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eG Foodblog: Fat Guy - A Normal Week


Fat Guy

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Ellen's family developed the loyalty long before I came into the picture! I do think the pizza at Sally's is better than the pizza at Pepe's, though, with the exception of Pepe's clam pie which is definitive.

Similar situation! ONCE went to Pepe's when there was nothing to cook, but for linguine with clams. Pizza would have been considered betrayal. Left town without ever hearing of Modern.

ETRemove factual error.

Edited by Pontormo (log)

"Viciousness in the kitchen.

The potatoes hiss." --Sylvia Plath

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Steven,

Glad to see you've escaped the city for the New England coast. Looks like everyone is enjoying themselves too!

After pretty extensive research, I can say with absolute certainty that Arnold's (on rte 6 in Eastham) has the best fried clams on the Cape. Better than Mac's in Wellfleet.

Pics please, if you go. We're pretty passionate about our fried clams up he-yah, don't-cha know! :rolleyes:

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

foodblogs: Dining Downeast I - Dining Downeast II

Portland Food Map.com

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Definitely looking forward to this blog, FG--you're cruising through a bunch of my old stomping grounds as well. I have spent a number of memorable vacations on Cape Cod, both as a child and a young adult, including several stints at a friend's vacation home just outside of Wellfleet. Passage of a few decades makes it hard for me to remember the names of places I've dined out there--assuming they still exist--but I do have wonderfully intense memories of a lobster shack somewhere in the Wellfleet area, where we sat at outdoor picnic tables and made as much mess as was needed to get every particle of goodness out of the crustaceans. So I'm hoping you guys can track down something similar while you're out there.

I'm also hoping you can maybe make a daytrip up to Provincetown for my vicarious viewing/nostalgia pleasure--yeah, it'll be crowded, but a weekday might not be quite so fierce, while still high on the people-watching entertainment scale. Not to mention the good eats to be obtained in that town... enjoy!

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this could be his avatar for when he grows up and joins eGullet  :smile:

You mean he isn't already? I thought he would be enrolled at birth, as for Harvard. How many 1 year olds have birthdays at an Indian Restaurant.? Do we know what PJ stands for? He's a cutie and all the girls will envy his curly hair.

Ruth Dondanville aka "ruthcooks"

“Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?” Mario Batali

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Monday was a grueling travel day, starting early in New York and ending around 2am in Wellfleet, with stops in and around New Haven to visit various units of the family. All that, with a baby and a dog in tow, makes for a long day.

For breakfast, we had watermelon in the car. We eat a lot of watermelon when it’s in season. I mean, an alarming amount of watermelon. Over the course of our drive we ate through three containers like this one, for a total of about three quarters of the flesh of an entire large watermelon.

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I mentioned before that we wouldn’t be able to go to Sally’s pizza today, because it’s closed on Mondays. My inlaws, however, had been to Sally’s for dinner on Sunday night and got two extra pizzas to go so we could have Sally’s for lunch on Monday! This is my favorite of all the pizzas they serve at Sally’s, called tomato bianca (fresh tomatoes, no sauce). It’s only served in season, though the season is pretty long – but right now you get the best tomatoes of the year so it’s amazing. We ate it room temperature, which works better than reheating it.

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PJ thoroughly enjoyed a few bites of pizza (and then fed the rest to Momo).

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After lunch we went and picked up PJ’s birthday cake at Claire’s Corner Copia, a New Haven institution close by to Yale. One of Claire’s claims to fame is a wonderful Lithuanian Coffee Cake. Ellen’s mother ordered one the day before, which we picked up today and ate throughout the day, the evening and beyond.

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The bounty of Ellen’s family’s garden – basil, tomatoes and a few other things coming in – formed the backbone of dinner. Dinner consisted of a tomato-and-mozzarella salad with basil, a tossed green salad, and whole-wheat tomato-and-cheese ravioli with two different pestos (one basil and the other arugula).

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Some folks find it endlessly amusing to watch PJ drink through a straw (we don’t do bottles or sippy cups), so here’s a photo of that feat.

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Finally, here’s the van all loaded and ready to go for the drive from New Haven to Cape Cod. We travel light.

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Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Do we know what PJ stands for? 

It stands for Peter Julius. Peter was my father's name. My father passed away on 17 August 1995 and PJ was born on 17 August 2005, exactly 10 years later. Julius is an amalgam. We wanted a J name because of a friend who died in college, and also because Ellen's father's name starts with J. And we wanted to invoke the three great historical Julius figures: Julius Caesar, Julius Erving, and Orange Julius.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Damn, what did you bring up in those big suitcases?!

I can see you're having fun. I'll definitely be enjoying this blog. I hope your sick relative gets better.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I really enjoyed the character (and pizza) when I was at Sally's last month with my son. had I known about the "Tomato Bianca" I would have ordered one. As it was their plain with mozzarella was delicious. I didn't particularly care for their clam though.

You have all the makings for a great trip (as do we). It should be fun. I can't believe that PJ (and your book) are a year old already! My youngest just turned seven. Time flies...enjoy!

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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For breakfast, we had watermelon in the car. We eat a lot of watermelon when it’s in season. I mean, an alarming amount of watermelon. Over the course of our drive we ate through three containers like this one, for a total of about three quarters of the flesh of an entire large watermelon.

Lightweight. Watermelon consumption only reaches the "alarming" level when you're each polishing off an entire large one.

PJ's just stunning, by the way.

Can you pee in the ocean?

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Doc, the Sally's clam pie is just not good. The clam pie is a Pepe's signature, and Pepe's commits an inordinate amount of labor and a lot of resources to getting fresh top necks, shucking them in house and maintaining the excellence of that one product. The clam pie isn't even part of the Sally's repertoire. People come in to Sallys or Pepe's, because the average restaurant consumer doesn't care which is which and just wants the shortest line, and they order whatever they remember from either menu. So Sally's will make you a clam pie, but it's an afterthought: canned clams, no special procedure or resources. Pretty much everything else at Sally's is wonderful, and the most important thing is to ask about seasonal specials. At various times during the year they have fresh tomato bianca, something called "summer special" (green and yellow squash), broccoli rabe, potato, etc.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Wow, you really do like watermelon. Look at the size of that one in the van!

John

John Deragon

foodblog 1 / 2

--

I feel sorry for people that don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day -- Dean Martin

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Steven, you take me back to my unforgotten childhood. Provincetown is worth experiencing, and Ewa Nogiec's iamprovincetown website is a good introduction. Touristland is a narrow strip along the harbor--if you walk inland past Bradford Street, you will have the pine forests and the sand dunes to yourself. Ptown is a perfect example of the tendancy of ants to congregate.

Edited by John Whiting (log)

John Whiting, London

Whitings Writings

Top Google/MSN hit for Paris Bistros

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Some folks find it endlessly amusing to watch PJ drink through a straw (we don’t do bottles or sippy cups), so here’s a photo of that feat.

How do you get through life without sippy cups? I mean, I even use them in the car. No spilling my coffee is great!

Anyway, cute baby, great trip, awesome Graco baby gear packing. Some of my best family memories are road tripping to the Cape. We thumped around more down towards Chatham, but Wellfleet/Truro are beautiful too. Down by the beach at night is the best place in the Northeast to see the Milky Way.

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Doc, the Sally's clam pie is just not good. The clam pie is a Pepe's signature, and Pepe's commits an inordinate amount of labor and a lot of resources to getting fresh top necks, shucking them in house and maintaining the excellence of that one product. The clam pie isn't even part of the Sally's repertoire. People come in to Sallys or Pepe's, because the average restaurant consumer doesn't care which is which and just wants the shortest line, and they order whatever they remember from either menu. So Sally's will make you a clam pie, but it's an afterthought: canned clams, no special procedure or resources. Pretty much everything else at Sally's is wonderful, and the most important thing is to ask about seasonal specials. At various times during the year they have fresh tomato bianca, something called "summer special" (green and yellow squash), broccoli rabe, potato, etc.

Now you tell me! We actually went to pepe's first. Unfortunately they did not have clam pies that day, so we had a shrimp pie instead -incredible! Fortunately, the people and the regular pizza with mozzarella saved the experience at Sally's.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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its so nice to have your *cough* undevided attention! thanks for doing this blog!

my husband & i are also raising a "restaurant" baby. at six months, she flew to manhattan w/ me and a friend and dined at gramercy tavern, babbo & enoteca. her 1st b-day was at bouchon...

i'm one of those people who make sure to have plenty to entertain the bebe while we're dining, but do you have any other tricks & techniques you use to make it through a dining experience pleasantly w/ PJ?

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How do you get through life without sippy cups?

We may have an issue of definitions here. A sippy cup, in my lexicon, is a child's cup with a special opening that looks kind of like a small volcano. There's a mechanism in there to keep it from spilling if it gets knocked over. However, there are also very good portable cups that use straws and don't spill very much at all if knocked over. We prefer those. There's some alleged developmental reason for favoring straws over sippy cups, but don't ask me what it is.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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How do you get through life without sippy cups?

We may have an issue of definitions here. A sippy cup, in my lexicon, is a child's cup with a special opening that looks kind of like a small volcano. There's a mechanism in there to keep it from spilling if it gets knocked over. However, there are also very good portable cups that use straws and don't spill very much at all if knocked over. We prefer those. There's some alleged developmental reason for favoring straws over sippy cups, but don't ask me what it is.

Speech therapists hate those sippy cuts that done spill when they tip over -- they require the same action as sucking out of a bottle, which is different than sipping out of a straw. The details the oral motor development things on this are really hazy because it's been so long since I talked to Heidi's SLP about it.

I'm going to assume that your dog is rather fond of parking himself under PJ's chair when he eats. Is Momo eating more table food now than he used to?

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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my husband & i are also raising a "restaurant" baby. at six months, she flew to manhattan w/ me and a friend and dined at gramercy tavern, babbo & enoteca. her 1st b-day was at bouchon...

i'm one of those people who make sure to have plenty to entertain the bebe while we're dining, but do you have any other tricks & techniques you use to make it through a dining experience pleasantly w/ PJ?

You want to talk about insane? When PJ was six weeks old, we took him to Alain Ducasse at the Essex House -- they were kind enough to give us use of the "aquarium" private dining room. That's definitely one for the scrapbook.

gallery_122_1858_60319.jpg

We also took him, when he was only a couple of months old, on book tour for several weeks, to ten cities -- maybe more. We had some really wacky restaurant experiences on that trip, given that it was a restaurant book. Among other things, I think we went to all of Jose Andres's restaurants in DC on that trip. Looking back, I don't know how we survived it all.

We've been through phases where it has been harder and easier to deal with PJ in restaurants. When he's in a bad phase, we bring him out less often (and therefore go out less often). Right now he's in a great phase because, at one-year old, we've been giving him wheat products like bagels and other hard breads. For now, a half a stale bagel holds his attention for about half an hour. It's awesome.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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And your your van's nowhere near full. Wait till baby #2 shows up...

PJ is baby number two. He's human baby number one, but overall baby number one is the canine.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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And your your van's nowhere near full. Wait till baby #2 shows up...

PJ is baby number two. He's human baby number one, but overall baby number one is the canine.

The first is not, I hope, as "gear-intensive" as the second.

Can you pee in the ocean?

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