The Anniversary Spot

On June 6th, Matt and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary with a trip to York Beach, Maine and Newport, Rhode Island. In a way, it's like a one year birthday for The Belly Spot, too. A little more than a year ago, I started a small web site to house information about our upcoming wedding to share with our family and friends. For those family members on each side who lived far away and weren't going to have a chance to meet Matt or me before the big day, the site was a fun way for people to get to know our better half. We included little bios about ourselves and picture albums of our travels with food pics letting people see who we were as a couple.



After the wedding, I continued to grow the site, adding a place for restaurant reviews and recipes. Late last year, I started the blog and we continue to add fresh material about food and travel as often as we can. This silly little hobby of sneaking pictures of my dinner at restaurants has evolved into so much more and I really appreciate all the support from you, our friends and family. Please keep posting your comments and sending me any recipes or suggestions.

In keeping with the spirit of travel and food, here are some pics from our anniversay trip.

First stop: Lunch!
We got into the York Beach area on Friday just in time for lunch and stopped at the Surf & Sand. I knew that this trip would be filled with seafood, hence the steak dinner we shared with our parents the night before leaving. Anxious to dive into the delicacies of the area, Matt enjoyed this battered filet of haddock sandwich. I opted for a BLT, saving my seafood choices for dinner later that evening. The side of pasta salad was definitely a welcome change of pace as opposed to the standard greasy fries that seem to accompany every fish sandwich.

Dinner: The Grill at The Union Bluff Hotel
We were very fortunate to arrive in Maine during the last few days of Southern Maine Restaurant Week. Many of the area's restaurants had three-course dinner menus for a flat fee of about $29 per person. Most of the options on the three-course menu were also available on their regular menu so it was easy to see the savings we were getting. Matt started out with the Cream of Five Onion Soup (above) that had yummy crunchy onion rings garnished on the top.

For appetizer, I tried the Crab and Portobello Cake with a small scoop of savory ice cream on top and a corn relish on the side. A special creation for restaurant week, the cake was filled with large pieces of crab and the ice cream topping was definitely an interesting experience. I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to order it off a regular menu, but since dinner was a flat price, I took a chance. The cold milky flavor was a little odd on top of the warm cake, but Matt liked it and stole most of it from me. Just fine, since I think I took one of the last of the crispy onions from his soup.

Matt's Dinner: Lobster Ravioli including Bang Island Mussels, Gulf Shrimp, Maine Lobster and a Parmesan Cream Sauce. I had a lovely Lobster Risotto with a Vanilla Bean Cream Sauce. It was so rich, I was left feeling satisfied, sleepy and stuffed after our first and long day of vacation. I even passed off my dessert choice from the three-course menu to Matt, whose went with a new invention from the chef: A Chocolate Salami!

This creative dessert consisted of dark chocolate pressed together with lady fingers, almonds, and cherries to create a log shape and finished off with powdered sugar. We had to cut it with a sharp knife in slices in order to eat it and the cross-sections did kind of resemble that of a salami. I doubt we'll ever hear the words "chocolate" and "salami" in the same sentence again.


Breakfast! Clara's Cupcake Cafe

We stayed at the Atlantic House, just a quick walk from the beach in York. I'd say that we would highly recommend York as a great trip for couples or families. The small town has an old-fashioned charm with a boardwalk Arcade next to the beach attached to a small bowling alley. At the other end of town is the York Beach Zoo and small amusement park. If you need a reco for lodging, you'll have to email me for a private chat about our experiences at the Atlantic House. All be it a lovely, recently renovated hotel, some of our experiences were less than stellar so in the spirit of improving my good karma, I'll leave it at that.

One of my favorite parts of staying at the Atlantic House was Clara's Cupake Cafe. Housed in the same building next to the elevator, the air was constantly filled with the smell of warm bread and sweet crosiannts. Matt and I spent our first and last breakfast here after our morning walks along the beach. Flaky croissant filled with ham and cheese and a hand dipped chocolate donut were some of the treats we induged in. Upon leaving the hotel on Monday, I wished the hotel gift shop sold a bakery scented candle. I didn't want to leave that smell behind.

The Anniversary Dinner: The Blue Sky

For our big 1 year dinner, we had reservations at the restaurant attached to the Atlantic House. The staff there did an awesome job at helping us celebrate our anniversary with a custom printed menu reading , "Happy Anniversary!!" at the top. They were also featuring a three-course menu for Restaurant week. Along with a bottle of champagne, I ordered the Crusted Haddock with Green Onion Souffle. I believe Matt had the Lobster Linguini Bolognese, but the romantic dim lighting prevented me from getting a good picture of it. I did, however, capture his dessert, a special Bread Pudding a la mode.



Fare of Newport: The Mooring


The Bag of Doughnuts

After much searching for a restaurant in downtown Newport with some decent chowder and a variety of other goodies to choose from, we finally docked at The Mooring. After five days of wining and dining, a simple sandwich and a classic New England clam chowder was all I needed to make me happy. I had the Tuna Crab Melt, a traditional cold tuna salad sandwich on a kaiser roll server with pancetta, swiss cheese and fresh tomato. Not looking to break from pattern, Matt went with the Lobster Croissant sandwich and the Bag of Doughnuts for appetizer. These were awesome! Quite possibly my favorite treat of the trip, these lobster, crab and shrimp fritters were served with a chipotle-maple aioli. The cajun seasoning in the crispy batter was just the right amount of spice. The dough was hot and fluffy and not greasy like one might expect from most fried foods. Had I known about these little devils, I would have skipped the sandwich entirely and just had chowder and fritters for dinner.

To next year, many more to come!