Text 4139, 143 rader
Skriven 2006-08-07 13:33:18 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Sunday, 6 August 06
===========================
[Blogged with photos at http://tinyurl.com/o7vs3]

It was a clear and pleasant August day in New England, and we took full
advantage of it Sunday, heading down to the Connecticut shoreline to 
pick up US 1 North and wander along the Connecticut and Rhode Island 
coast. Around three in the afternoon, we were getting a little hungry 
and a sign caught our eye: "Seafood Festival Entrance Ahead - Ninegret
Park." Ninegret Park is in Charlestown, Rhode Island, right off of 
Route 1. A former Naval Air Station, it is now a well-equipped 227-
acre park and 400-acre wildlife refuge. Seen from the air (such as 
in this satellite picture from Google Maps) the military air base 
is obvious - the airfield was left in place, though the pavement is 
showing its age now and much of the runway area is being allowed to
crumble. The wildlife refuge has a variety of habitats, and 
trails crossing through the park offer easy walks and beautiful 
scenery.

= =

We found ourselves on the main runway of the old Air Station; 
food booths are set up along the sides of the tarmac, and down 
the middle are hundreds of picnic tables and trash bags. A large
pavillion is set at one end, and various entertainment acts 
were scheduled (as we walked in there was a band setting up 
and a comedy juggling team was hamming it up under an EZ-Up 
tent.) On the other end of the runway, a carnival was in full 
swing with rides and a midway. The food booths held a surprising 
variety. Two places offered lobsters (in the rough or as part
of a lobster dinner), others were peddling freshly-dug local
clams (on the half shell or steamed or fried), crab cakes, 
various fried seafoods, frozen lemonade, and even tender 
chunks of lightly breaded and fried alligator tail! One
of the busiest booths was offering seafood jambalaya, 
blackened scallops, blackened shrimp, and "bayou crayfish". 
Unfortunately, the crawdads were sold out before I could 
get any.

We started with clams and oysters. A generous portion of 
steamed clams came with a small plastic container of melted 
butter but alas, no broth! Although the clams were small, 
there were many of them and they were plump and sweet, and 
flavored with parsely, sweet basil, and a slight touch of 
oregano. The herbs lent a subtle savoriness to the clams 
that was quite pleasant.

Clams on the half shell were as fresh as they could be - 
dug that morning, iced, and opened before our very eyes! 
Sweet and briney, I passed on the cocktail sauce dressing 
so there would be nothing to mask the flavor. The oysters - 
another local specialty - were a real bargain at just 50 
cents each; they were probably the best oysters I have 
ever had and no wonder: they had been harvested that 
very morning as well.


We picked up lobster dinners and a lobster roll at Linda's 
Lobsters. Each lobster dinner featured a 1-1/2-pound bug, 
three salt potatoes, and a big ear of corn. The lobsters 
were delicious, freshly pulled from local waters (not all 
lobsters come from Maine, after all.) The red potatoes, 
boiled in the same seawater brine as the bugs, were firm 
and waxy, just the way we like them. Lynn's lobster 
roll was just as good as our dinners. Nearly a pound of 
lobster meat (tail chunks, knuckles, and claw meat) were 
bound with butter and crammed into a fresh New England-style 
hotdog bun. There was no filler to be found, not even 
seasonings like a touch of chopped onion. (She 
told me it was good, but it "didn't taste quite right. 
There's something missing." I always put a bit of onion, 
some fresh black pepper, and a few grinds of nutmeg in our 
home-made lobster rolls.)

Linda's was also selling steamers, and since the others we 
had (at a different booth) were so good, I got an order of 
them here to see how they measured up. Still sweet and plump, 
but more grit, no herbs in the water, and several of the 
clams were smashed because they were crowding them during 
cooking. Overall, they were still good, just not as good 
as the first bunch.

I was surprised to find only one booth selling stuffies - 
big hardshell quahog clams overfilled with a heaping scoop 
of stuffing made primarily with cracker crumbs, roughly 
chopped quahogs, and usually some onion. Karma Concessions 
LLC had a food service trailer selling french fries, 
seafood chowder, stuffies, and a few other delicacies. 
The seafood chowder was very good - clams, shrimp, fish, 
small bay scallops, and potatoes in a tasty, well-seasoned 
broth. The stuffies were filled with cracker meal generously 
studded with big chunks of chopped clams,. thinly sliced 
cuts of onion, and fine gratings of lemon zest with just 
the barest hint of horseradish. I prefer my own recipe 
(which skips the zest and horseradish, and uses butter, 
pepper, and garlic) but Karma's were probably the best 
purchased, and if I ever saw these guys set up on a 
boardwalk, I'd buy another stuffie from them in a heartbeat.

There were two places selling "Maryland Crab Cakes" and both 
of them claimed to have the "World's Best." But only one of 
them had newspaper clippings and some award certificates to 
back up their claims, and that is where my daughter went. 
To her surprise, she received a crab cake dinner of sorts - 
the cake was on a bland white hamburger bun with a side 
of crispy-cooked french fries and a couple of greasy 
"hushpuppies."  She tossed the bun to the scavenging house 
finches flitting around the picnic tables and concentrated 
on the crab cake, which was every bit as good as promised. 
Pure crabmeat with the barest minimum of fine crumbs to 
hold it together, it had been fried lacy brown on the 
outside and was moist, tender, and flavorful on the inside. 
Her fries were properly "twice-cooked" - first to cook them 
through, then allowed to cool a bit and plunged back into 
the hot fryer to acquire a crackling-crisp shell.

The "hush puppies" were pretty strange, though. The best 
hush puppies are primarily cornmeal, with enough flour 
to lighten them up a bit, eggs and milk, spicy seasonings 
to keep them from being too bland, and bacon grease for 
shortening to improve the flavor. The resulting batter 
is deep-fried by the spoonful to make tender, meltingly 
delicious cornmeal fritters that have been a signature 
Southern side dish for generations. These hush puppies 
were a pale imitation of the real thing. Thin fritter 
batter with a couple of bits of corn here and there, 
poured like funnel cake into the hot oil. They were weird, 
irregular things and the Fry Guy was apparently cooking 
them faster than the Fry-o-Lator could stay hot, because 
the outer shell was greasy and oozed oil unpleasantly.

= =

We wandered the festival for a while after eating. None 
of us felt like riding any of the carnival rides or being 
cheated on the midway, so we toured the vendors' booths 
(Gutter protectors! Hand carved gifts from China! Our 
Three-In-One Mop will leave your floors so clean your
mother-in-law will gladly eat off of them!) until sunset, 
when we got back on Route 1 and headed for home.

---
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, 
minutus carborata descendum pantorum
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