RI: Heading Home

This post is really just to put a bookend on the whole Rhode Island adventure.  The trip home was mostly uneventful and I covered all the non-Minnesotan things in the Eastbound post.

The two things that happened of note is that Lindz’s Corolla tried to take me out with a hubcap when I was following her.  It was my turn to drive the guys’ car, Matt was playing around on his phone in the passenger seat, and Dave was in back dozing off.  They both came quickly to attention when I yelled out “Oh, Crap!” (this may have been edited to keep it around a PG level) and the hubcap bounced in front of us and then rolled on by.  There was a bit of confusion when we used the walkie-talkie to ask the girls if they ran over a hubcap.  And then more confusion when we said that Lindz lost one.  Apparently we didn’t make it clear that we didn’t want to turn around and find it, we just wanted to make sure they weren’t going to blow a tire.

Did you know that Toyota wants $80 for a replacement hubcap? They must be really proud of those plastic disks.

The other thing is that we passed through a beautiful storm front in western Wisconsin.

This picture really doesn’t do the front any justice. The thin sliver of white stretched from horizon to horizon and was as sharp as a razor.

And finally after another two days and 1400 miles worth of travel, we all were safe and sound back in St. Paul.  The end.

RI: Shady Harbor

While staying at the beach house, we pretty much took it easy and really didn’t wander around too much.  But we did get around the neighborhood a little bit.  The very first day we were there, three of us went out for a spin around the salt pond.  Dave took the kayak, and Matt and I took the canoe.

Growing up in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, you would think that I would be a decent swimmer. Nope. I swim about as well as a rock. Hence, the life vest.

Except for the salt water, this could be any number of lakes that I’ve fished as a kid. Beautiful view.

One morning during the week, Matt made us breakfast sandwiches.  They were way better than any I’ve had at a restaurant.  Boy’s got some skills.

Yes, I scarfed down half the sandwich before it occurred to me to take the picture. Yes, I’m aware that I’m having a Coke with breakfast, and yes, I know that it’s bad for me.

On our final full day there, it was my last chance to take a walk around the neighborhood.  Dave had taken off early that morning to get his car emissions tested for NY and to spend a little time with his family.  So Matt, Janessa, Lindz, and I took a walk around.  Other than the lilies, I have no idea what most of these flowers are, I just know that they are pretty and I wanted a picture of them.

This one I’m calling the “pretty little purple one.”

Like I said, I know the lilies.

This is “the little blue rimmed ones.”

Another lily. There were a lot of them around.  As a side note, I was playing around with the depth of field on this picture.  I think it turned out great.

A nice bunch of red roses.  Mom would be envious.

“The pretty purple ones all in a row.” Again, playing around with the camera on this picture.

This one I’ve dubbed “the big lavender ones.” I love the blue sky in the background here. It really makes the flower stand out.
I’ve just been informed by Dave that these are Ragusas, a.k.a. Beach Roses

This one is “by far my favorite.” I don’t know how they bred this color in a lily, but I love it.

Oh, I really should show you a picture standing on the beach right by the house.

One of the features on my new toy lets me take panoramic shots. Have I mentioned how much I love it? Especially how much I love Lindz for figuring out how to pay for it?

RI: Saltimbocca

The one non-seafood meal (other than lunch / snacks) that I planned for the trip was one that had caught my eye about a week before we took off East.  I had a hard time believing that I could be led astray with chicken, sage, and prosciutto.  Not surprisingly, I found the recipe in my copy of the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.  Yup.  Love that cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C unbleached AP Flour
• Ground Black Pepper
• 8 thin-cut, boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (about 2 lbs), trimmed of ragged edges
• 1 Tbs minced fresh Sage leaves, plus 8 large leaves
• 8 thin slices of Prosciutto, cut into 5″ to 6″ long pieces to match chicken (about 3 oz)
• 4 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 1/4 C White Wine
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice
• 4 Tbs Unsalted Butter, cut into 4 pieces and chilled
• 1 Tbs minced fresh Parsley Leaves
• Salt

Salty-hamy goodness.

The this-n-that which fills out the ingredient list.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 200 degrees.  Combine flour and 1 teaspoon pepper in a shallow dish.

There really is no purpose to this picture. It’s just flour and pepper, but I bothered to snap a picture, so I’m bothering you by putting it here.

Pat the cutlets dry with paper towels.

Another pointless photo. This time it’s chicken breasts cut in half. Ooh!

Dredge the chicken in the flour and shake off any excess.  Lay the cutlets flat and sprinkle evenly with the minced sage.  Place one slice of prosciutto on top of each cutlet, pressing lightly to adhere and set aside.

This picture, which actually serves a purpose, I almost forgot to take it! Hence, the one corner of prosciutto that is folded up.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer.  Add the sage leaves to the skillet and cook until the leaves begin to change color and are fragrant, about 15 to 20 seconds.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the sage to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.  Add half of the cutlets to the pan, prosciutto-side down, and cook until light golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.  Flip and cook on the other side until golden brown, about 2 minutes more.  Transfer the chicken to a wire rack (set on a rimmed baking sheet) and keep it warm in the oven.  Repeat with the two remaining tablespoons of oil and cutlets.  Transfer these to the oven as well to keep warm while preparing the sauce.

One big tray of happiness right out of the oven.

Pour off the excess fat from the skillet and stir in the white wine, scraping up the fond.  Simmer until it reduces to about 1/3 cup, about 5 to 7 minutes.  Stir in the lemon juice and turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time.  Off heat, stir in the parsley and season with the salt and pepper.  Remove the chicken from the oven and place on a platter.  Spoon the sauce over the cutlets before serving.

This is a great buttery pan sauce.  And surprisingly, fairly light.

The one glaring mistake that I made was using too much sage.  While in the process of making it, I knew I was using far more than the recipe called for, but I went ahead with it because I bought a package of fresh sage specifically for it.  The other option was to throw it away.  I should have went with my first instinct and follow the recipe.  Other than that, I think it turned out really well.  With the cost of ingredients, I’m not going to be making this all the time, but I would like to make it again in the near future.  Using the proper amount of sage, of course.

RI: Clambake

My primary goal for the trip was to eat myself stupid with seafood, and up to this point in the trip, I think I was doing pretty well.  My secondary goal was to do a proper New England clambake.  Not surprisingly, everyone was on board with this decision.

I originally wanted to do the whole dig a pit, throw in some coals, seaweed, seafood and stuff, cover it with a tarp, wait a bit, and enjoy.  But that idea died quickly when we checked the rules for the beach and no form of flame was allowed.  So, off to the stove-top!  Well, eventually.  Gotta get the stuff first.

We stopped by a small place to purchase our seafood.  They had a modest, but good quality, selection of bivalves.  The lobsters were divided into different clothes baskets according to their weight.  We bought two one-pound-and-a-halfers, but they did have one monster of bug.  Our best guess is that it weighed in around five pounds and covered half of the bottom of a clothes basket.

You’re looking at around a $50 lobster.

We were laughing at Janessa because she wanted to get a picture holding the lobster, but she made Matt take it out of the bag for her. Note the not-so-suppressed look of terror.

Gotta have at least one pic of our hapless victims (while they are still kicking).

Apparently this is a very regional style of sausage. Which is sad because it is a very good tasting one. If you see some, buy it. You won’t be disappointed.

Two pounds each of littleneck clams and mussels.

The recipe for a clambake is really easy.  It sums up as: gather the ingredients, layer them in a huge pot, and cook.  The specifics are as follows:

One pound of sausage, sliced for the bottom layer.

Then the two pounds each of littlenecks and mussels. Cleaned, obviously.

Next, one pound of baby red potatoes. Cut them fairly small because these take the longest to cook. (1″ cubes or smaller)

5 or 6 ears of corn make up the next layer.

Gotta have the obligatory pic of holding one of the lobsters.

Finally on top goes the bugs. The tasty, tasty bugs.

While I was putzing around the kitchen working on the clambake. Dave whipped up a couple of loaves of beer bread. He’s handy that way.

I pulled out the lobsters a little early because the taters were not done and I didn’t want my delicious bugs ending up overcooked.

SQUIRREL!

. Bucket of goodness.

Once everything is layered in the pot, cover, turn the burner to high, and cook for 17 to 20 minutes.  Basically, until your potatoes are tender and the lobsters are bright red.  Everything else will be done by the time these two are ready.

It was decided that the easiest way to divy up the lobster was first to remove all the meat from the shell.  Easier said than done for a couple of novices.

Let the cracking commence . . .

Pulling the meat took a bit of time. In fact, Lindz had time to play around with the new camera and take a few pics.

Yup. Still plugging away at it.

All the meat from the two lobsters. Including some roe.

Terry’s plate before . . .

. . . and Terry’s plate after.

The clambake was a little on the expensive side, but split between five people it was really reasonable.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I had a blast cooking it.  And guessing by how quickly it was devoured, I think that they enjoyed eating it as much as I did.  The lobster did end up slightly overdone, but it still tasted great.  The mussels and clams were the hit of the party though.  Basically it’s hard to screw up really fresh seafood (as long as you don’t overcook it).  The only thing not eaten was some of the sausages and potatoes.

Yup, it was good.

And here is the only picture from the entire trip (about 500 photos) that include all five of us.

RI: Connecticut Tigers Game

All of us are baseball fans to varying degrees (I’m probably the most fair weather fan of the group), so it was a unanimous decision to catch a minor league game while we were out East.  The fact that we got really awesome seats for $10 helped to make the decision even easier.  Since we had a bit of time before the game, we stopped by a small eatery to catch supper.  The Sea Swirl reminded me of a Mom & Pop version of a Dairy Queen that also served a nice variety of seafood.

Famous for clams. They definitely can talk the talk and back it up with walking the walk.

There was a lot of clam strip dinners ordered and all of it consumed.  BTW, there are fries in there somewhere.

The clam strips were quite good.  In fact, I used the tarter sauce for the fries because the clams didn’t need any kind of adornment.

I saw this on a building next to the Sea Swirl. I couldn’t help but wonder what is Mystic Soup? Do witches make it? Inquiring minds want to know!

I tend to get this look a lot. Usually it comes after I say a really bad pun or my dorkiness is running amok.

After we ate (and were incredibly stuffed), we made the short journey to the Senator Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium where the Connecticut Tigers call home.

$10 seats and the only thing between you and home plate is a net!!! Seriously, how awesome is that?

The happy couple.

I did take some pictures during the game, but I won’t bore you with them.  Although, I did get some really cool shots with the continuous shooting mode.  I took a series of photos of each pitcher throwing the ball.  It comes out as a nice slow-motion montage.

The Tigers beat out the Brooklyn Cyclones with a home-field advantage.

Since it was a Friday game, they had fireworks afterwards.  Again, I’m totally in love with my new toy.

Oooooh!

Aaaaaw!

Yeah, the new camera is fun.

RI: Mystic Seaport

Before heading to a Connecticut Tigers game, we spent the afternoon at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.  The museum consists of many parts which include a 19th Century seaport village, numerous demonstrations, historic ships, a preservation shipyard, and a planetarium.

I took over 150 photos while we were there, so I’ll just show you the absolute cream of the crop.

The ROANN, built in 1947, is an Eastern-rig dragger which pulls the nets over the side as opposed to over the stern like the Western-rig draggers. Powered by a diesel, she drug a conical net called an otter trawl along the sea bed for haddock, flounder, and cod.  Far more efficient than the hook-and-line boats she replaced.  Of course this led to the over-fishing problem that we have now.

I never knew that the fork that we used on the farm for moving silage can also be used to scoop up oysters.

Lobster traps. They look cool and they catch tasty bugs.

I think this is just a cool photo. Minus the modern dress, this could easily have been 150 years ago.

You have to have at least one picture of a cannon if you visit a maritime museum. I’m not sure what to classify it as though. It seems awfully big to be a signal cannon (they would fire a blank before entering port to signal that they were coming in), but on the small side for a weapon.

Jellyfish! These little guys were everywhere in the waters around the ships. It was really cool watching them swim around.

An old blacksmith’s shop. I’ve always found it fascinating what these guys could do with heat, muscle, and a bit of ore. Plus the science of metallurgy is really interesting. It’s amazing how people figured out differential tempering, alloys, blast furnaces, and everything else that is associated with metal working.

The bleeding edge of technology back in the day. The sextant was used to calculate a ships latitude out at sea. By measuring the angle between a celestial body (like the sun, a star, or the moon) and the horizon one can calculate a position line on a chart. The real trick is to calculate longitude, which led to the development of ever more accurate clocks.

The woodshop. Everything was run off of belts, much like modern day Amish woodshops. But instead of using a gas engine to drive everything, in the past people used to use nature, i.e. a waterwheel.

Salt cod drying. Ships would gut, salt, and store the fish out at sea. Once they reached land, the cargo would be off-loaded and laid out on these racks called flakes for their final drying. The little “houses” at the edges of the picture were put over the fish to protect them during bad weather.

Janessa screwing around in a rowboat.

This is a whaling boat. Whalers would pile into this TINY boat and row out to harpoon a whale. This boat is roughly 20′ long and it went after whales that could be around 70′ long. These guys were nuts!

The fo’c’sle on the fishing schooner L.A. Dunton. The forecastle (shortened to fo’c’sle by seamen) is located at the bow of a ship. This is where the crew ate and slept. It looks reasonably sized until you take into account that this space is home to 15 men. Really cozy.

This conch shell was used as a baptismal font in the 1800’s. It’s hard to judge the size here, but it is roughly 18″ across. Just think of how much conch meat you could get from a creature that size!

The museum has a carving shop where they create some ship mastheads. This one seems a bit odd for a ship, but it’s impressively carved.

A bit of a random photo, but it was very intentional. Having recently built a limestone retaining wall at work, I can appreciate the amount of effort that went into making all of these cobblestones. I was working with a relatively soft rock, but here is granite and basalt (?). Both of which are significantly harder. Plus each was squared off and had the corners rounded. A serious commitment of time and labor.

This is a freaking huge pulley used to hoist sails. As a perspective, that is Lindz’s arm and foot in the photo,

The band saw that they had over in the restoration half of the museum. It ran off of a 8 cylinder diesel and could slab wood a couple of feet thick. I have no idea what I would use it for, but I want one.

The bow of the whaler Charles W. Morgan built in 1841 and currently undergoing extensive restoration.

The fireplace and cauldrons used to render whale blubber into oil. Gotta love the idea of a large fire under flammable liquid on a wooden boat.

I know people were generally shorter a century ago, but I couldn’t even stand up in between the beams. It must have been fun working below decks. Yes, heavy on the sarcasm.

Just to give you an idea of how big the ship is. This was taken at deck level looking down about 40′ to the ground. Plus you had the mast a hundred feet or so above you. These were not small ships.

I found this museum to be a lot of fun.  It hit upon many of my interests.  It has old ships, a nice emphasis on seafood production, a really well done job of showcasing the technology of 1800’s, woodworking/shipbuilding/restoration, and capturing the general atmosphere of the past.  If you ever pass through Mystic, CT, and have an afternoon to spare, I suggest walking through the museum and enjoy the past.

RI: Mackerel Cove

On our way home from Enn, we took a slight detour to go to a beach on Mackerel Cove.  As it turned out, this was the only time that we actually made it to a beach during our vacation.  Oh, well.  We still had plenty of fun just relaxing at the house and other places.

Lindz + ocean = happy wife

Looking for sea shells.

The girls screwing around. As usual.

Yup.  Everyone was looking for sea shells.

This is why.

To quote Janessa quoting a Honda commercial: “I peench I peench!”

RI: Enn

When Chef Aaron from the Seminary found out a bunch of us were going to Rhode Island, he gave us some suggestions of places to eat.  He went to culinary school out East so he had the insider knowledge.  Top of his list was a sushi joint called Enn located in Lincoln (north end of RI).  He claimed that it was the best sushi that he had ever eaten.  So naturally, we wanted to go and give it a whirl.

The happy couple and the last blurry photo!

We went there on Thursday and the special was half priced wine and sake.  Matt opted for the sake, Lindz, Janessa, and I split a bottle of malbec.  Dave was the responsible driver and had his Diet Coke.  Lately, my wine of choice has been malbecs.  It is a full bodied red which is not as heavy in tannins as a merlot, and it has a nice bouquet with notes of plum and earth.  (Yeah, I looked up that last part.)

This was a very good year for the vinyard.

Collectively, the group ordered three apps.  Lindz and I got the fried oysters.  They were quite good and the creamy dipping sauce was amazing.  These were much like the clam cakes that we had at Champlin’s.

5 fried oysters, 5 people in our group.  Coincidence?

Matt and Janessa wisely chose the soft shell crab tempura.  Hands down, this was the best app that we had.  Which is saying a lot because this was the best sushi place that I’ve ever been to.

This. This is worth driving 1400 miles for.

Dave opted for the agedashi tofu.  I’m glad that he ordered it because it is something that I never would have even considered.  There always seems to be something else that would catch my eye (and stomach).  It is a firm tofu that is dusted in a starch and then deep fried.  It is served in a tentsuyu broth that consists dashi, mirin, and soy sauce.  It’s definitely worth trying once if you see on the menu.

I’m middle of the road on tofu, but this has me rethinking my opinion.

As for the entree’s, Matt and Janessa decided to split four rolls between them.  Had they known how big the rolls are, I think they would have chosen differently.  One thing that I found impressive was the plating on a couple of these rolls.  The first one to show up was the Summer Tuna Roll.  Inside it has avocado, spicy mayo, tobico (fish roe), and tempura flakes.  And on top it has maguro tuna, jalapeno pieces, and a creamy sauce.

Seriously cool plating.

Next to come was the Craig Roll.  This one has soft shell crap tempura, cucumber, and avocado topped with eel and shrimp.  If I had opted for rolls, this would have definitely been one that I would had chosen.

Amazing how a little piping of sauce can spruce up a plate.

Their last two rolls came together on one plate.  On top, there is the B-52 Maki (at least I’m pretty sure I’ve got it right).  This one has a crab stick, avocado, flying fish roe, and scallion rolled with yellowtail tuna, then it’s deep-fried and layered with rice.  The bottom one looks like a California Roll which has crab, avocado, cucumber, and fish roe.

Your basic sushi presentation. But the food still looks good, so why mess with the basics?

Dave ordered the Sushi / Sashimi platter.  Which is a gamble in my opinion.  It is an assortment of sushi and sashimi which is left up to the chef to decide what you get.  It also comes with a salad and a bowl of miso soup.  Here in the Mid-West, it usually consists of a couple of kinds of tuna, salmon, shrimp, and egg custard.  All of which I like, but it just reeks of being “safe” and cheap.  I was very impressed with the chef’s choice at Enn.  The platter actually consisted of many things that I normally order a la carte.

At the very top is what looks like a tuna roll. The next row has flying fish roe, shrimp, and surf clam sushi. The row of sushi below that has binchou (albacore tuna), mackerel, and fresh-water eel. The sashimi is maguro (red meat tuna), salmon, and, well, honestly, I have no idea what the last one is.
Update: Dave informed me the unknown fish is “yellowtail, sweet delicious yellowtail.” (hamachi)

Lindz ordered a la carte like I did.  We’ve found that it’s cheaper and we get exactly what we want.

Starting far left and going clockwise: a spicy tuna roll, tobiko (flying fish roe), unagi (fresh-water eel), salmon, and a Blaze roll (at least that is what Lindz thinks it is).

I always get a smile on my face when Lindz explains why she orders the flying fish roe: she like the popping in her mouth as she eats them.  Really I have no room to talk because that is definitely a factor as to why I order them all the time too.  I think I’ve said this before, but the unagi (fresh-water eel) is a favorite of both of ours, so it’s no surprise that you see it on every plate that we order.  The Blaze roll has spicy tuna, cream cheese, and avocado on the inside.  Then the roll is deep-fried in tempura batter and finished with a sweet and spicy sauce.

Finally, we get to my plate!  As I said before, this was the best sushi place that I’ve been to.  It had the freshest fish hands down and it’s very reasonable priced.

Starting at the bottom and going widdershins (because I like to be difficult): I got the unagi, octopus, surf clam, and mackerel sashimi.  And two of the flying fish roe (tobiko) sushi, one with and one without a quail egg.

Honestly, I really didn’t notice much of a difference with the quail egg on the tobiko.  Both were good, but I don’t think it was worth the extra $0.75.  The mackerel (saba) was breathtaking.  It had a nice full fish flavor and was oily without being overwhelming.  The surf clam (hokkigai) was good, but wasn’t significantly better than others that I’ve had.  The octopus (tako) was nice and tender with just the right amount of chew to it.  The unagi!  Oh, the unagi.  Words cannot do justice to this oily, fishy, sweet morsel from heaven.  All in all, this was as perfect of a sushi meal as I’ve ever had.

Well almost.  The only thing that could have made it better was if Ringer was there.  We have a longstanding tradition of going way off the beaten path every time that we have sushi.  I love my standard selections, but I do miss going crazy sometimes.

So Chef Aaron was right.  Making a trip to Enn was well worth it.  It will take a really impressive sushi place to even come close to this meal.

RI: Port of Galilee

A quick apology first.  Since I was just learning how to use my new toy, there was a bit of a screw up.  Somewhere along the way, the camera got switched to manual focus and I didn’t realize it for a day and a half, so there are a bunch of pictures that I’m really less than satisfied with.  Please bear with me, we’ll get to better ones soon.

The whole dream of the Rhode Island vacation started with an invitation from our friend Dave’s parents.  They have a beach house that they were kind enough to open to Dave and some of his Seminary friends for a week.  Through a couple of iterations of who was interested and available, our group came out to be Dave, myself and Lindz, and Matt and Janessa.

Da group. Matt, Janessa, Dave, and yours truly. Lindz was behind the camera.

Our first day in Little Rhodie, we went over to the Port of Galilee for some seafood lunch.  There is a restaurant that Dave’s family goes to all the time that is about a 20 mile drive from the house (or about 10 miles as a crow would fly).  Champlin’s Seafood is located right on the inlet from the ocean to one of the many saltwater ponds in the area.

Champlin’s Seafood. One of my new favorite places ever. Too bad it’s a half of a continent away.

They have a great working relationship with the fishing boats that use the Point Judith Pond as a harbor.  Many dock right outside of the building.  One touch that I thought was really cool is that they have the names of the fishing boats that they buy from on the life preservers hanging up around the building.  Besides the restaurant, they also sell a large variety of fresh seafood.

This is one of the fishing boats that supply Champlin’s. The photo was taken from my seat where I ate the first of many unbelievable seafood meals.

Their menu has a selection that any seafood lover would drool at the mere mention of a quarter of the items.  I would highly recommend at least looking over the menu before you go.  That way, you aren’t staring slack-jawed at the menu board trying to make a decision while people are waiting for you.  They have a full bar, so if you would like a homemade bloody mary, a beer, or just a soda, they have your thirst taken care of as well.  I should warn you that you should be prepared to spend a bit of money.  It’s not excessively expensive, but it isn’t cheap either.  I really should clarify that a bit: the quality to cost ratio is unbelievable, but it’s not someplace most people can afford to go more than once or twice a month.  Yeah, I feel better with that description.

Dave bought a half-dozen clam cakes to share around the table.  Think of a doughy (in a good sense)  crab cake and substitute in some clams.  They were really good.

Deep fried clammy goodness.

Lindz and I went a little wild with our order.  Based on Dave’s recommendation, I went with the deep fried whole-bellied clams.  In hindsight, I should have gotten them a la carte, and shared Lindz’s fries and slaw.  Whole bellies are whole soft shell clams as opposed to clam strips which are sliced hard shell clams.  The whole bellies that I ate had a nice mild clam flavor with a sweet undertone.  You didn’t need tarter sauce or anything to accompany them. I’ll put it another way for you.  I kept eating them after I was stuffed halfway through my meal.  Hands down, they were the second best clams that I have ever eaten.  Lindz ordered a lobster roll dinner for herself.  I think she still has the lobster bug from when we ate at Cosmos.  Ha ha!  Lobster bug, get it?  I’m so punny!  I did swipe a bite and it was really good.  Perfectly cooked and oh, so tasty.  Speaking of Cosmos, that is the reason why I got a 1/2 pint of their lobster bisque.  This was good, but it wasn’t quite as good as the one at Cosmos.  Significantly cheaper, but still slightly disappointing.  I shouldn’t be complaining because it’s still far better than you can find most anywhere.

Lower left: whole belly clam dinner. Upper right: lobster roll dinner. Bottom right: 1/2 pint of lobster bisque. Upper left-ish: 2 cherrystone clams

Finally, I saw that they had raw cherrystone clams on the menu.  I’ve never heard of, much less had clams on the half shell before.  So I ordered two of them.  I figured I’d offer Lindz one and if she declined, then I could eat both of them!  But, she was feeling adventurous that day and decided to try one.  Which still made me happy.  Janessa kindly documented our experience.

A little squeeze of lemon . . .

Hoist them and say “Cheers!” . . .

And suck them down!

I’m spitting out a lemon seed, not the clam.

If I was still hungry and we didn’t already spend a healthy wad of cash, I would have happily gone back and ordered a baker’s dozen.  They were everything that people tell you that good shellfish should taste like.  Slightly sweet and a bit like a fresh ocean.  These are the clams that claim the #1 slot in the best that I have ever tasted.  Lindz even liked them.

As far as seating options go, you can either sit inside (it’s really spacious) or out on the deck (a bit more limited).  It was a gorgeous day, and the place wasn’t busy, so ours was an easy choice: the deck.  I would suggest going there for lunch or an afternoon snack because I heard that around supper time, the line can get up to a hundred feet long or more.

One of the “patrons” hanging out at the restaurant.

Watching boats go by while eating fresh seafood is priceless.

One of my stated goals for this trip was to eat myself stupid with really good seafood.  This place fulfilled that dream and then some.  It also set the bar unbelievable high for the rest of the trip.

RI: Eastbound

Finally getting around to writing about the Rhode Island vacation.  I’m just going to ease into it with our drive out east.  Not a whole lot to talk about.  It was two days, 1400 miles, and a lot of tolls and interstates.  Traveling this way covers a lot of ground quickly, but the view is definitely lacking.

The first of many, many $#&*)%# tollbooths.

Chicago and the Sears Tower.

Western New York is filled with vineyards.

There were some really nice views out east.

And in the middle of nowhere there is an MGM Grand. Really weird.

Next post: the Port of Galilee.