Part 1: Last day in NYC
I had a Bolt bus to catch at 11:30 (a helpful traveling hint- buy one’s bus ticket for the right day! I think the only reason the driver let me on was cause I looked like I was going to cry), so we stuck close to the neighborhood for brunch and stumbled upon this *adorable* diner.
They had awesome brunch specials. I got the veggie omelet, filled with mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and tomato. It came with coffee, toast (I went with rye, being in New York City and all) and homefries. Oh mannnnn those homefries. When we saw a guy walk by with a huuuge bucket of potatoes, and realized they were made from scratch right there, we knew we had to have them, and they were an EXCEPTIONAL specimen.
Hopped on the bus to rendezvous with my best friend Lydia in Boston, and then make our way, courtesy of her generous chauffering, to PROVINCETOWN! For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to visit the wild-and-crazy town on the very tip of Cape Cod, a primer. You’ll want to scroll down to “culture”.
The first thing I consumed in Provincetown was, of course, 21st birthday influenced. We met my uncle at the Boat Slip, the bar attached to the site of the “Tea Dances” where he is a bouncer (! more on that later)
A “Boston tea bag” with Stoli Boston that is somehow tea-infused, various fruit juices, I think some Sprite… forget the total combo, but vair tasty! I fessed up to the fab bartender, “I’m new to legal drinking, make me something yummy. It was!”
Following dinner at a really gorgey place started by some locals and filled with gorgeous antique furniture and luscious food (but oh so dim), we went to hear Bobby Wetherbee play classic show tunes at a bar. So much love!
That chic looking glass in the dim lower right hand corner is, I think, Cabernet? I let my uncle pick. Vair tasty.
The next morning, I was stoked for breakfast because my uncle always has…
Fage! Yes! So delicious! It actually tastes like the yogurt in Greece (cause it’s actually a Greek company- we went by their factory on one of our day trips and I was like “um, can we go ahead and pull over the bus?)
Lunch was MARVY. Despite being a gay mecca now, Provincetown was once, in fact, a Portuguese fishing village. Thus, lots of awesome Portuguese specialties! I had my first taste of calo verde and it was woooooonderful. Chorizo, potatoes, kale, and white beans in a luscious zesty broth.
Lest you think that was a small lunch, Lydia made it her personal mission for me to have a slice of birthday CAKE, because although I’d celebrated with many desserts and drinks, I had no official cake.
So we headed to the Portuguese bakery and I got this life-changingly delicious chocolate-peanut butter stack.
Soooooooooooo decadent! Chocolate heaven! That’s a marvy macchiato next to it (a traditional one- just espresso and milk foam).
On Sunday afternoon we went to the “World Famous Tea Dance”. The “tea dance”, so-called because it takes place at teatime, between 4 and 7 o’clock, is fabulous.
The hilarious thing is that my… late 70s? Early 80s? Whatever, my SENIOR CITIZEN uncle is one of the bouncers there. And is in fact one of the YOUNGER ones. Clearly it’s a pretty happy-go lucky group :D
Here is the crowd (yeah, old, right?! We were there for “Solid Gold” day, in which they play 70s and 80s. Hi-larious).
Oh, those two rather ostentatious looking gentlemen? Let’s get a closeup.
They go by the “hat sisters”. One of them used to be a school superintendent. They’ve been together for like 35 years.
Tea dance was SO FUN! Particularly when they played It’s Raining Men :D
As became our PTown convention, we began the dinner hour with a drink.
This was a “Lust”: grapefruit Stoli, triple sec, splash of cranberry and sprite. DELISH! I was kind of, er, thirsty, and drank it kind of, er, quickly, and on an empty, er, stomach, and then apparently I was VERY talkative. However, my uncle and has friends were gossiping like you would not believe (the boys are just as bad as the girls!) so it made for a seriously fun interlude at the bar.
Dinner was at the ridiculously hip new sushi place that just opened. My plate:
On the left, miso soup that I was seriously excited about just because it was COLD! We also all got warming green tea.
On the right, a “Boston roll”, which was salmon, tuna, and avocado with tobiko on top. Nice and fresh!
Empty stomach+ vodka is not totally improved by sushi, so I was happy to turn in that night and refuel with something a little more wholesome the next morning. To my delight, Peter had…
Steel cut oats! Yum! I cooked them the stovetop way with raisins and figlets (! yum!) and pecans on top. With a cup of tea, it was highly reinvigorating.
The place where we had lunch had a totally horrible view:
My uncle and I got the same thing:
Steamed mussels in a garlic, tomato, white wine and omg BUTTER sauce, along with heavenly cheesy garlic bread.
Again, totally uninspired food accompanied by a lame view:
More shopping and rambling through town, followed by an ice cream break:
This picture annoys me. I took like four to make sure Lydia, my best friend looked good, because I am a friggin’ good friend. However, next to the breezy chick in the cute sunglasses, I’m looking a little awk. Oh well, the ice cream was great- raspberry chocolate chunk froyo.
