Eastern Eats

Lobster is really good stuff. It's a bit of a pain in the rear end to get the meat out, but once you get used to it it's a breeze. Some people think the claws are the best part, some prefer the tail. Plot's a claw man, because you can get the whole piece out in one chunk.

Lobster notwithstanding, Maine picky-toe crab is not too shabby, especially when made into Debbie's Crab Cakes. The recipe for nine fat crab cakes calls for 2 lbs. of fresh picked crabmeat, 2 eggs, 1/2C bell pepper, 1C minced scallion, 1/2 cup mayo and 2T curry powder.
Maybe the best thing about eating in Maine is not the fish or shellfish, but the fresh berries. Summers are shorter than in more southerly places, but Maine blueberries have more taste than
Western or Southern berries. And the blackberries are huge! You can make an entire pie with just four and twenty.

Providence, R.I. is basically a suburb of Boston, being only 45 minutes away. It's an old-line Eastern city, which means great veal in venerable Italian restaurants like the Old Canteen.

Eastern Italian restaurants smell different than California Italian restaurants, the lighting is different, the bread is better, and the sauce has far more moxie. The Veal Francese with artichokes and capers at The Old Canteen was superb.

You'd think The Great Plotnik and the Great Ducknik did nothing but eat on this vacation. That is 35% to 40% untrue. They ambled through four states in nine days, discovering Providence, Rhode Island (interesting because it's so Eastern and yet so small); Block Island, Rhode Island (not as tony as Newport, just across the bay, but definitely a place where old Yankee money came to summer while everyone else simmered); Quincy, Massachusetts (filled with American colonial history); and No Where in Particular, New Hampshire (the highway passed over it for maybe half an hour).

Maine is another story altogether, with a vibe distinct from any other section of the country that Plot has ever seen. It's another world up there, from the artsy vibe of Portland to the old sea captains' houses in Searsport and Deer Isle. Seldom does Plotnik say that he's just come home from a place he's going to want to go back to see more of -- Maine is one of those places.