On Vacation Food

I remember a time, in the 70's, when it was said that you couldn't get great food in the U.S. Yes that was the consensus. I , however, never had a really bad meal there. The awful meals I had were i England in the 70's, those were bad, even breakfast was disgusting.

So this trip was full of discoveries and mourning. Let's face it things change whether we like it or not!

So the first change was to see that our go to restaurant Lupo's wasn't there anymore...Instead was Coconut's Bar and Grille. We did try it on our first night and it was NOT good. Not terrible but not really fresh, they didn't take the time, probably stuff came out of pouches and cans.

I had the pepperjack burger with bacon, the bacon was MIA, so was the heat in the cheese but the ONE redeemable thing was that the meat was really good. Dan took a roastbeef club and the meat was grey deli crap. But the worst was the building itself: It had been re-decorated in a hurry, the carpet was old,stinky and way past it's prime. The wall were half painted and they showed years of dirt....EEEEWWWW! But the worst thing was the coconutty smell on top of the kitchen grease!

NEVER AGAIN! Oh I forgot that the same elderly waitress was there....and you could tell that she didn't have any choice to work there. She looked sad and limped. I hope things get better for her.

A new spot was Ray's seafood in Rye NH. Where the big blue lobster is. The chowder was a bit thicker than we are used to but delicious. The fried clams and scallops were perfect but the real kicker? was definitely the tartar sauce!

The sauce is homemade and oh so tasty. You can buy a jar to bring home.

Another discovery was The Beach Plum also in Rye. Now I don't have pics because there are no tables inside and the sun had set.....

Yep it's me with the big lobster (What's with me and the big lobsters?) If you think tacky you are right, I'm tacky and proud of it!

They serve a great clam chowder and a dyn-o-mite shrimp and corn chowder with a bite! But the lobster roll was clearly the biggest I'd ever seen! It had the meat of three lobster rolls for the same price!

It was delicious!

We also returned to Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, a diner visited by our friend Guy Fieri.

We had chowder and a round of Lillian's fried clams (they are dipped in wash then in flour, fried and topped with french fried onions). D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.

But what really cracked me up was this....

OH YEEEEESSSSSS! CRUNCHIFICATION!

I always enjoy finding new words.

Gotta go! Triple D is on!

  

Guy was right!

People are watching triple D and actually planning vacations around spots Guy visited! We do it too, well not exactly....We decided to go to Maine and then researched for some Guy approved diners after.
 We went first to The Maine Diner located on rte 1 in Wells, Maine.

The famous sign. The diner is opened later in summer.

They serve down east fare (?). We actually went there because Guy was besides himself about the seafood chowder and the lobster pie...

I got so excited I nearly forgot to take pics! Yes that is a lobster claw in the chowder. It was one of the best I've ever tasted. It was full of lobster,scallops,shrimps and clams.

This is the lobster pie, their very famous lobster pie. It's lobster in a dish top with Ritz cracker crumbs, butter and tomalley (yep the green stuff inside the lobster). OMG! I had a religious experience! This was lobster at its best, I nearly cried!

We liked it so much we came back for supper after a looonnnggg day of shopping and thrifting. I had the rubben and Dan had an open face roast beef sandwich with mushroom gravy. So,so good. I will remember the rubben for a long time, they cook their own corn beef. I decided to push the bounderies and have dessert...I ordered bread pudding served warm with whipped cream (at our sever's strong suggestion). That was a life altering dessert. I never knew bread pudding could be so tasty! It was a cross with Xmas and bread pudding, full od raisins and spices. OMG!

I wish we could've eaten there more, but we had to go home the next day....

Speaking of Friday we headed south to Kittery for some outlet shopping and Bob's Clam Hut!

Yes that is snow pilled real high!

More snow!

We had clam chowder and fish chowder and Lillian style fried clams. I was surprised to see our order top with a mound of delicious freshly made onion rings! Everything was fresh and delicious! They used recyclable containers and compostable utensils. They have the most attentive young man in the dining room who's always wanting to get you refills, check on your order, get you napkins, it's really nice.

 Those clams were much better than some we had in Old Orchard....We will be back to both those restaurants! I can't wait!

So you see Guy was right! :)