Thursday, July 01, 2010

Good Things to Eat in Chilmark

To eat steak in Chilmark is sort of like going to Peter Luger and ordering the fish. It is possible to do such a thing, but why would you? Most of the seafood that we ate while on vacation came from boats like these:

The guys on these boats go to work in the middle of the night. They're catching flounder, sea bass, sole, tuna, clams and lobster. We walked on the docks right next to these boats and to me they seemed like very old men - wrinkled and worn, sleepy, a bit creaky and crabby, but with plenty of practical knowledge, the kind that only lots of time working and living can produce.

Some of them made me think of the junky space ships from the original Star Wars movie.

At what point does the boat cease to be seaworthy?

This looks alarming to me, but it's probably normal, like a worn in pair of sneakers. What do I know from boats?

Anyway, one fun way to eat seafood in Chilmark is go to Larsen's Fish Market to buy lobstah, clam chowdah, and crab cakes, and eat them while sitting on the dock out back.

Those plastic rocks glasses contained Marc Ollivier's Clos des Briords and Granite de Clisson, by the way.

One day, in a stroke of good luck, we saw a sign outside of the Chilmark United Methodist Church.

The ladies in the back kitchen were not playing games. They might look sweet and kind, but these are hardened lobstah roll pros and they will stuff lobstah to the point of overflow into a hot dog bun.

There's no hidden layer of iceberg lettuce on the bottom to make the lobstah look more plentiful. This is all lobstah. A squirt of lemon, the daughters dancing around and taking tiny inquisitive bites...vacation.

6 comments:

rhit said...

That is one serious-looking lobster roll.

Tricerapops said...

yeah, what rhit said.

Timothy Lock said...

while i can tell by the image that the lobster roll in question could easily best any of the $20 numbers we have in NYC, as a Mainer i must say, go further north! Maine is where the best lobster rolls live since it is where the best lobster fishing lives! (plus only family-owned licenses; trawling is not allowed there in the lobster fishing industry, making it one of the most sustainable fishing practices in America.) Nothing better than sitting on some plastic furniture eating lobster cooked and prepared by the wife or kids of guy who caught the lobster that morning...and in Maine these places still exist.

Also... Please don't say "lobstah". I'm sorry (since i know you don't mean it to), but it sounds incredibly patronizing.

Brooklynguy said...

hey Timothy,

sorry - i didn't mean it to sound patronizing, didn't mean any offense. i really just love the way it sounds when people say it that way. but i hear you.

i would LOVE to go to Maine - i hear that Portland is the finest food city on the east coast, and that the whole place is beautiful. someday...

dave said...

great blog, longtime lurker.

looks like you had a nice visit to Larsens. One note - that's the Menemsha docks, not Chilmark, for anyone looking to find the freshest catch...

And that lady in the foreground of the pic is my wife's brother's mother in law. She also makes legendary pies. Small world.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Brooklyn Guy!
My name is Jane and I'm with Dwellable.
I was looking for blogs about Chilmark to share on our site and I came across your post...If you're open to it, shoot me an email at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Jane