Hence my comment about it not being muttered by what I thought were posh people that eat lobster rolls. @MarzNC has kindly informed me they were once working man’s food.
Lobster Rolls
- Thread starter jasoncapecod
- Start date
Yes, that's absolutely true and at the same time hard to believe given how expensive it is nowadays.
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
I was on the Cape again this weekend. My mother-in-law is ill so I’ve been running up there almost every weekend to visit them in South Yarmouth and now she is in Chatham at a rehab.
The following is a quintessential Cape
lobster roll/fried fish joint
The place had a 1.5 hrs wait. Fortunately, we got there before the big rush.
The following is a quintessential Cape
lobster roll/fried fish joint
The place had a 1.5 hrs wait. Fortunately, we got there before the big rush.
A little bit of fried food is fine, but an entire plate of it?
jimk
Well-known member
My Mom and Dad grew up near Boston. Around 2010 and late in his life, we took my Dad back to New England for one last summertime visit. One day we went for a drive along the NH/ME seacoast and upon his insistence we stopped for a lobster roll lunch in Hampton Beach, NH. Later that same day on the return trip we stopped at Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook, NH for a full lobster dinner. I'm not a lobster eater, but my folks were crazy about them and my wife loves bugs (slang for lobster). Photo I posted earlier in this thread was her lobster roll, while I had fish tacos that evening.
You haven't traveled around the South much, have you? In addition to fried seafood, there is plenty of fried chicken.
Mainly shrimp or crawfish or crab along the Atlantic coast south of Delaware. Even heard of Rock Shrimp? We get them when we stay in Orlando. Worth a day trip to a small town near Cape Canaveral to eat them at Dixie's. Taste like lobster but not quite as expensive and less work. Also used to be considered not worth eating. Hard to get open until a machine to process them was invented in the early 1980s.
EMSC
Well-known member
Much of the south and oddly the UK over the pond is a seemingly endless pile of brown and tan foods with few veggies or exceptions anywhere in sight (at least when eating out at local focused food joints).
My wife's family is from the Newport News/Williamsburg region. Across 25 years, I've witnessed a cavalcade of overcooked vegetables. The worst victims are green beans, which are rendered into brown beans.
berkshireskier
Active member
I was out on the eastern end of Long Island over the weekend and stopped at a famous "Clam Shop" on the Montauk Highway between East Hampton and Montauk and got a lobster BLT. It was $42 but included a generous portion of very good french fries and delicious cole slaw. There was a LOT of lobster meat on the BLT, so much so that it was hard to actually eat the sandwich (it was quite messy). The traditional "lobster roll" was $45 and I noticed a lobster roll was $49 in the town of Montauk. All in all, given the quality of the lobster, I thought it was a pretty good deal, given the high price of lobsters.
PS: the clam shop was JAMMED and I asked the waitress how many lobsters they cook every day. Her response was: "thousands".
PS: the clam shop was JAMMED and I asked the waitress how many lobsters they cook every day. Her response was: "thousands".
ChrisC
Well-known member
I don't know that place - Captain Cone - but its Lobster Roll price is a good deal. I see it's in Dennis. My Dad likes to go up to Denis and eat at a similar place at the Sesuit Harbor Cafe - where one can wait 30 minutes for a picnic table.
Dinner - Sesuit Harbor Cafe
sesuit-harbor-cafe.com
I don't really like a similar type place in Chatham - Kream N' Kone. https://www.kreamnkonechatham.com There are no really good options besides completely fired seafood.
Forget waits for Lobster Rolls, what about ice cream in the evening at some popular places on Cape Code. There are two places I know can be nearly 30 minutes most nights:
- Sundae School - Harwich Port https://www.sundaeschool.com/
- Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour - Mashpee https://www.polarcave.com/
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
I know all places you have mentioned above, quite well. The wait at Sesuit Harbor hasn’t been as bad, but it used to be awful.I don't know that place - Captain Cone - but its Lobster Roll price is a good deal. I see it's in Dennis. My Dad likes to go up to Denis and eat at a similar place at the Sesuit Harbor Cafe - where one can wait 30 minutes for a picnic table.
Dinner - Sesuit Harbor Cafe
I don't really like a similar type place in Chatham - Kream N' Kone. https://www.kreamnkonechatham.com There are no really good options besides completely fired seafood.
Forget waits for Lobster Rolls, what about ice cream in the evening at some popular places on Cape Code. There are two places I know can be nearly 30 minutes most nights:
- Sundae School - Harwich Port https://www.sundaeschool.com/
- Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour - Mashpee https://www.polarcave.com/
The Cape is a culinary wasteland like you mentioned the choices are fried fish, lobster rolls, or mediocre pizza.
ChrisC
Well-known member
Says a chef?
I always thought the Cape/Islands were a bit of a throwback, traditional, and a bit old-fashioned. Relaxing downtime with beautiful, often tidal beaches, water that will numb you, nice golf/tennis/outdoor weather, sailing, paddleboarding, and biking trails galore.
Cutting-edge trends? Oh hell no. The only modern trend is where to park NYC investment banking/PE returns - most often Nantucket, but Martha's Vineyard, parts of Cape Cod, etc.
Food is most often seasonal shore cuisine - yes, most often average to good, where one pays for location, sometimes exorbitantly so ($50,60,70+ per entree).
The Northeast produces too much wealth chasing too few places. I am always impressed by Nantucket. It's beautiful, but maybe it has a 75-day season? May is awful. Most of June is horrible as well. It sticks out into the Atlantic, surrounded by water temperatures of 50 to 60 degrees early on, which creates fog and marine layers until July. Martha's Vineyard, Chatham, and Provincetown can be similar. Me? So many people want to spend $500-1500+/night to sit in a fog bank, interesting. (There are not really beach hotels in San Francisco for this reason).
However, it is beautiful AC during July and August. The hidden season is September and early October, when there is less fog, relatively warm water, and no crowds. And the cranberry bogs are special.
I did the Figawi boat race from Hyannis to Nantucket over Memorial Day Weekend. Fun, casual, boats of all types, and horrible weather.
If I could volunteer one restaurant that rises above others, it would be Water Street Cafe, Woods Hole, MA. https://www.waterstreetkitchen.com/ People will line up at 4 pm to try to get a spot at the bar if they do not have one of the few tables reserved.
ChrisC
Well-known member
And the best part of Cape Cod cuisine is the actual fresh seafood of all types:
In another life, I would often go clamming. Found it fun and semi-therapeutic. Learned how to cook them well, more than boil/butter (I don't like raw clams).
However, most of my family and friends do not like shellfish, so my audience was limited. Combined with the fact that most often we find larger clams that are tougher and appropriate for cutting up for chowder, and the cost of permits, it's enough.
It's easier to buy what you want from the Chatham Pier Fish Market.
Some spots:
In another life, I would often go clamming. Found it fun and semi-therapeutic. Learned how to cook them well, more than boil/butter (I don't like raw clams).
However, most of my family and friends do not like shellfish, so my audience was limited. Combined with the fact that most often we find larger clams that are tougher and appropriate for cutting up for chowder, and the cost of permits, it's enough.
It's easier to buy what you want from the Chatham Pier Fish Market.
Some spots:
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
Spot on assessment about the weather and season out there
They do have some great fresh seafood two weeks ago I was able to buy beautiful sea scallops and little neck clams, that didn’t break the bank which made a fantastic linguine.
They do have some great fresh seafood two weeks ago I was able to buy beautiful sea scallops and little neck clams, that didn’t break the bank which made a fantastic linguine.
I thought coastal California was the only place with this climatology. Boston has a typical July/August temperature peak with June being warmer than September. But once out into the Atlantic in colder water off Cape Cod, the California cold ocean/delayed seasons effect makes some sense.
FYI the Southern Hemisphere cold water Mediterranean climate cities (Santiago, Cape Town) do not have offset seasons. I asked Larry Schick about this. He said that the jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere is very consistent because from 40-60 degrees latitude there is almost no land to obstruct or bend it. Thus summers and winters are both more centered around the solstices than in coastal California.