A Life, Lived: Maine Trip Eats

When I reflect upon our recent trip and think about the food (doesn't everyone do this? No? Perhaps I am a tab obsessed) there are four 'restaurants' (I used quotations for fear that a fellow foodie will flame me for calling a quintessential Maine Lobster Shack a restaurant!) which come to mind:

Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, NY

246 W. Willow Street
Syracuse, NY 13202
315-476-4937

You may wonder about BBQ. It isn't the normal high end food that appears on the pages of food magazines, however there is nothing like the taste of amazing BBQ! We Canadians love our BBQ and we just can't get good BBQ at home (unless we're cooking it in our backyards). We found the restaurant (thank you MapQuest), parked ($ 2) but there was a wait for a table. Even though it was after 8, we waited: the smells wafting out from the door were that good.

When we got in we enjoyed one of the best BBQ meals we had ever had. Inside the restaurant had a décor that screamed roadhouse, some of the clientele were ‘rough around the edge' but this is what we have come to expect from a BBQ joint.

We decided to try an order of fried green tomatoes something we had never had before. We split a sampler platter as an appetizer (fried green tomatoes, chicken wings, boiled shrimp, and deviled eggs).

There was a slight incident when Paul ordered his mug of beer . . . the waitress thought he wanted a bucket! Mom and I were amused even if Paul wasn’t.

For our main course mom ordered ½ a rack of ribs, Paul a brisket sandwich, and I ordered the granddaddy sampler platter – a 1/3 rack of ribs, ¼ chicken, and brisket. Mom and I also got two sides and cornbread with our meals. Paul received fries, pickles, and cole slaw with his. We all loved our meals and shared with one another.

Dinner (appetizers, mains, 4 beers, and root beer for mom) was amazing and only $ 66 with drinks etc!

BGs Boathouse in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

191 Wentworth Road
Portsmouth, NH 03801
(603) 431-1074

BGs doesn’t look like much from the outside, nor does it look like much from the inside, yet the place was full of folk from the local area who clearly knew where to go for good seafood. We sat out on the deck overlooking the water and watched boaters pull up in their boats, tie them up, and come up to the restaurant for dinner and drinks.

Our waitress brought us some drinks and we ordered. As soon as she left mom was convinced that she had ordered the wrong thing and wanted to change her order (the sight of the guy next to us having the seafood platter delivered to his table convinced her that the baked haddock wasn’t what she really wanted! LOL). Alas, it was too late for her to change.

The appetizers came quickly, buffalo chicken tenders which were crisply fried with a light breading and a zesty buffalo sauce and crab cakes. We devoured them. I don’t know where this appetite came from because all we had done all day was sit in a car, eaten, and shopped. It must have been the sea air.

Our main courses arrived shortly after – baked haddock stuffed with crab and zucchini for mom and Paul and a lobster roll for me (I thought for my first lobster of the trip I wanted someone else to break it out of the shell). It was amazing! Normally lobster rolls are made with leftover bits of lobster but this one had the equivalent of ½ a pound of lobster meat – including my favourite claw meat! It was lightly mixed with mayo, some lemon juice and I think tarragon. YUM

After dinner we were far too full for dessert. We paid the bill ($ 96 for 4 beers, 2 appetizers, and three mains). More expensive than last night but still below $ 35 a person – you can’t get food this good at home!

The Whale's Rib in Deer Isle Village, Maine

20 Main Street,
Deer Isle,
Maine 04627
1 888-778-7505
207-348-6615

We had made reservations at the Whale’s Rib for 7 pm so we changed and headed out. The restaurant is located in an old Inn which was originally built in 1793 and has been an Inn since 1899. We had been warned that you can wait for a table even if you have reservations; I take this to be a good sign because in my mind it means people don’t want to leave!

We were seated in the dining room which is rustic and has about 15 tables. It was everything you would expect from a dining room in a 200 year-old inn to be. Most of the menu items were seafood but there were some non-seafood appetizers and entrees to please the 'landlubber.

Mom and Paul ordered the Maine Peekytoe Crab Cakes and I ordered the Calamari. Each was perfectly cooked; I believe calamari is a good judge of a kitchen’s skill: unskilled chefs will turn out calamari which is like eating a large rubber band; this calamari was perfect with the squid tender and the batter crispy.

For our main courses Mom ordered a grilled tuna special which was served over tender spears of asparagus and a Tuscan bean salad. The Tuna was marinated in flavours similar to those in the salad so the tastes were perfectly paired. I ordered the seafood casserole which arrived as a large dish full of scallops, lobster, crab, and haddock in a zesty cream sauce, covered with buttered bread crumbs and broiled until brown. YUM Paul ordered broiled haddock which was perfectly cooked and served on a medley of vegetables and rice.

I didn’t eat all of my dinner because I knew I wanted some dessert; it was to be our birthday dinner courtesy of mom. Paul ordered a chocolate peanut butter pie and it was so good that he practically inhaled it before I could snap a picture of it for the blog. Mom and I ordered a strawberry rhubarb crisp which was delicious.

I can see why this restaurant does so well. The food is incredible; while the service isn’t what you would expect to find in high-end restaurant in the city it was friendly and warm. On of the best things was the price – dinner for three (appetizers, mains, dessert, sparkling water, a bottle of wine, and coffee) was only $ 133!!!!!! Before we left we were already making plans to return!

Bagaduce Lunch in Brooksville, Maine

19 Bridge Road
Brooksville, ME
04617
207.326.4729

This classic lunch counter had been written up in one of the guide books as ‘absolutely the best spot fro seafood baskets and burgers’. Who were we to ignore this recommendation? Of course, the fact that they have been serving up seafood delights since 1946 was convincing evidence as well.

There were tables scattered over the lawn overlooking the reversing falls and the Bagaduce River. Mom secured a table in the shade while Paul and I ordered our lunch: a large scallop basket (I managed to secure the LAST of the scallops SCORE) which came with fries and cole slaw, a cheeseburger for Paul (apparently he was all 'seafooded' out by this point - his mom would be shocked that this would happen to anyone related to her! *smile*), an order of onion rings, an order of fries, and two diet Pepsis (I know – why bother with diet with all of that fried stuff?) The total was about $25. When your order was taken you were given a number, when it was ready they called out your number and you were able to pick it up.

The seafood was amazing. My scallops were huge and there were about 25 in the basket. Luckily mom and Paul were ‘willing’ to help me out because there was no way I could have eaten them all on my own! By the time we were ready to head out again there was a huge line up of people waiting for their lunch – obviously this place was well known and for good reason!