Travels with the Healthy Foodie: Cape Cod and the islands

Fish House Entree

From Falmouth and Woods Hole down in the southwest all the way out to Provincetown at the end of land, the Cape is a lovely place for summer vacation. So many of the towns really do epitomize the notion of "quaint," not to mention picturesque, historic, relatively untouched by time, and quite comfortable.
Seafood is of course the area's culinary strength, and you can't do better than the renowned -- but totally unpretentious -- Brewster Fish House, located just about mid-Cape. Their lobster bisque is my idea of a perfect rendition of the dish, loaded with chunks of lobster, redolent with a hint of sherry, and more milky than creamy. The House also makes great fish entrees, and I must mention the owner's carefully selected if short list of wines to accompany the chef's delicious food. We had two dinners there during our six-night stay in Brewster (home base for the trip).

Rose garden, Provincetown

We also had a great, inexpensive for the quality level, lunch in Brewster at JT's Fish House, where I got my one and only hot lobster roll of the trip. Major yum. If it hadn't been our last meal on the Cape as we were heading to Boston, we would have eaten there more than once.


Otherwise, we made day trips via ferry to Martha's Vineyard (see photo of the gingerbread cottages at the Campground in Oak Bluff) and Nantucket -- two islands off the south shore of Cape Cod. Our favorite is the smaller Nantucket, where we love a restaurant called Straight Wharf. The fresh fluke entree with loads of springtime veggies (pictured) was among the very best dishes of the trip. On Nantucket we also had an excellent lunch at Dune, which included my favorite cocktail of the trip, their whiskey smash.

Best shopping on the Cape is NOT in Provincetown, IMHO, but in the town of Chatham. The fish tacos at Impudent Oyster there, with scrumptious grilled tortillas, were out of this world.

Fish tacos, Impudent Oyster

I'll also include a photo of me by the lighthouse we walked to on the island.

Fluke entree, Straight Wharf

Now I'm trying to drop the pounds that somehow appeared as a result of all that good eating!

Martha's Vineyard

On Nantucket