White Clam Pizza, Fish Cheeks and Lobster Rolls - Oh My!

I recently took a road trip with youngest 17-year-old son to visit friends in Narragansett, Rhode Island. When my family does road trips we rarely stop at the highway rest stops for meals, rather off-the-road places..........usually a place that represents food well known to that geographical area. If we can't find local culinary delights a diner or something similar is a close second. On our way up to Rhode Island we had to pass through Connecticut. A friend of mine from a foodie forum I belong to raved about Pepe's Pizza in New Haven and Fairfield, CT. She happens to live in CT. Another friend from home (in PA) stops at Pepe's on his travels when passing through the Constitution State on Route I-95. So, we had the luxury of tasting Pepe's White Clam Pizza here in PA when he would bring a pie or two home. Thanks to my son's Iphone and our friend Harriet (Navigation System) we were able to look up exactly where Pepe's was located, enter the address on to Harriett and determine how long it would take us to arrive at our destination for fresh from the oven white clam pizza. We decided to stop at the Fairfield location as we were very ready for lunch. The pizza was mouth-watering......white pizza with a crispy thin crust loaded with whole fresh sweet clams and mozzarella cheese. Words cannot describe how yummy this was.


Our first full day in Narragansett started with conversation between my friend and I regarding what would be on the dinner table that evening. He and I both love to talk food and cook. We discussed this over his wonderful coffee he made in their French Press with freshly roasted and ground Ethiopian coffee beans - what a way to welcome a perfect beach day! It was decided that he would head to the local fish monger and buy whatever recently came out of the waters over at Point Judith. He went down to the fish monger and came back with two whole beautiful looking fresh-as-ever sea bass. These were placed in the fridge and a group of us headed off to Narragansett town beach for the day armed with our cooler of lunches, snacks and beverages and beach towels and chairs. Late afternoon we returned to the beach house and my friend and I headed to the grocery store. We decided on our side dishes (he made an array of fresh grilled veggies and I made a Quinoa salad.

Lovely Narragansett Town Beach and Point Judith Lighthouse at dusk:







Did you ever eat fish cheeks? I never had but based on the recommendation of our friend I decided to sample and what a sweet and tender fillet of fish are inside of the cheek. You can see the sweet fish fillet from the cheek here:






On our way home while driving once again through Connecticut we stopped in Mystic Seaport for lunch. We were in heaven eating on the water at a clam shack indulging in lobster rolls and an order of fries. We did stop in Fairfield, CT and called ahead for a take-out clam pizza - this time with red sauce to bring home to my husband for dinner, many thanks to good ole' Harriett and my son's IPhone! I love New England in the summertime!