Offbeat Eats

Anyone that’s known me for a long time knows that two of my favorite sandwiches are the related roast beef sandwich, and the French Dip. As I discussed in detail with my review of Jamie’s Roast Beef in Peabody a few years ago, roast beef sandwiches are definitely a regional specialty, but the specialty is really focused on Massachusetts North Shore. While pretty much any town between Boston and the NH border has several roast beef sandwich joints to choose from, the density starts to roll off pretty quickly, and by the time you get to central NH, they are getting kind of thin. But a recent trip through the Merrimack valley had us passing right by an old favorite, Beefside in Concord, NH, and we decided to give it one of Offbeat Eat’s “Health Check” re-visits.

My recent travels to Portland, Maine, during one of the less-popular times of the reason (New England’s “Mud Season” between Winter and Spring), turned out to be rather fortuitous in that, despite my visit falling during Maine Restaurant Week, many of the places that are usually teeming with both locals and tourists were actually relatively calm, which gave me a good opportunity to visit one of my favorite spots that’s usually got a waiting list: Eventide Oyster Co.

After we returned to central Lisbon from Belém, we were looking for a light lunch, and that was a particularly good opportunity to visit Time Out Market Lisboa. Set up within half of Lisbon’s Mercado da Ribeira on Lisbon’s waterfront, Time Out Market is one of these modern “Food Hall” (upscale food courts) with a collection of independent restaurants all running food service stalls, with central seating and table bussing. This was the hot new trend in dining in the years leading up to the Pandemic (I particularly have experienced a few like Eataly and Galley Group), but Time Out Market was one of the earlier ones, and still thriving. In fact, almost a little too thriving: at most lunchtimes, the place is packed with little seating. But there’s a small secret to Time Out Market Lisboa: along the western side of the market is a secondary hallway that features the same restaurants as that side of the Market, but with counter seating. It’s a bit less busy, and that’s where we found our lunch, at Sea Me.

After leaving Amorosa, an afternoon of hiking took us from the relatively sparse world of coastlines, beaches, and coastal resorts into Viano do Castelo, which is actually a small metro area with a population approaching 100,000. After a few explorations around the area, we had a delightful Portuguese dinner at a small spot called Taberna Cantinho de Viana… which I’m not writing up since I discovered they closed two weeks after my visit. Oh well, that’s the restaurant business. But the next day, we had a shorter coastal hike up to the resort city of Vila Praia de Âncora, a well-known surfing city with a harbor that has a boardwalk-like atmosphere of bars and restaurants that, during the high season, offer outdoor dining. But many of these places are still open in the off-season, including our destination for the evening, Restaurante Fortaleza.

After a nice, scenic afternoon of hiking from Aguçadoura, we arrived in the coastal resort town of Apúlia, which sports a nice, large harbor, a good sandy beach, and a scenic series of sand dunes all topped with old windmills with a boardwalk connecting them. However, being a Sunday evening, we had to deal with a logistical issue: a good fraction of the dining establishments in town, even those still open in the off-season, are closed on Sundays. But luckily, one of the town’s better fine dining restaurants, Moinho de Sal (“Salt Mill”, as in windmill), was open and we managed to get reservations.

When I was staying with my friends in Saratoga Springs, I had asked them for local restaurant recommendations, and while most of their recommendations where either on Broadway or Putnam Street downtown, they mentioned that one place in particular was worth checking out due to it’s proximity: Eddie F’s Lobster Roll & Seafood House. Located in a residential neighborhood on Saratoga Springs’ west side, it was less than 100 feet from where I was staying, ideal for ducking out during a quick lunch (since I was working remotely).

Downtown Lake George is fairly busy and touristy during the summer, but there actually is a reason for it; Lake George itself is actually a very nice, scenic lake with several nice beaches, with nice vista of the surrounding mostly-undeveloped Adirondack mountains. At the end of the day, it’s enjoyable to find a nice restaurant with a deck overlooking the Lake, and soak in the sunset over a light dinner and a beer. However, it’s actually a bit difficult to execute that vision, since the nature of downtown Lake George’s development resulted in a lot of long, narrow alleys perpendicular to the Lake, so a lot of places just don’t have the real estate for a nice deck. But a notable exception to this is Christie’s on the Lake.

One of the things I love about Northern New England in the summer is that many of the small towns have all sorts of seasonal “snack bars” along the side of the road that serve up a variety of burgers, hot dogs, fries, and ice cream. And sometimes even the occasional lobster roll as well. On my very first road trip (to Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater, VT), I stopped at one such snack bar that remains a favorite of mine, the White Cottage Snack Bar in Woodstock, VT.

One of the obligatory parts of living in New England is that you’ve occasionally got to give into the urge, and go find a seafood restaurant and get one of the hallmark dishes of New England summer, such as a lobster roll or fried clams. And while the options are better on the coast, you don’t necessarily need to travel that far. As we mentioned in our Wit & Grit review, several times this summer we headed up to Burlington, and on our last trip up there, we decided to visit Vermont’s “inland coast”, going to Shanty on the Shore, on the shores of Lake Champlain just south of downtown Burlington.

After several years of having my work travel severely curtailed by the pandemic, 2023 has been a whirlwind of travel. While my usual work travel concentrates on some particularly non-exotic locations (I’m lookin’ at you, Lakehurst NJ and El Segundo, CA!), this year had a few plum trips. Just two and half weeks after returning from a week-long work trip to France, I found myself heading off to the Big Island in Hawaii for a week-long conference, and between the travel and a few extra days tacked on to the end of the trip, Carol and I had a few days to explore the island. But with any trip to Hawaii from the East Coast, it’s a bit of a marathon getting there. Our voyage started at 6am from Boston Logan (meaning departing our house a bit after midnight), connecting in Phoenix, and arriving late afternoon at the Kona airport. By that point we were starving, so after procuring the rental car, we headed down to central Kailua-Kona to a spot recommended to us by the rental car shuttle driver: The Fish Hopper.