Near to perfect - the Red Cottage in S. Dennis, Mass.

One of my favorite Cape Cod restaurants is the Red Cottage, in South Dennis. First, there is the beautiful old Cape style building itself, but inside you'll find a fascinating cast of characters and absolutely delicious food.

About the "cast" - this place is frequented by a wide assortment of quirky, interesting people, locals, vacationers, commercial fishermen, and retirees. The place feels like a mélange of Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" crossed with the folks from "Prairie Home Companion."

The staff are friendly, funny, attentive without being intrusive, and remember their regulars, and if you go often they will also know your order from visit to visit.

All this said, the real reason to go is the delicious, fresh and classic diner food. Breakfast is truly amazing, with all sorts of interesting specials, (awesome pumpkin pancakes for example) great baked goods, and lots of coffee refills spiced with a smattering of local gossip. (If you sit at the counter.)

On my last visit I have the 1/2 lb Lobster roll, which was very meaty, and delicious. it came with a reasonable portion of excellent french fries, and a cranberry cole slaw that was also delicious. The waitress commented that for her it made two meals, and I can easily see why.

My partner opted for the "Pilgrim Breakfast", poached eggs, a side of baked beans, and meltingly tender bone in ham. It was delicious. Interesting people, great food, and a very reasonable price make is one of my favorites on Cape Cod.






-Will H. Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:36 Old Bass River Rd, South Dennis, MA 02660

LA Food Truck Twitter Aggregator Yowzah!

Hungry Angelenos - check out the uber-cool LA Food Truck Twitter Aggregator Yowzah!

http://www.findlafoodtrucks.com/

Soup Dumplings @ Dim Sun Garden

These are the pork shanghai dumplings at Dim Sun Garden on 11rh Street in Philadelphia, These are the soup filled ones that "pop" in your mouth releasing a burst of porky succulence. Soooo delicious!





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Culinary Magic! "Heirloom" recipes from Sandra Lee.... Really?

I'm still trying to recover from watching the cloying Sandra Lee, the host of the most vapid of Food Network TV shows "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" make what she called an "Heirloom Spring Vegetable Side Dish." For those who don't know, "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" is a show in which Sandra assembles frozen, packaged and highly processed foods into concoctions which she passes off as being "homemade." It's truly culinary magic! Like magic, it involves a lot of misdirection.

Sandra is always nattering on about how "healthy", "fresh" and "wholesome" her cooking is. Uhhh, yep. In Sandra's case, "homemade" seems to mean you sneak the packaging the processed food came in into the trash when no-one is looking.

In this particular recipe, she de-bags frozen green beans, carrots, corn etc. into a crock pot, slathers it all with canned condensed asparagus soup and a packet of freeze dried leek soup, and cooks this sorry mess for FOUR hours. (Presumably to super-concentrate the sodium, and finish destroying any nutritional content that may have survived the processing.)

Never mind that in a food context "heirloom" is generally used to describe cultivars of fruits, vegetables or animals which date to before industrialized factory farming became prevalent, before foods began to be bred to store for as long as possible rather than taste good. Never mind that this mess cannot even remotely be described as "semi-homemade." (Whatever that means.)

Frozen vegetables cooked for four hours?

Really?

Another Beach Breakfast - Southern Style

Breakfast - August 4th 2009

This breakfast is sort of an homage to my family down South, but updated a bit as well. I substituted the grilled veggies for bacon, sigh. (As much as as I love bacon, into each life some bacon-less days must fall.)

One poached Brewster egg on stone ground yellow grits, with sauteed shrimp and grilled vegetables. The lot of it dusted with cayenne and Parmesan.

- Will