Maine Dish

I used to say that you could get the best food in the country in New Orleans, but after this trip, I think Maine is making it a pretty close race.  IF you like lobster, that is.  Last time I was in Maine, ten years ago, I had never had lobster.  I tried it while I was there, but the experience was marred by Lobster Guilt.  It was hard for me then to get over the cruel cruel ending to a lobster's life.  Traps, boiling water...just too much sadness for me.  It made me cry.

Guess what.  I got over it.  Mind over matter.

During our seven days in Maine, I had lobster six times.  And loved every single bite.  With nary a tear or sniffle.

Behold, the Lobster Roll!

This was my first and best meal in Maine.  You cannot improve upon a simple toasted hot dog bun filled up with fresh lobster meat with some butter for dipping (or pouring on).  Truly the best lunch I have ever had.  I got this at the Kennebunk Inn, by the way.  In Kennebunk.  Go there if you can.

Maine is also famous for blueberries.  The owners of our vacation house left us some bread and blueberry jam, so that is what I had for breakfast most mornings.  For some reason, they left us blueberry jam from France (?!).  But it still tasted great.  On our last day, we discovered that the back yard behind the house was covered with wild blueberries.  We picked as many as we could, and brought them home.  I had some on my cereal today.  Maine is still with me.  That makes me happy.

My second lobster dinner was this Lobster Mac and Cheese at Cappy's in Camden.  It tasted just as good as it looks.  Holy Cow.  I sadly couldn't finish it.

On the third day, we went to a lobster shack on a little beach in Lincolnville.  Kev got a lobster roll, but I tried the stew.  Which was really just some lobster meat in a cream broth.  It was good, not the best ever.  But sitting with Kev on the beach in Maine, on a foggy drizzly day, eating lobster stew from a shack is an experience I will never forget.

I  was wearing a jacket!  Because I was cold!  In July!  I love Maine.

On Day Four, we drove up to Acadia National Park for a hike up the Beehive.  When we finished, we went into Bar Harbor for lunch, and got Lobster Biscuits (above) and Lobster Bisque (below).  Yum.

And just for fun, we threw in some crab stuffed mushrooms (below), which were delicious.  Gotta give the other sea creatures a chance too, you know.

Day five - dinner back in Camden at the Waterfront.  I had sauteed lobster served on ciabatta bread with arugula and boursin cheese.  Again, yum.  You wouldn't think lobster and cheese could work, but it DOES.  I didn't finish this either.  Because I wanted to save room for blueberry cobbler.  There is no picture of the cobbler.  But trust me, it was good.

Day six, and I needed a little break from lobster.  So I had shrimp bisque.  Good stuff.  And the corn bread was good too.  It had black pepper on top, which was unexpected and interesting.  Also from a little shack, this one in Rockland.  Kev had a lobster sandwich and loved it.  The mom and dad work in the shack, and the son is a lobster man.  So this stuff is about as fresh as you can get.

On our last night in Maine, we went for a sail around Camden, and then for dinner at Atlantica, right on the harbor.  We sat on the deck and watched the boats while eating this food:

Mine was lobster and gnocchi in a lobstery sauce. It was so good that I even ate the peas.  I hate peas! Kev's was just a simple buttery lobster on a plate. I tried it.  It was amazing.  And then there was more cobbler.  A great way to end our trip.

Yesterday at Wegmans, I stopped by to look longingly at the live lobsters in the tank there. Daphne really wants to try it.  Perhaps we can have Maine Day sometime soon.  I might even make cobbler!