We spent Mother's Day exploring the Lower Cape (that's the section beyond Orleans and the rotary, along the Cape Cod National Seashore up to Provincetown). We finished up with dinner at Bubala's and a leisurely drive home while the Sagamore Bridge traffic subsided.

Between the time we crossed the canal eastbound at 10am and our westbound return at 10pm, we covered a lot of ground: down to Hyannis, past Stage Stop Candies and Marion's Pie Shop to Chatham, along the shore to Orleans and onto the Lower Cape.

It was well past noon and we had eaten nothing all day, but that was no oversight - after a failed attempt at breakfast in Hyannis, we opted to save our appetites for a barbecue lunch at Russ and Marie's Marconi Beach Restaurant, with the active smoker right out front. I had the smoked brisket with a fresh, local Cape Cod Blonde Ale, and Lorna had the barbecued chicken with a baked sweet-potato and cinnamon butter.

We left the Brimfield Antiques Fair with plenty of time to explore central Massachusetts, so we headed out Route 9 for the Winsor Dam at the Quabbin Reservoir. It is a beautiful place, the water serene and sparkling  on this perfect afternoon. So it was a little creepy to remember that four towns were disincorporated in 1938 so Boston could have water.

This means the roads that led to those towns are now blocked off long before you reach the water, but it is fun driving the rugged hills described in Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space.  

The old town of Greenwich is no more; the remains are part of Hardwick. So it was that we drove up Greenwich Road in Hardwick, MA and came upon the Hardwick Winery. It's a pleasant place, in pretty country, with locally made wines. We only tasted a couple of them, but I found the Giles Warner white to be very refreshing and crisp with explosive berry and herby flavors like a $20 Pouilly Fuisse.

We spent a glorious May morning shopping at the thrice-annual Brimfield Antiques Fair.

You might wonder "Why does a Foodie Pilgrim care about antiques?" Well, antiques is a very broad term, especially at the Brimfield Fairs. This fair and antiques shops in general are great places to find good-quality, good condition kitchen gadgets, serving dishes, and other pieces from the past that can give your kitchen or dining room a real sense of place. I have many nice mixing bowls, serving platters, and other gear in my kitchen that I acquired on expeditions such as this.  

On this particular  expedition, I was seeking attractive, smaller antique barware. In my grandfather's day, cocktails were usually served in much smaller glasses. As a result, you could get a greater variety during an evening of cocktails, instead of getting hammered by drinking from a pail.

There was food to be had, but it was Fair food, which is fair under the best of circumstances. Even the Methodist and Congregationalist pie-ladies seem to have called a detente and serve only reheated Mrs Smith's pies now. We had to travel onward to find more foodie adventures.

Sun poured into the room where Richmond, John and I sat drinking an early evening libation.  Having missed the Kentucky Derby and our yearly Mint Julep on the traditional Saturday, we had felt the need to make up for the loss on Sunday.

Richmond’s juleps are a perfect blend of sweetened mint, ice and Maker’s Mark; even a sometime drinker such as I finds they go down very easily. Several hours slipped by as we sipped and enjoyed ham-wrapped asparagus and a duo of cheeses John brought back the day before from the upper reaches of New England.  One of them, a Fiddlehead Tomme from Boggy Meadow Farm in Walpole, NH, is an all time favorite with the three of us.

Twilight began to fall, and I found my thoughts turning towards dessert.  “I need a cupcake,” I announced.  “No you don’t,” replied John, but his efforts to distract me were ineffective, to say the least.  After a few more minutes of my sighing, John remembered he had at home a Maine specialty known as a Needham.

We toured the southwest corner of the Green Mountain State from Brattleboro to Bennington along the Molly Stark Byway, and then north along Scenic Route 7a to Manchester, Route 30 to Poultney, and then the excellent Route 22a up the Champlain Valley as far as Vergennes. In Vergennes, we stopped for an excellent dinner at the Black Sheep Bistro, and then we set out across the mountains. We watched the supermoon rise over the mountains east of Mad River Glen, and took Rte 100 up to I-89 just as it got dark.

The Champlain Valley  is justly famous as a touring destination, but the lower stretch of that side of the state has its own hilly and rural charms, from populist Bennington to patrician Manchester to scenic Lake St. Catherine and onward to Poultney. The towns are small and the hills can be rugged, but Routes 7a and 30 are lightly traveled and have enough turns and hills to keep the scenery changing.

I was lucky enough to get a bunch of fresh-cut Asparagus at Verrill Farm  in the morning, and then lucked into a half a dozen farm-fresh egg yolks from a friend at work who eats only the whites.

From there it was easy to suggest some sole and Jonah crab meat for dinner, and the Filet of Sole Oscar was the obvious dinner:

1. Steam the asparagus a few minutes, then plunge it into ice-water to cool it and keep it bright green.  
2. Melt 1 cup butter.
3. Dip the sole in flour and then in egg and saute in 1/4 cup melted butter until golden. Set aside on a warm place.
4. Slowly whip the egg yolks in an electric mixer.
5. In a clean skillet, toss the asparagus in 1/4 cup melted butter to heat through, then lay the asparagus across the sole filets.
6. Saute the crabmeat in the same skillet, and lay it across the asparagus.
7. Squeeze half a large lemon into the yolks, then slowly pour in the remaining 1/2 cup melted butter. Add a pinch of cayenne, and salt and pepper if you think it needs it. This is the Hollandaise.
8. Drizzle the Hollandaise across the crab/asparagus/sole, or just face reality and dump it all on. It's so good you'll take no prisoners!

We served this with a chilled Pouilly-Fuisse white Burgundy, a classic accompaniment that suited the dinner perfectly.

From start to finish was less than 30 minutes, but they were not relaxing minutes. You can do this after work if you are not too tired. In my opinion, it is so good that it is motivation enough to put in the work.

We took advantage of ann early start to do one of our favorite trips: a circumnavigation of Lake George in upstate New York.  

Among other goals, I hoped to get a second example of the very regional Michigan Hot Dog, a sort of confirmation of my first sighting in 2007. What luck! Immediately after crossing into New York I screeched to a stop (I guess I do a lot of that) at Top Dogs Snack Bar, featuring Michigans! Dog-lovers can read more on that in The Dog Log.

Lake George is a very long, skinny lake on the edge of the Adirondacks. It has great historical significance from the days of the revolution and the Erie Canal system. It's shores are lined with many summer cottages, some quite expensive. Lake George Village is the kitschy headquarters of summer on the lake, full of t-shirt shops, cotton candy, mini-golf, and the like. It is a tidy town, and very nice if you like that sort of thing...but a foodie paradise it's not.  We ended up having dinner at a nice Italian place in Saratoga Springs.

The best foodie discovery of the day happened back in Vermont.

We celebrated spring yet again with a Fiddleheads feast.

As usual, our Saturday adventure to Maine produced a lot of great foodie loot and we had to do something with it. We had fiddleheads and diver scallops from Gurnet Trading Post, Jersey cow milk and fresh eggs from Two Coves Farm, spring onions and some mushrooms from Bow Street Market, so we went with an early-spring "fruits of the forest" fiddleheads and mushrooms theme.

We:

• Opened with a Lazy Lady cheese and some cob-smoked pepperoni (both from Vermont)
• Puff-pastry shells filled with a mushroom medley and each topped with a fiddlehead.
• A canape of medallions of Shad Roe poached in Fino sherry with a cider vinaigrette, and
• Some fresh green almonds with salt.

We got out of Worcester in time for a trip out scenic Orr's Island and Bailey's Island, which shelters the northern end of Casco Bay from the sea.  It was a very productive trip! We got fiddleheads, diver scallops, Jersey cow milk, and farm-fresh eggs.

We knew we were in foodie-friendly country when, passing by the Gurnet Trading Company for the hundredth time, we saw a sign out for frsh fiddleheads. I screeched to a stop and we went in to see what was on offer. They indeed had a bowl of lovely green fiddleheads for $4.99/lb (much less than half the price closer to Portsmouth), and right beside it in the ice was a bowl of diver scallops. I asked about them, bought a few for dinner tomorrow night, and carried on. Later I learned more about them, and that information is recorded here.

We made it out to the point and back, a very lovely drive not far from Portland and Freeport, and then across Mountain Road past the Black Sheep Wine Shop and Vegetable Corner to go out to then end of Harpswell. That is a pretty drive, too, although it ends rather abruptly.

I love Worcester. You can go around the world without leaving the city. In Worcester, I have shopped or dined: Armenian, Swedish, Ghanaian, Korean, Irish, Greek, Japanese, Lebanese, Russian, Vietnamese, French, Polish, Italian, and Yankee. I have had kim-chee, cow's foot, and ham and eggs (not at the same meal!). 

And of course the range of restaurants in Worcester runs the usual gamut from the hash-houses to the excellent, Remember that Worcester does not suffer from the Tourist Effect: nobody goes to Worcester for the scenery, so the food has to be good!

I lived in New York City for many years, but one of my favorite neon signs in all the world is in Worcester, and it's all about hot dogs.

Worcester is home to the classic diner, and boasts many excellent ones in various stages of renovation or destruction.

So it should come as no surprise that when I am lucky enough to find myself in that hotbed of ethnic foodie excellence, I look for things that are hard to find elsewhere, or that are expensive in gourmet shops but inexpensive and common in some ther cuisine.

And my favorite spice-seller is there. Ed Hyder's Mediterranean Marketplace is a my go-to place for spices and other unusual or rare goodies.

We started our day with breakfast in Portland, and then made tracks downeast on a glorious early spring day. Our destination was Bar Harbor and Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia National Park. We made it in good time, but arrived at the gate only to find it closed. A friendly ranger seeing our disappointed faces, hurried over to tell us some happy news: he had to make some rounds, but he would re-open the gate in an hour, so we would be able to get up the mountain in time for the sunset.

 We headed into Bar Harbor, just a mile from the gate, and looked at our rather limited options for April dining in Bar Harbor. We saw that an old favorite, McKay's Public House, was open and serving, and we were able to be seated right away. That was good not only considering our rush for the sunset, but also because right after we were seated the placed filled up more crowded that a lifeboat from the Titanic! (This weekend being the 100th anniversary of that disaster, many people were dressed in Edwardian formal dress, and the waitstaff were dressed as ship's crew.

We were a bit nonplussed over the celebration, but the dinner was excellent.

We explored Portland for a little while in the morning, and made a few discoveries.Best of Show has to go to The Farmer's Table, a seriously locavore place on the waterfront with outdoor and indoor dining. I had an omelet with Pineland Farms cheddar cheese and Maine Grind breakfast sausage, with black coffee. Lorna had grilled salmon on arugula. Everything was fresh, expertly prepared, and delicious.

The Farmer's Table serves dinner too, so we are sure to be back for that. I was happy to see that the bar features a number of local and New England spirits, including  Cold River Gin and almost all of the Berkshire Distillery products.

We made a few other discoveries and acquisitions of note. The Corner General Store had many Maine microbrews in a cooler, as well as the whole line of Maine Meadworks sweet and dry meads. I grabbed a Needham for the road, but didn't need it because...

Lorna had visited Dean's Sweets in search of something fancy in white chocolate. She was disappointed, but the true chocoholic won't be: they make rich, super-chocolate decadent truffles by hand in the shop.

On Easter Sunday we left cloudy Plymouth behind to find the sun over Narragansett Bay before heading back to Massachusetts for some Easter family time. We had three destinations in mind, and then exploring until sundown.

We had an early dinner at the Moulin Rouge restaurant in Tiverton. We had discovered it only a few weeks previously, and Lorna has dreamed about the Crepes Suzettes ever since.  Crepes Suzettes are a deceptively simple dish made with good ingredients and a lot of flair: a couple of crepes, some orange-butter, and some Grand Marnier, flambeed tableside and served hot - exquisite! The dinner was excellent and the dessert was as imagined.

We crossed the bridge to our old friend Blithewold afterward, where the daffodils were in full bloom. The weather was a little cool, but not too cool to explore the grounds and the house for a good hour or more.

Then we went down to Newport, stopping briefly at the well-stocked Vicker's Liquors for a bottle of Maine Meadworks Dry Mead to share with family that evening, before continuing over the Pell Bridge to Jamestown on Conanicut Island.

The south end of Jamestown has many grand homes, many of which are for sale.

The days are getting longer, so we can extend our range. Yesterday we made it to the far corner of New England, to North Hero, VT in Lake Champlain.

North Hero is one town south of the Canadian border and a kayak ride from New York. The islands are beautiful flat farmland, with stunning vistas of the lake and the mountains beyond on both sides. If you time your dinner reservation right, you can drive homeward during the long sunset over the Adirondacks. Now that's a dessert!

We had also spent a few hours in Burlington, first at the Fleming Art Museum at University of Vermont, and then shopping in town, so we had less time than usual for exploring the backroads and byways. We did make it out to Malletts Bay but then we had to make tracks for North Hero.

Along the way we could not resist one stop: almost to the first island on Route 2,we saw a homemade sign for wine and maple products, next left. We ended up following a gravel road into the woods, emerging by a humble farm shed with an "open" flag.

I love shad roe.

It's a very seasonal thing, appearing briefly when the shadbush and forsythia are in bloom, and, in these parts, around Opening Day. Spring is here, with tempestuous weather turning mild and brown fields turning green, fresh Asparagus and Pea Greens and sun-kissed strawberries are not far behind.

Shad roe is not pretty. It looks like a pair of lungs. You can find lots of details with a quick web search; the important thing to know is that is is very seasonal, very regional, and usually very hard to find without a reliable fishmonger. 

It is also very delicate; a slip of the knife can spill the precious eggs and make it much more difficult to prepare and serve.

We found some, in one market by luck and in another by special order.  We served it with another delicacy in our Shad Roe and Halibut Cheeks dinner.

I suppose there are some clever chefs who could find some way to present it attractively, but my advice is to concentrate your efforts on the preparation and let the presentation follow as needed.

I always use the butter-poaching method in Jasper White's Cooking from New England.

By a stroke of great good fortune, I finally found my long-sought Shad Roe on the same weekend that Richmond lucked into four fine halibut cheeks. Obviously we had to build a dinner around our acquisitions!

The shad roe recipe is my favorite from Jasper White's Cooking from New England. The rest of the recipes we just made up.

The Menu:

• We started, as we so often do, with a cheese discovery. In this case it was Three Cheeses from Narragansett Creamery.
• We had the shad roe for an opener. I poached it in butter, then browned the butter and added minced anchovies, capers, parsley, and ham for a sauce. 
• That was rich, so we sampled Three Dry Vermouths, which went very nicely with the fish. These were supplemented through the meal by Lillet Blanc and Cocchi Americano.
• We followed the shad roe with Annette's salad of arugula, pine nuts, and other goodies.

Saturday's expedition broughts us some classic views of Maine's mid-coast region on both sides of the Sheepscot River. The views got better and better as we meandered through Westport, ME past Wiscassett and Boothbay Harbor to East Boothbay and Ocean Point. We had left the rain behind us somewhere around Portsmouth so the day was beautiful and the colors were gorgeous.

It is early spring even in Maine, so the daffodils were up and the forsythia and shadbush were blooming. As every foodie knows, when the forsythia blooms, the foodie's thoughts turn to Shad Roe! I had hoped to score some two weeks ago in the Hudson Valley, and last week in Rhode Island, but failed on both counts. I had placed an order at The Market at the Pinehills in Plymouth, but I was not sure they could get it for me. How frustrating! Shad roe season was winging away in beautiful spring days...

We passed through Portland on our way north, so I made a detour to the Harbor Fish Market down on the waterfront. I had read about it on the web, but had never been there. 

What a discovery!

We explored eastern Rhode Island yesterday. Our primary objective was to catch the thousands and thousands of daffodils in bloom at Blithewold, an historic mansion in Bristol, RI, but I took advantage of the opportunity to explore the Ocean State east of Narragansett Bay. It was a productive expedition!

Walking the grounds of Blithewold worked up something of an appetite. I wanted something Rhode Island, and I got it at Reidy's Family Restaurant in Portsmouth, between Bristol and Newport. Reidy's is a pleasant, homey little place on Rte 138 that proudly advertises their "bottomless coffee cup".

That's a good thing, because I wanted to try their clam cakes, and Lorna had a design on their whole-belly fried clams; all that fried food might grease up the palate without something to cut it. It was too early for a 'Gansett, so black coffee was in order.

Here's what we got:

The clamcakes were light and perfectly cooked, delicately savory and not at all greasy.

We chased after the springtime sunshine and found it in the Hudson Valley. Our primary objective was the fabulous Olana, home of superstar 19th-century Hudson River School painter Frederick Church. Like the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Olana shows what can be done with money and taste, and its views of the Hudson are unparalleled. And of course, there is plenty to see and do in the Hudson Valley, which is quite reachable from most of New England except Maine and the upper reaches of NH.

Of course, being intrepid pilgrims, reaching the Hudson was not enough to satisfy our wanderlust, so we crossed the river at Rhinebeck, NY, slipped through Saugerties, and charged up Route 23a into the mountains. Church and his teacher Thomas Cole painted many famous scenes of the Catskills, especially the dramatic and justly-famous Kaaterskill Falls.

It really is a spectacular ride, and a rewarding one for foodies. At the top of the mountain is Tannersville, NY, a colorful little ski town (near Hunter Mountain) with some quirky shops, none quirkier than Last Chance Cheese.

We have visited Last Chance many times since first discovering it maybe 15 years ago.

We traveled to Lenox, MA to see the Berkshires and to visit the faded splendor of Ventfort Hall, the home of financier George S. Morgan, brother of the more famous JP Morgan.  After the mansion, we explored down Rte 183 to Great Barrington, and then eastward along Rte 57 until sunset caught us in Springfield; it was an excellent drive through the mountains.

The staff at Ventfort was knowledgeable and charming. We very much enjoyed the tour, especially the little ladies - a collection of about 60 fabulous mannekins dressed in intricate ladies costumes from 1855 to 1914. When we finished, our guide recommended we visit downtown Lenox for lunch.

We had driven past Lenox a hundred times or more over the years, speeding by on Rte 7 or taking a more leisurely route down 7a, but we never discovered the delightful little downtown stretch that runs for a few blocks just east of Rte 7a. Of particular note there (and worth the drive) was the Patisserie Lenox.

We The Patisserie Lenox is a top-quality bakery in the heart of the Berkshires, nearby Tanglewood and all the old gilded-age mansions.

We went to Portland to see a Degas exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art, and stumbled into an old friend!

Years ago we used to visit the old Portland Public Market regularly. We dined on fresh fish washed down with draft Allagash White Ale at Scales, shopped for liquids from the incredible selection at Maine Beer and Beverage, and always sought out local cheeses and charcuterie from Kris Horton.

As we were leaving the museum (having missed coffee at the already-closed cafe) I asked the woman at the admission desk where I could find good locally-roasted coffee. She pointed me down the block to Monument Square.

The moment we walked in the door we knew we were on familiar ground. The K. Horton cheese counter stretches ahead and off to the right, full of interesting imported and local products, and half-hidden by even more tasty wares along the counter in front and atop the cases. It was like we had left off a conversation last night and picked it up today, although it must be five years or more since the old Public Market was closed down to make way for condos.

I have assembled a photo gallery of the foods we served at the Old Colony Club's annual Past Presidents Night gala. The photos were taken by my sister-in-law Lynn Sgammato, who helped to set up and keep the train on the rails though that enormously enjoyable but complex event - thanks Lynn!

I first tried Cocchi Americano at Drink in Boston on my birthday a couple of years ago. It's an aperitivo made from moscato d'asti and one of the herbal ingredients is cinchona bark, the same ingredient that gives quinine its flavor and is found in a variety of other bitter aperitifs from France and Italy. I enjoy an aperitif now and then. especially with a rich shellfish dish, and I find Lillet Blanc too sweet for my tastes, so I tried to find the Cocchi Americano and never succeeded - until now.

I found this long-lost liquid at French & Brawn Marketplace in Camden, Maine, which is also a good place to find Maine Mustard Pickles from Morse's and other interestnig treats.

James Bond fans of a cocktailian bent may recall Bond's recipe for a Vesper cocktail, which he invented in Casino Royale. That drink called for Kina Lillet, a quinine-laced Lillet that is no longer made. I think the Cocchi Americano is a step in the right direction, although never having tried the original Kina Lillet I have no way of knowing how close or far the Cocchi and the Lillet Blanc are from the original Kina Lillet. I suppose the only solution is diligent and patient research with varying blends until I become a superspy.

Sigh.

Of course, this is strictly in the interest of Science.

One of our discoveries at the Bow Street Market was a 6-oz pouch of naturally-smoked little Maine Shrimp from Grindstone neck in Winter Harbor, away downeast beyond Elllsworth.

I have always liked the little Maine shrimp in all sorts of preparations. Le Garage in Wiscasset uses them several ways, in Newburgs and on a special Caesar salad that I especially enjoy. But i had never seen them smoked until I lucked into that bag in Freeport.

I am anxious about smoked foods unless they are really smoked and not simply seasoned with iquid smoke. I was glad to see the ingredients were natural, so I bought a bag.

These were delicious! Smoky and salty enough to enjoy on a cracker with a cocktail on a blustery February afternoon, or flavorful enough to hold their own on a well-equipped salad.

It will be awhile before our travels take us to Winter Harbor, but Freeport is easy enough, and now the Bow Street Market on the short list for our next trip in that direction.

We're getting mighty close to the Past Presidents Night Gala. Soon we will have no more opportunities to acquire excellent goodies in our travels. My targets for this expedition were some interesting soft drinks, and a dozen very fine truffles to decorate the Chocolate Truffle Torte.

The Chocolate Truffle Torte is a great crowd-pleaser, and as the only chocolate dessert on the menu, it has to be special. It is a 4-layer chocolate cake, covered with a bitter chocolate glaze, and then adorned with fine chocolate truffles.

I know of some gorgeous chocolates at Stage Stop Candy on Cape Cod, but there's no way I will get there before the party. We were headed to Portsmouth, to Carl's Meats and Golden Harvest, and to Byrne and Carlson Chocolatiers.

I found some beautiful jellies at Byrne and Carlson, but no chocolates that would suit that cake, or at least none better than what I can get at Fedele's in Pembroke on my way to work.   

I decided to opt for Fedele's unless we could find something appropriate along the coast in Kittery, York, or Ogunquit.