Meatless Monday: Eating Local on the Cape

The Iconic Chatham Lobster

What a week we had at Cape Cod. The air was dry, the sky was blue, and the sun managed to shine through the one daytime shower! We swam. We walked. And we ate…

We enjoyed cake doughnuts and locally-roasted coffee at the Chatham Bakery, onion rings at Liam’s on Nauset Beach, and fish chowder at the Chatham Coffee Company (new owner, same great food).

Mostly we ate in, shopping for seafood and side dishes at the Chatham Fish & Lobster Company, across the street from the cottage colony in which we stay each year.

On Tuesday afternoon we checked out the new Farmer’s Market in Chatham and then stopped at the fish market.

How we feasted that night! At the market we bought our first corn of the season as well as bread, cheese, and wine: Goat Cheese Burrata from Fromage à Trois in Barnstable, Cheese Bread from Pain d’Avignon in Hyannis, and Cabernet Franc from Truro Vineyards (near the tip of the Cape). 

The appetizers.

At Chatham Fish and Lobster, we splurged and bought some cod and their house coleslaw. I confess I do not know whether the cod was line-caught,  and therefore  a Seafood Watch “Good Alternative,” but how could I not indulge in cod on Cape Cod, especially since this cod was caught by day-boaters in the Chatham fleet? We lightly coated the fillet with with seasoned flour, and sauteed it with a chopped fresh tomato (purchased earlier from a hydroponic greenhouse in VT via the local Stop & Shop!).

The main event.

Our view over the lake from the screened-in back porch was a perfect setting. We even had the pleasure of watching a small woodpecker hunt for his dinner as we sipped our Cab. The finest restaurant could not have provided a better meal.

May every one of you have such a wonderful vacation.

Happy Monday. Thanks for reading. 

I often blog on food, food issues, or topics related to growing things on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”