Mainely Food

Well, it's back to reality here in PA now that we've returned from a week and a half in the great state of Maine.  It was supposed to have been a couple of days less, but as we started our trip home on Saturday, we noticed some smoke coming from under the hood of the car--bad radiator.  No one was open to fix it until Monday, so we were "stranded" in Bar Harbor for a couple of extra days. 

We didn't need the extra expense of the repair, a rental car and a motel stay, but if we were going to be stranded, better there than on some highway in the middle of Connecticut or something like that.  So we got some more good food, more time in Acadia and a long overnight drive home from 4PM on Monday to about 3AM on Tuesday.

But enough about that...here are some highlights (both food and otherwise).

Mmmm...Burgers!

We made our usual stop in Freeport to visit L.L. Bean and got some lunch at Johnny Rocket's Original Hamburgers.  It's a chain, but I must say that the burgers were delicious.  Juicy and a really good crust on the outside.  We were pleasantly surprised. 

The weather was nice--sunny and in the mid-60's as we drove north for a stay in Boothbay Harbor.  We found a nice kid-friendly B&B there a few years ago, the Bayside B&B, and have stayed there for the last few years as a stopover on our way.  Very nice people and good breakfasts. 

Tasty treats at The Lobster Dock.

Boothbay Harbor is also home to The Lobster Dock, a great waterfront seafood place where Bobby Flay had a crabcake throwdown with the owner a number of years ago and where last year, Jake learned that he loves fried Maine shrimp.  It was getting cooler, but we still ate by the water.  Jake had shrimp and MB and I shared a seafood platter.  Haddock, shrimp, scallops and clams fried to perfection, not greasy at all, tender--so good.  We usually get ice cream in Boothbay Harbor, but it was pretty cold after the sun went down (an overnight low of 36!), so we skipped it until another time.

We visited one of our favorite finds of the last few years, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.  I'm usually not really into that kind of thing, but I really love this place.  A must-see if you are ever in the area.  Beautifully landscaped and cared for--a children's garden based on kid's books (many from Maine authors), a Garden of the Five Senses, Rose Garden, Kitchen Garden, scenic walking paths, etc.  A really cool place.  (Yummy food in the cafeteria, too!)

What a goofball.  Wonder where he gets that.

After spending much of the day there, we headed to the cottage we rented in West Tremont--on the "Quiet Side" of Mount Desert Island, which houses Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  MB's brother Pete and his girlfriend, Linda, joined us.  A nice comfortable house, literally just a stone's throw to the beach of Duck Cove--it gave Jake plenty of room to search for "treasures" on the beach.   

The back of the house faces West, so it's no wonder why the place is called Acadia Sunset.  This is the view from the back porch.

Ready for the table.

Of course, we were in Maine, so we couldn't go too long without eating lobster.  Very close to the cottage is a great lobster pound, Thurston's.  We've eaten on their dockside deck in the past, but this time, we bought live critters to cook at home.  They were something like $4.65/lb for medium soft-shelled lobsters.  You can't buy a fast food dinner for that! 

And they were delicious.  I steamed them with water from the cove--perfectly seasoning them.  Tender and sweet, dipped in butter and lemon.  There's not much better.  Jake was very proud that he ate his first whole lobster.  He did a good job, too!

Stop playing with your food!

Hungry yet?  Next time: working up an appetite hiking, some presidential ice cream and our favorite restaurant.

It's All About ME

The view of the harbor from our B&B in Boothbay Harbor.

Well, we've been back from our 2 week trip to Maine for a few days and I'm finally settled enough to get something written about it.

It was a great trip--we had really good weather for the most part, took some beautiful and fun hikes and, of course, ate a bunch of great food.  As you would expect, much of what I'll be writing about is food-related.

The drive up was pretty uneventful.  We always talk about how, once you cross the bridge from Portsmouth, NH into Maine, you can almost feel a palpable change.  You breathe in and know that you aren't dealing with the hubbub of the Philly suburbs anymore. 

We made our usual stop at Freeport and visited L.L. Bean and a few other stores.  Then it was on to Boothbay Harbor.  We used to drive straight through to our ultimate destination, but that gets pretty long and several years ago, we decided to stop a couple of nights in some other towns.  We've stayed in Boothbay Harbor the last 3 years in a nice B&B, The Bayside Inn--very kid-friendly (they have 2 kids of their own who were so excited to hang with Jake for a little while) and in a great location.

Our first ME dinner was at a place we visited last year.  The Lobster Dock gets great reviews and, if you're a fan of the Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay, you may recognize it as the location of the Crabcake Throwdown episode (Flay won--a few nights later, we actually saw the episode on TV). 

The menu is HUGE, but we were in the mood for some good fried seafood.  I got a humongous platter of fried haddock, Maine shrimp, scallops and clams piled on a load of French fries.  MB got the fried haddock platter--a huge piece of fish over fries.  It was delicious: cooked to perfection--not a speck of grease on the paper plate, eaten on the dock overlooking the harbor.  Jake got a hot dog, but had his greatest epiphany of the trip--he loves fried Maine shrimp.

Maine shrimp are those little tiny shrimp--very tasty and tender.  I offered him one of mine and that was that--he probably ate half of the many I had on my plate.  He was so excited that he found something new to eat--and, as you will find out, he ate plenty of them in the coming weeks.



You can see the big menu
in the background.



 After dinner, we waddled over to the Greater Boothbay Ice Cream Factory--another place we've visited in the past.  Here they offer probably 70 or more flavors of homemade ice creams--and you can split the scoop, too (2 "half-scoops" of different flavors.  Very tasty.  Ice cream could be Jake's favorite food.

  

Artichokes (a member of the thistle
family--obviously) in the Garden of
the Five Senses.



Jake in the "bear cave".

After a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, blueberry muffins and more, we headed to The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens--a favorite of ours from our other 2 visits.  These gardens are relatively new and fairly unknown, but they are incredible--even in September.  Everything is done exceptionally well--from the walkways to the benches to the sculptures to the cafe to the gardens themselves.  They have a number of gardens including The Garden of the Five Senses, The Kitchen Garden and the incredible Children's Garden, which opened during the summer.  We literally spent all day there--much of it in the Children's Garden where Jake climbed in a tree house, hid in a bear cave and played in the fountains among other things.  It really is a must-see destination.

 

More fun at the Gardens.



Later, we went to nearby Wiscasset and had dinner at Sara's Cafe, a nice family restaurant with a great view of the Sheepscot River.  Admittedly, the food is so-so, but it's a good place to take kids.  They have very good desserts, too.  For the first time in a long time, we didn't stop for a lobster roll at Red's Eats, across the street from Sara's.  Sort of feels like something is missing not having stopped there, but as you will find out, there were plenty of lobster in our future.



Creme Brulee French Toast greeted us the next morning, our last in Boothbay Harbor.  After dragging our full bellies around town a little bit, we stopped at Ocean Point, a nice public area nearby.  Then it was off to the cottage in Brooklin.

 

In that area, one of the most famous and popular places to eat is Moody's Diner.  Opened in 1934, Moody's has been the place to get good, homemade comfort food.  Among the things we had there: Turkey Sandwich (with their own roasted turkey breast), Turkey Pot Pie, Blueberry Pie, Chocolate Cream Pie and a Whoopie Pie (The debate rages on about whether Whoopie Pies are a Maine creation or a PA Dutch/Amish thing.  They taste the same and my theory is that if they're both called the same thing, there must be some sort of connection between the two.  I should do some research about that.)  Anyway, we finally stopped at Moody's after passing it for the last 12 years.  Good stuff.

We made it to the cottage after going grocery shopping (the Tradewinds Grocery Store  in Blue Hill is great) and we were ready for the next part of our trip.

Next time:  Farmers' market, hiking and a meal at one of our favorite restaurants (anywhere)--Cafe This Way in Bar Harbor.