Hi! It’s the beginning of th week, boo. However, I am feeling surprisingly positive and upbeat. I think this vacation really gave me a chance to let go of some of the exhaustion and pressures that have totally burned me out. I’ve been getting a a lot accomplished at work and really organized my priorities, both in and out of the office. Hooray for productivity!
I can’t believe I made you guys read through an entire recap of Newport without anything to eat! And you best believe there was some serious eating going down in Newport. M and I looooovvvee seafood, so we made sure to indulge every chance we got!
Since we had relatively constructive mornings and afternoons, we didn’t get to exciting eats generally until the evening. I packed several single serving packets of Amazing Grass to keep me energized and to make up for my lack of numerous servings of spinach each day.
Mmmmm... swamp juice
I also packed individual packets of Justin’s Almond and Peanut Butter for when I was in a pinch- it supplied an excellent and healthier alternative to cream cheese when we had bagels, and once or twice I may have squeezed a packet directly into my mouth for a snack.
Beach bagel...
Yum
But the real foodie fun was in the evenings. When we got into Newport on Wednesday night after an only slightly delayed flight, we hightailed it to downtown for something quick and filling. We settled down on the porch of the low-key Wharf Pub and had some drinks while figuring out what to order. I ordered the only champagne on the menu, which was a bad idea.
I should know better than to order champagne at a shorts and flipflops type of place. For shame.
We were both absolutely starving since it was already 10:15- not so good. We both turn into zombies/monsters when we don’t get enough food, so we ordered a serious appetizer to appease our tummies.
Now this is an example of what you DO order at this kind of restaurant.
Don’t hate. Nachos are absolutely Mike’s favorite appetizer and I would be totally lying if I said I never sampled his treats. Tonight in particular, I was all over that dish! Believe it or not, we actually finished them.
Dinner was slightly more refined- I got my classic favorite form of seafood- lobster on top of a fresh green salad.
Normally, restaurants offer you “lobster salad” atop a bed of greens, but I asked for just straight up lobster without the fatty mayo, and I was so happy they agreed. I then proceded to order bleu cheese dressing on the side, since clearly I was avoiding high fat condiments. Stupendous. Lobster is my absolute favorite crustacean.
On Thursday, we had an early dinner before heading out to the baseball game at Tickets Bar and Grill, which is right on the beach. We sat outside and soaked in the salty air with our meal. I started with a fabulous, cool glass of Mondavi Reserve Chardonnay.
And enjoyed another amazing salad for my entree. This was a regular green salad with buttery Boston lettuce, perfect tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, and my beloved red onions “beefed up” with some lovely chunks of salty feta and a beautiful piece of grilled tuna.
No dressing neccessary, just a squirt of lemon, and I was sinking my teeth into the meatiest tuna I have ever had!
I ordered it “medium” and it was literally cooked to perfection. I love how both these dinners were at perfectly casual places but had incredibly fresh and high quality seafood- so not like anywhere in DC.
On Friday night, things got a little more glamorous. We started out with a drink at Busker’s, a truly authentic and fantastic Irish pub, to watch the first couple innings of the Yankees-Red Sox game. No we didn’t end up actually goingto the game in Boston- too much $$ 
.
Love the barrel tables!
Chardonnay for the lady
We enjoyed watching the game with some locals, and even found a few Yankees fans to cheer with. M ordered some wings to hold him over while I waited to get hungry. (Uh, don’t you just hate how guys can have deep fried chicken as a snack?) We really enjoyed our visit, and were impressed with the selection and service. We will certainly return- hopefully for dinner next time.
Eventually we got to our restaurant, The Landing, which suited our needs perfectly. We sat at a high-rise table at the upstairs porch bar, so we were outside but still had a great view of the game playing on a TV by the bar. I tried getting some night pictures of the beautiful water surrounding us, but had no luck.
The atmosphere…
We decided to share an appetizer, and it was hands down the best thing I tasted all vacation. “Stuffed quahogs” are a local favorite that combine the elements of fresh seafood with New England’s historical Portughese fisherman heritage for the ultimate local dish. They mince and sautee the meat of local quahog clams and make a slightly spicy, savory stuffing with chorizo sausage, then stuff everything back in the shell and bake.
Absolutely amazing! The combination of the sweet clam, slaty sausage and spicy kicks made this dish really stand out. I wanted to save my appetite though, so I only ate half in anticipation of…
Another fabulous lobster salad. This salad had lobster mixed with just a smidge of mayo, s, p, and celery. I didn’t even need the dressing and loved every bite!
After dinner, some very Jerseyesque “Bacardi girls” walked around distributing Bacardi paraphernalia. I bossed Mike to wear this light up pin. I do love me some pretty girls promoting a good time, Jersey or not, I’m not gonna lie.
Thus my KK obsession. I'll choose to ignore the blonde hair for the time being, hoping this is just a silly phase.
Later on we had a lovely drink at the outside bar of the restaurant we tried getting reservations at for that evening, but to no avail. I had a luscious, buttery Louis Jadot Chardonnay. Totally overpriced, but nummy to boot.
You might say that late-night glass of wine was a little unncessary, but what is vacation without frivolty, huh? I slept nice and late the next morning while Mike worked on his grad school essays, the dear. By the time I was showered and dressed, it was 1:15 and we were starving and ready to consume our weight in seafood. And we did. There was one restaurant that caught our eye downtown that we knew would be perfect for us- The Barking Crab. Any restaurant that attempts to outright relay its silliness is a-ok in our books.
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The Barking Crab is the epitome of casual New England beach fun. We sat in the outside seating area which is adjacent to the streets of shops, perfect for people watching. A fully stocked bar surrounded by people indulging in afternoon drinking and listening to laid back music contributed to the festive vibe. I loved sitting at a legit picnic table, using plastic silverware stored in buckets on the tables, and watching the various dogs that waited by their familys’ feet, hoping for a fallen nibble.
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As I said, we were huuunnggrry so we started with an appetizer of crab cakes, amongst M’s and my historic favorite foods. I say this almost every time I have a good crabcake, but this may be hands down the best crab cake I ever had. I tasted almost no breadcrumbs or extras, just fresh, sweet crab carmelized in a little fat and drizzled with a lovely spicy aioli sauce.
We swooned. I stopped myself at one cake, because we had so much more food coming!!
My entree of choice was the daily special of a grilled local grouper topped with a strawberry salsa and served along cucumbers and cherry tomatoes lightly dressed with herbs and lemon. I am not a huge fan of fruit salsas, so I abandoned that portion, but the fish was so delicious! It was grilled to perfection, just a little smoky and chewy, but bursting with fresh flavor. Heaven.
While waiting to order, I saw a family sharing an order of what looked like the world’s most amazing onion rings. M and I ordered them to share, and I kid you not when I say these were the best onion rings of my life. The batter was so incredibly crispy, and they sometimes encased several rings of onion in layers. I’m not going to lie- I had several dipped in ketchup and loved every bite.
The Barking Crab was certainly one of the highlights of the trip, and our very favorite meal. We loved the laid-back atmosphere, the fresh food cooked to a level of excellence worthy of a five star restaurant, and the amazing service. I can’t WAIT to go back!
So amongst all this delicious seafood, you would think there would be no room for snacks, right? WRONG! I made a deal with myself before the trip that I would have frozen yogurt as often as I wanted, and I kept my promise to myself. To kick the trip of correctly, some fat free soft serve at the airport before takeoff.
A medium cup of frozen yogurt from Sprinkles on Bowen’s Wharf with fat free, sugar free vanilla raspberry swirl and chocolate peanut butter yogurt. Yeah, I leave the kiddie size yogurts to the kids. It’s a serious treat for me, so I’m gonna make sure I donn’t woss out on getting enough!
We also stopped at Newport Creamery on the way hom e from the beach one afternoon after a particularly puny lunch. I had another chocolate peanut butter yogurt and was in pure bliss.
Don’t worry! Desert didn’t stop there. On Saturday afternoon while watching the baseball game at a bar, I took a break and got my ultimate childhoos vacation treat: fudge.
Mike and I shared this half a slice, and I was going crazy.
Having these sweets reminded me of all the numminess I miss out on a normal basis. Seriously, desserts, yogurt, etc. are so delicious and fulfilling. A girl shouldn’t need to only do it on special occasions, right?
Anyway, our very final dinner on Saturday was at the Cook’s Inn in Bannister’s Wharf. I’ll tell you, this was this quintessential perfect Newport dinner. We managed to score seats in the front of the restaurant that put us right on the street for prime people watching. I fully indulged staring at the ladies in their Lilly dresses and the men in their seersucker shorts. Reminded me of college 
Making the evening even more fabulous was a delicious French rose that I sipped throughout the meal. Look at how close we were to the foot traffic!
The Cook’s Inn is awesome- it is in a beautiful old house with lots of different areas for dining and drinking. There’s a porch, several bar areas, a big dining room that is all open windows, and a more intimate and romantic dining area as well. Check us out on the uber-cool brightly colored director’s chairs they had outside. So New England.
Mike really was having fun, I swear. He just doesn’t smile for cameras often, for some reason. I’ll work on it. Anyway, M ordered the Rhode Island clam chowder to start, which is different from New England clam chowder in that it is broth based and has a delicious taste of dill. Check out the gigantic oyster cracker! I bit into it and a gigantic chunk fell to the ground, much to the delight of the adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that was sitting next to us.
For my entree, I got a local cod that was sauteed in a vinaigrette and topped with carmelized onion and anchovies. The fish was served over a salty vegetable salad.
You can’t see them, but there were four lovely pitted (yay!) kalamata olives in the salad. Loved those.
I’m so down with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ culinary tastes- anchovies are the best! These were amongst the most garlicky I have ever tasted.
The fish was truly divine- very fresh and perfectly cooked. The extras were pretty good, but the fish was so lovely that the salty salad kind of took away from the purity of the dish. Regardless, I loved every bite. But I was still hungry!! So I had Mike order me these. We pretended to “share” them, but I definitely ate 2/3.
My very very very favorite “splurge” food is French fries. Not McDonald’s french fries, but thick, soft, carmelized pieces of potatoes carefully fried in oil. I try to have French fries as often as I can when I am on vacation, so I was thrilled with my little add-on.
Dinner was lovely, and just as we were about to leave town to hit the hay, I realized that there was one treat I hadn’t had that I truly wanted. The Cookie Jar, a bakery across from our resturant, was calling my name all night. I could smell the lusciousness from many feet away. It was our last night of vacay, and I definitely wanted me a brownie. Uncharacteristically, Mike didn’t want any! He was stuffed from his humugo burger stuffed with Rocquefort and then topped with Rocquefort (I had a bite and nearly died of pleasure).
So right. I ate my nummy brownie, then we drove back to our hotel and called it an early night so we could get up at 5:30 to catch an early flight. Eating that brownie was literally the “icing on the cake” of this trip. Yes, I ate a LOT. Yes, I had more sweets last week than I normally have in a month. But totally, totally worth it.
Getting away from my high-pressure job (where it’s considered admirable to not have a life and send emails out at 2:00am), my high pressure wedding planning, and my high pressure ed treatment was the best part of the vacation. Enjoying the scenery, being in NewEngland, and forgetting about calories made me feel even freer and happier. Then of course, the most important part:
My bestie. Basically, I told Mike I was miserable and burnt out a couple of weeks ago, and he booked this all just for me, just because he wanted to make me happy. I am the luckiest girl on the entire earth to be marrying this amazing man. Thank you, darling, for a truly refreshing, wonderful, indulgent trip!
Hope you guys enjoyed the food recap. I really enjoyed writing about all of our wonderful experiences. Next time I am ready to wring my own neck at work (which is likely to be soon), I will imagine I am on the beach in Newport, soaking in the sun with life’s neccessities- my studly fiance and a Diet Coke.
I look forward to returning to regular posting tomorrow. I love me some routine, and I’m ready to get back at it! Good night!
) so I decided to do a bargain celebration and ordered a used Louis Vuitton off of Ebay. The way I see it, they are supposed to last foreva so a slightly used one is even more CLASSIC! 
Hahahaha
Fluffy? Check. Plump? Check. Fabulous? Doublecheck.
