Armchair Dining on DP

For me, it is a "pure" charcoal briquette taste (no lighter fluid to get them started.) To me, the gas grills offer pretty much the same taste as food cooked on my indoor gas stove and my Weber is vastly superior in taste. But, it is a much bigger effort and takes longer to start cooking with a grill like this, instead of just firing up a gas grill and it using quickly thereafter. As a consequence, we use it much less frequently than we should.

And it uses such little gas because you only use the gas to get the briquettes started. About 5-10 minutes. Our little tank has lasted for years and years. Many years ago we took it to the store to get it re-filled and the guy laughed and said that he did not even know what to charge for the service, our tank was so small. He did figure out a price, of course.

 

Seafood, of course, is a big New England offering. Oysters are one of them, as I have mentioned previously. There is a restaurant in Boston, Island Creek Oyster Bar, that makes a wonderful sandwich that they call Oyster Sliders:



The brioche rolls are fresh-baked and the oysters are fresh, juicy and with a crispy batter. They use a lime chile aioli spread, instead of tartar sauce that complements the sandwich quite well. You get four of the sliders on the plate, so it is a nice meal. The beer is optional, of course, but adds to the experience. Definitely a must try on a trip to Boston.

 

Dulse and Lobsters! I'm an islander, from Grand Manan, New Brunswick Canada. We don't have 'cuisine' haha. Don't get me wrong, people can make stuff, but it's not that kind of place I guess. Hover, the dulse... We have the best in the world, from Dark Harbour. If you're never eat'n seaweed before..I suggest ordering some. It's the best sea veggie ever!

I pick the stuff myself, got a freezer full

Little piece of home.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Dark+harbour+dulse&biw=1366&bih=634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI8tO_3ralyAIVxY8-Ch0agwT0#tbm=isch&q=Grand+Manan

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Dark+harbour+dulse&biw=1366&bih=634&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI8tO_3ralyAIVxY8-Ch0agwT0

Dulse
http://www.rolandsdulse.com/

 

Wow, what an exotic looking food! And, according to the last link, you live where the Dulse is best tasting! It seems like it is mostly eaten dried (like potato chips?) What is your favorite recipe and is there a picture of it?

The only seaweed food that I have eaten involve sushi and I like it. Would love to try dulse!

 

I never actually cooked with it. The best way is just dry. We sells ounce bags, and pound bags. Gets sold by the ton here in NB. It's relatively cheap, about $10 a pound. If you, or anyone contacted Rolland Sea Veggies, or Atlantic Mariculture, I'm sure they could hook ya up It's really good. If you were here you could try some

 

Awww. Sliders. I really like those. Like, for real. The interesting part is that these sliders are seafood based. I wish I could go nom nom nom on some right now!

 

On another thread, the DP World Food Tour came up and seating in the van was discussed. Of course, it will be using some donated technology to be driverless, but there is the issue of who will be tour guide at the front of the stretch van that we will be using. @Matthew Sayle nominated Alton Brown (a US cooking show star.) Thoughts, anyone?

 

Is this officially the longest thread yet? There must be some special badge for longest threads.

@jrbiz have you ever used a barrel smoker for anything? I was watching Steven Reichert barbecue university on PBS barbecuing chicken in one of those and I thought it was genius. Need to get me one.

 

BEST. SHOW. EVER.

 

I have not personally used a smoker, but I have always liked the results. In fact, one time, we were invited to a brunch at someone's house and they were BIG fans of smoking all kinds of food. They made smoked scrambled eggs as part of the brunch. They were fantastic!

BTW, I think that there are quite few longer threads than this one on DP. However, none of them are tastier!

 

Warning: I am going a bit off focus here as what I am about to post is not a New England food and, unfortunately, cannot even be purchased any more. So, it is more of a "fond memory" post as opposed to something that a reader can act on. I started thinking about this product when my wife baked her much-renowned sugar cookies for the kids about two weeks ago and have not been able to get it out of my mind. Funny how the brain works sometimes.

Anyway, there is a dairy company called Land O'Lakes and they may very well be the largest producer of butter in the U.S. Sometime in the 1980's or 1990's they started producing a "Frosted Butter Cookie" that sold in grocery stores and I found a picture of the package:



Now, it has been at least ten years since they have been on store shelves, so I could not find a picture of what the cookie actually looks like, but these are pretty close:



The main difference in appearance would be that the packaged cookies would be more uniformly round, of course.

Quite simply, these were the best cookies, hands down, that I or my wife have ever had. I cannot adequately describe the deep, buttery richness of these perfectly sweet treats. Note that I am a BIG chocolate lover so it says a lot that my favorite cookie in the world does not have chocolate in it. As I was searching for pictures, I came across a number of posts on foodie forums where fans like me were bemoaning the loss of the greatest cookie we have ever known. So there are others who feel my pain, even with so much time passed.

I am hoping that this post will be a bit cathartic for me and allow me some closure regarding my grief over the loss of this cookie many years ago.

 

You cannot visit Boston and not think about seafood. My favorite lunch spot after a morning meeting in Boston is the No Name Restaurant right on the pier in South Boston. You actually have to walk past fish processing factories to get to the place. And, if you get a seat on the second floor by the windows, you will be looking over some working fishing boats. I have already posted their unbelievable fish chowder earlier in this thread, but one of my regular picks is their fried scallops meals. You get a ton of them and they are accompanied by French Fries and cole slaw, of course.



Warning: they only take cash for payment!

Boston is famous for its seafood and this place is my absolute favorite and actually quite reasonably priced. A must stop on our World Tour!

 

Just did a quintessential New England Fall weekend activity. Took the wife and kids and the dog to a local pumpkin farm to select our pumpkins for decorating the doorstep with a Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween. Brought home a really large pumpkin, cut off the top, and scooped out the insides in preparation for the carving. But, we also separated the pumpkin seeds from the fibrous insides and then salted and roasted them in the oven for 20 minutes. They looked like this:



You just eat them shell and all. I have seen some recipes recommend that you shell them if they are very large pumpkin seeds, but we did not need to do so. I enjoyed them, but am wondering about adding some seasonings besides salt. E.g., I like roasted almonds, but I like roasted almonds with smokehouse BBQ seasoning a lot more. Have to think about jazzing up the next batch (probably next Halloween.) I also might consider adding butter to the mix. Everything's better with butter!

 

Seriously? You eat the shells as well? I used to love pumpkin seeds as a kid. These are the pumpkin seeds I grew up with:



Not really sure if those need to be roasted or what, but if so, we are not doing it right all this time

 

Yes, we ate them shells and all, yesterday. While I believe that I had them as a kid, myself, I was mostly following the instructions of my daughter who has been preparing them in college as a result of some friends there who ate them all of the time. They need to be on the smaller side and roasted, of course, and that may make the difference. They were crunchy, but tasty and good. And, to be honest, would have been way too much work to shell them!

 

Need Help: This is a request for information as opposed to a post about a local food.

Background: Over 20 years ago, when I was in the U.K., I was staying at a business partner's house and one morning, I was offered Lemon Jelly to spread on my toast. It was the BEST jelly that I have ever had. Period. I have not been able to find it since in either the U.S. or the U.K. Lemon marmalade and lemon curd are the only such foodstuffs like it, but they are NOT anywhere near as good as the lemon jelly that I had so many years ago. A couple of years ago, when I was last in the U.K., I asked a colleague there about it and she did not think that it was readily available in the U.K. and might be a French foodstuff, but I have been unable to find it online from any country.

I have found recipes for lemon jelly made from Meyer Lemons, but I am looking for a jar of it already made. Can anyone point me in the right direction? It would be greatly appreciated!

 

While I could easily make the case that the best way to eat lobster is to boil it and serve it alongside some melted butter, there are many other ways to prepare it. I have outlined some previously and, in fact, @qwikad.com was pretty turned off by my inaugural post to start this thread (Lobster Mac & Cheese) but I wanted to mention another way to prepare lobster and pasta. Specifically, it is Lobster in Creamy Tarragon sauce. The sauce's main components are cream, butter, tomatoes and tarragon. It looks like this:



Again, I realize that the purists will feel that lobster is too delicate of a taste to be put into a dish like this, but it is hard to deny its great taste. And, the best part for me is, much like Lazy Man's Lobster, there is no heavy lifting (I.e. cracking shells open) to get to the lobtster. Enjoy!

 

I love pasta, but I'm not really sure if it goes really well with lobster... I've tried spicy tuna and pasta that my friend made and I really like it. I think That dish is worth giving a try @jrbiz

 

Lobster is definitely a very delicate taste and can be overwhelmed, no doubt. However, other shellfish and pasta also mix well here. A nice white clam sauce over linguine is fantastic. Langostinos and pasta go great together, as well. Shrimp scampi is a classic pasta dish here, too. Most do not involve tomato sauce, just oil and other seasonings.

 

Okay, today we are on to Monkey Bread. It is not necessarily a New England-origin food (origins are murky, though clearly in the U.S.) but we sure do love it up here!

The bread is made with pieces of sweet yeast dough which are covered in melted butter, cinnamon, sugar, and chopped pecans.



Sweet and sticky stuff that you break off by hand (fork in the picture notwithstanding...)

Great for breakfast or for dessert! And, yes, I know, I am back to posting about sweet stuff...damn diet the wife has me on...