Although Summer is unofficially over, I can’t bring myself to leave the beach. I was supposed to leave tonight, but then my mom mentioned lobster. Since September is Local Eating Month at Kitchen Caravan, I will be working away at recipes and tasty tips all month. My intentions were to return to New York and go to the Greenmarket tomorrow morning, but then I remembered that I am surrounded by delicious local foods right where I am. Exquisite seafood, tomatoes, and corn are abundant here. Then I thought that instead of focusing only on the Greenmarket, it might be fun to dig deeper into the local flavors before returning to what I know.
Where I am in Rhode Island, we are right on the Connecticut border overlooking Long Island Sound, and there are so many fish markets that are full of local lobster, clams, and scallops. The local seafood store cooks the lobster for you if order them ahead of time, which is exactly what we did tonight for dinner. My mother put mayonnaise on the table, but the lobsters were so delicious that no one reached for any condiment. I think that is true for a lot of foods- when eaten fresh and local, they don’t need lots of dressings or condiments to jazz them up. Instead, you become cautious about spoiling their flavor by masking them. To go with the lobster I made the recipe for creamed corn with veggies that I had bought at the Saturday farmers market. We sliced up some heirloom tomatoes and that was dinner. Everything that we ate for dinner was sourced locally- even the butter we used to cook the corn. It was a real local meal that was not hard to work for and made prolonging my return to New York City well worth it. I have not had my last swim nor scallop of the season. Let’s see what the day tastes like tomorrow . . . .