btietw: expanded vacation edition

i cannot choose just one best thing from all the good things that we ingested on our vacation. don't ask me to.

1) fayette hero: the cabin that we stayed in up in the maine wilderness was right down the road from the summer camp where stephen spent the first eighteen summers of his life—first as a faculty brat because his dad was head councelor, then as a camper, then, god help those children, as a councelor—and where wile is destined to spend his summers, unless he inherits his mother's profound aversion to any sort of organized group activity, especially ones that involve sleeping on bunks or being made to play "nukem". shudder. my parents finally wore me down one summer by signing me up for what they promised was an arts camp (day camp only, they knew better than to push their luck on a sleepaway camp). the first half of the first day was fine: we painted, threw some pottery, and had some snacks. then after lunch they told us we were going out to the back field to play softball!! when my dad came to pick me up at the end of the day i wouldn't speak to him, then later told him and my stepmom that they were liars and i wasn't going back. of course since i was eight, and the tuition was already paid, i went back. but not quietly. i think the next summer they let me just stay home and read and draw pictures—when i felt like it, not when it was "drawing period"—which is all i wanted to do in the first place. but stephen loved camp, still loves camp, and for his sake i hope that wile will love camp too.

but so anyway, the camp is in a little tiny town called fayette, and in fayette is the fayette store, and at the fayette store you can get a fayette hero. stephen has, in the past, pontificated on the glores of the fayette hero, but i'm pretty sure that the last time we were up there, some years ago, i wasn't eating meat and therefore didn't have the hero. in fact, i'm positive, because this is a hero i would have remembered.... the bun is like a hot dog bun on steroids, and it's chewy without being gummy, just the right balance of dense and light. i got oil + vinegar and mayo, and for my meat i chose ham and salami, and there were about three slices of each, which is so perfect—i hate when delis stuff my sub (hero, whatever) full of meat like they're doing me a favor or something. then there was one slice of white american cheese which i didn't ask for, but i was really glad it was there. i asked for whatever toppings they had except the green peppers, and i got tomatoes, halved kalamata olives (not crappy canned black olives!), and awesome crispy pungent dill pickle chips. it was the most perfect hero/sub/grinder i have ever eaten.

2) lobster cocktail: stephen's family all love lobster, with stephen's love eclipsing everyone else's. when they would have lobster night at camp, stephen would take the bodies from all the kids who just wanted to eat the tail and claws and be done with it and sit out on the dock working on them out until he had scavenged every bit of lobster flesh that he could. me, on the other hand, well....i'm not really on board the lobster trolly. i'd much rather have a good soft shell crab or some scallops. my problem with the lobster is that i don't like the tail—the claws, however, i adore. but it doesn't seem right to order a whole lobster just to eat the claws, so i usually get a lobster roll and enjoy the mingling of lobster meat with mayo and a hot buttered roll, mmmm. but then we went to j's oyster bar, a great dive-y spot in portland (where we spent the last weekend of our vacation), where they offer what they call a "lobster cocktail" and i call "the answer to my prayers". it's five meaty de-shelled claws on a plate with some cocktail sauce. hallelujah!

3) clam chowder: i only had one bite of this chowder, but it still qualifies for a btietw. perry ordered it at the dry dock, another waterfront restaurant in portland. i think i may have to write in to gourmet and see if they can get me the recipe. it was creamy but you could still really taste the seafood stock, the potatoes were red and cut into perfect little 1/4-inch cubes, and there was just exactly the right amount of fresh dill. i'm usually fairly wary of the dill—even the littlest bit too much can cause total havoc. but this was absolutely right. yummy.

here is a picture of perry and wile during that meal, communing with the deeply unhappy, overheated man in the stuffy lobster suit who wasn't too interested in making nice with the baby:



please note the boots.