Wellfleet Too

[liamsaunt]

It's a complicated situation.  Wellfleet is very much not a city. It's a town of 4,000 year-round residents.  I don't know what their summer totals are.  A lot of the town is National Park land.  The road that the Beachcomber is on  (Ocean Drive) is fronted on the beach side by private homes and the Beachcomber, and the back side, for quite a ways back, is National Park land.  The dunes on this road are subject to severe erosion during winter storms.  Most property owners have already paid to move their homes back as close to the road as you can go.  Some homes have fallen down the dune during bad winter storms.  The Beachcomber is located in a former Coast Guard lifesaving station, and is far back enough that it is not in danger of falling down the dune.

 

So, what the town wants, and the National Park has apparently agreed to, is a land swap.  The NP would take over the beaches and the dunes, and the road.  Homeowners would be moved back into the National Park land (at their expense...I think).  The road would be closed to vehicular traffic, and access to the beaches via dunes would end naturally which would aid in the preservation of this natural area.  You need 100% buy in for a land swap and the Beachcomber is opposing it.  And that's the coconut telegraph, as I have been told, anyway 🙂

[liamsaunt]

Giant picture alert!  I spent last weekend in Wellfleet.  I was too busy to post while there but wanted to add our latest dining exploits to this thread. Friday we ended up at the Bookstore as they had the shortest wait at 30 minutes (most Wellfleet places don't take reservations)

 

Littlenecks

 

 

Oysters

 

Cheese plate

 

 

clam roll (disappointing)

 

 

fish sandwich (VERY disappointing)

 

 

lobster roll

 

 

salmon salad

 

 

steak tips

 

 

Saturday morning a few of us had breakfast at the Lighthouse

 

Omelet

 

 

Egg sandwich

 

 

Blueberry pancakes

 

 

Friday night we went to an early dinner at Winslows Tavern.  Oysters

 

 

Scallop seveche (yes it is in a clam shell not sure why!)

 

 

tomato salad

 

 

fig salad

 

 

yellowfin tuna

 

 

tuna confit pasta

 

 

Mussel pasta

 

 

Halibut

 

 

Corn ravioli

 

 

Triple chocolate mousse

 

 

Salted caramel tart

 

 

Key lime tart

 

 

Saturday we went to Mac's Shack

 

 

Tuna poke

 

 

Spicy tuna mango martini

 

 

various sushi

 

 

sashimi 

 

 

 

Big Mac

 

 

We will be back for 12 days starting next weekend, but are staying in a beachfront house so might be doing more home cooking than dining out.

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

[chileheadmike]

It all look delirious to me. Including the clam roll.

 

Very nice photography. Thanks for sharing.

[MetsFan5]

I’d kill for those steamers right now! 

[suzilightning]

I'd really love to see what you get at the local fish guys and any farmer's markets to cook at home mixed up with any time you can get out for a meal.  Having grown up in a tourist area I KNOW how miserable that is....kinda like going out on holidays for the rest of the world but it is every day.

[liamsaunt]

On 8/18/2018 at 12:10 PM, suzilightning said:

I'd really love to see what you get at the local fish guys and any farmer's markets to cook at home mixed up with any time you can get out for a meal.  Having grown up in a tourist area I KNOW how miserable that is....kinda like going out on holidays for the rest of the world but it is every day.

 

I'll do my best to share, but I'm not sure that there is wifi at the house we are renting.  It's in a holding within the National Park and most of the Park has no coverage.  I'll post some stuff from my phone when we are in town.  If I am wrong about the connectivity, I'll post daily.  I actually hope I am wrong because my niece and nephew will be mad if they are cut off from the "real world" for a week  :-)

[liamsaunt]

Hello from Wellfleet.  The house does not have wifi but I do have a cell signal on my network so can use my phone as a hotspot. I have not been taking photos everywhere we have eaten so far because we have been doing a lot of repeats, but here are a few breakfasts.  My nephew is heading back to college today and so I have been letting him choose where to eat, and he loves breakfast. We were in Eastham for a few days before moving to the house last night.  Fairway cheddar-scallion waffle with over easy eggs

 

 

cranberry pancakes

 

 

The other day we tried a new place, Brine.  Brine benedict

 

 

Huevos rancheros

 

 

Belgian waffle with fruit

 

 

and a sunset

 

[suzilightning]

woo-hooo!!!!!!  gotta try to do those cranberry pancakes.  Thank you so much for the info

[liamsaunt]

Yesterday was my nephew's last day with us before returning to college.  He wanted to go to Winslow's Tavern again, so of course we agreed.  We started with oysters

 

 

and some tuna crudo with tobiko roe

 

 

Pear apple salad

 

 

lobster and prosciutto panino

 

 

burger

 

 

crab cake

 

 

summer pasta with burrata

 

 

key lime pie

 

 

triple chocolate mousse

 

 sunset

 

 

and a late night dinner of scallop rolls made with scallops I picked up at the local fish market, so sweet and fresh

 

[liamsaunt]

More foods.  My husband and I had my niece for the evening and she chose Mac's Shack.  Hamachi Aguachile

 

 

Big mac (repeat)

 

 

Lazy lobster

 

 

Seared cod with strawberry basil nuoc cham and sweet potato puree

 

 

 

And that was a lot of lobster, and since he could not eat it all, it came home and came a lobster BLT later

 

 

 

We went to Provincetown yesterday to buy some board games, and my niece asked for Macs again so we proceeded to Mac's Fish House for sushi.

 

Salmon sake crunch

 

 

Cape Cod sushi (made with lobster)

 

 

the other sushi

 

 

Tonight we dined at Blackfish in Truro

 

 

Oysters

 

 

Scallops 

 

 

Striped bass

 

 

Squid with squid ink pasta

 

 

tuna bolognese

 

 

short ribs

 

 

panna cotta

 

 

sunset

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

[kayb]

Spectacular.

[liamsaunt]

Still here, still eating oysters... lots more photos to share later 

 

 

Here’s a crazy sunset from the other night. I thought it looked like a jellybean

 

[kayb]

Oysters. Oh, dear sweet Baby Jesus. I'm jonesing for oysters.

 

End of this month. Myrtle Beach. There will be oysters, I trust.

 

[liamsaunt]

final installment for this visit.  Dealing with the hotspot got tedious and we ended up just not going online for most of the week.  It was nice.  One day we went to Provincetown for a whale watch.  We saw 19 different humpbacks and one fin whale.  It's usually the other way around.  Here are a couple of pictures

 

 

 

Afterwards we went to Mac's Fish House.  Sashimi: striped bass, toro, and yellowtail

 

 

toro 

 

 

scallop crudo

 

 

seveche

 

 

jalepeno yellowtail with ponzu

 

 

sushi smorgasbord

 

 

and for the two non-sushi eaters, bouillabaise

 

 

and striped bass

 

 

malva pudding for dessert for my niece

 

 

Another day we went to the Pearl.  Steamers

 

 

Banging shrimp 

 

 

The "mighty codwich".  Half of this went home for another meal

 

 

Shrimp caesar salad

 

 

Warm lobster roll

 

 

Shrimp tacos

 

 

The rest of the time we cooked at the house, but I guess those photos are not appropriate here.  This was our view/beach.  The house was two miles into National Park land on a one-lane dirt road.  Our car is badly scratched, but it was worth it.

 

 

Until next time...

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by liamsaunt (log)

[Okanagancook]

Thank you for sharing all your experiences.

[Jacksoup]

Your photos are gorgeous and the food looks amazing.

[heidih]

Ymmm- I definitely think your home meals in the area are appropriate so please?  Looking at your images I crave seafood above all else. So fresh looking and lovely assorted preps.

[kayb]

Love it when you go out there. Thanks for sharing.

 

[weinoo]

On 9/6/2018 at 7:55 PM, liamsaunt said:

Warm lobster roll

 

 

 

Nice photos and nice trip.

 

That lettuce is just so wrong on a lobster roll.

[liamsaunt]

Cape Cod, 2019 edition!  I'm in Chatham for a few days for the usual work conference, and then continuing on to Wellfleet for another 10  days.  We have a lot of Cape Cod time planned this summer. I'm planning on cooking at the rental houses most of the time, but not this trip, as right now I am at a hotel. When we move to Wellfleet we are staying in a quirky house that, for a variety of reasons,  we have deemed does not have adequate facilities for cooking.  It's a great house in every other respect so we continue to rent it every year.  

 

Last night we tried a new restaurant that opened a couple of week's ago. Mac's Chatham Seafood and Lobster.  Owned by the same Mac of Mac's Shack and Mac's Fish House that I've shown photos of over the years.  Here's the menu

 

https://www.macsseafood.com/images/uploads/Menu_CFL_ALL.pdf

 

It was pretty late when we arrived. so the seafood counter was closed.  It looked huge, which make me happy because we have a house rented in Chatham for a week in August.  We started with the local clams, sautéed with tomatoes, basil, wine, garlic etc.

 

 

Husband had a warm lobster roll (no lettuce @weinoo 🙂 )

 

 

I had a Caesar salad with shrimp.  Have to get the shrimp in before my nephew with a crustacean allergy joins us Friday night in Wellfleet.

 

[weinoo]

We're headed to Provincetown week after next; looking forward to it and no lettuce!

[rotuts]

I always look forward to your ( colorful ) trips !

 

thank you for sharing.

[kayb]

Oh, boy! Back to the Cape! I love these trips.

 

Actually, I love everyone's trips. Contemplating road-tripping up into the Shenandoah Valley later this year. Dining suggestions up that way? I'll be starting from the south end, working north, may not get all the way to Harper's Ferry.

 

[liamsaunt]

Here is the view from my hotel room

 

 

Yesterday morning we returned to the Captain's Table for breakfast.  http://captainstablechatham.com

 

Husband got a lobster omelet.  I should have taken a picture after he cut into it, it was stuffed with lobster.

 

 

I ordered a special of poached eggs and bacon over cheddar-scallion grits with a toasted english muffin.  They put the grits on the muffin.  Weird.  Kind of like an eggs benedict...but with grits.  It's OK, I just ate the grits and the eggs and left the muffin.

 

 

We had dinner at Bistro on Main.  https://www.bistroonmainchatham.com

 

We shared an order of clams balboa, which are steamed clams in a garlicky, spicy, lemony broth.  So tasty

 

 

Husband ordered a grilled swordfish special which came with a crab-shrimp risotto cake and some vegetables in a lobster broth

 

 

I had local mussels in a spicy diablo sauce and some garlic-parmesan fries.  The mussels were HUGE, but very tender and flavorful.  The sauce suffered from the inclusion of unadvertised and unwelcome green bell pepper.

 

 

 

I only had my phone with me yesterday, and probably won't have any pictures from today as I think I have to attend a work-related dinner.

 

Tomorrow the pictures will improve when we move to Wellfleet.  We are going to our 22nd anniversary dinner (one day early) at Ceraldi. 

[liamsaunt]

This was the menu at last night's dinner.  The food was very good.  I especially liked the pea salad, the cod, the risotto, and the braised radishes.  I tried everything savory but the beef (I don't eat beef) and for dessert I only tasted the panna cotta.  I don't have a sweet tooth.

 

 

One last walk in to town for breakfast, passing my favorite house on the way

 

 

Their doghouse cracked me up.  Oh, Chatham

 

 

Vegetable eggs benedict with avocado, arugula and roasted peppers.  Runny yolk shot

 

 

And in a few hours, this will be my view