Vacations are usually the time to take a trip away from healthy eating habits. “Pool food,” as my daughter Katie calls the culinary category of burgers and fries, nachos with cheese, potato chips and ice cream sundaes, is frequently the go-to menu for lazy days in the sun. Nights away from home mean more dinners out with a festive attitude to splurge because, “We’re on vacation!”
However, visiting far off places or the lake an hour away also can be a great opportunity to focus on the seasonal and fresh foods native to that region. Peaches and trout in Georgia. Blueberries and halibut in Maine. Seek out local food artisans from bread bakers to cheese makers. Need more snacks for the road trip? Stop at roadside stands boasting just-picked produce.
My summer vacation took me to rural Vermont for a gathering of family and friends in a quaint cottage on Shadow Lake. To give you an idea of how small the nearest town was, the only grocery store in Glover was filled with the furry works of a local taxidermist and also was the post office. Luckily for us, we arrived on Pie Day at Currier’s Quality Market, so my mother and I quickly claimed a freshly baked pie filled with wild blueberries.
Our friend David Carpenter, who lives in nearby Cabot (home to Cabot Creamery Cooperative), has an organic vegetable farm, so he showed up for dinner with armloads of just-picked lettuces, fingerling potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, basil and a few special cheeses from Cabot’s collection not widely sold in stores. How does smoky bacon horseradish cheddar sound? We played badminton, croquet and jumped in the lake. Who needs pool food?
Next stop on my New England tour of towns was Somesville, Maine, on Mount Desert Island, for my friend Jennifer Skiff’s birthday bash. This is lobster country, so my first meal had to include the sweet and succulent tastes of Maine’s famous food.
We dined in Bar Harbor at La Bella Vita in the Harborside Hotel. The lobster choices were as wide as the waterfront view. Lobster bisque, lobster rolls, lobster topped salads, lobster with pasta and a “lazy man’s” whole steamed lobster taken out of the shell. Nutritionally, lobster is a good source of protein and lower in calories than skinless chicken breast. Three ounces of lobster: 20 grams protein, 100 calories. That’s before you add the melted butter!
No matter where you roam, choosing small portions of big tastes is a great way to sample local specialties without breaking the calorie bank. At Rupunini’s in Bar Harbor, noted for its organic produce and sustainable seafood, I enjoyed a light lunch of seafood sliders, a trio of small buns filled with crab salad, lobster salad and seared tuna. Halibut is a locally caught fish on Maine menus, too.
And, of course, you’ll find tiny Maine blueberries presented in every form, from blueberry pancakes to blueberry beer. I tossed handfuls on top of Greek yogurt for breakfast and in ice cream for dessert. Being more active is the best way to compensate for eating more than usual on vacation.
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