A Sentimental Journey Brings Pleasure for Eyes and Palate

This is an opportunity to step back in time to an era when dining aboard a luxury train was a statement of elegance and privilege. Newport Dinner Train offers dinner and luncheon trips during a 22-mile sentimental journey along scenic Narragansett Bay. Dine in a vintage rail car meticulously restored to the golden age of railroading, with plush velvet draperies and fine china, silver and crystal set on crisp white linens in the soft glow of candlelight. Enjoy black-tie service and excellent cuisine. The four-course dinners are prepared on board and presented tableside in a professional and timely fashion as you gaze upon scenic Narragansett Bay and beyond. Offered April through October. This is a Newport experience that you should not miss. Phone: 401-841-8700.

All Aboard Island Girl for Lobster Dinner on the Water

From single-malt scotch and baked lobster to Whoopie pies and chocolate milk – your idea of a fine dinner is at your disposal, with a fabulous sunset on the side, on a dinner cruise aboard the Island Girl, hosted by Seaward Charters. The company has two 44-foot luxury sport fishing yachts, one based in Warwick and the other in Point Judith. Along with sport fishing charters, Seaward also offers lunch or dinner-and-sunset cruises around Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound. Seaward engages a caterer to serve the menu of the passengers’ choice. Some guests choose a clam boil, prepared and served on the beach at one of the islands in the Bay or the Sound. The major task of the guests is to enjoy the sunset, pick up a napkin, and dig in. Phone: 401-739-5286.

Bounteous Fruits, Flowers, and Pastries Arise From This Farm

A visit to Moosup River Farm in Greene is nutritious for the body and soothing to the senses. This small family farm produces fresh vegetables, honey, flowers, beef, turkeys, and pigs. All of the produce is farm fresh; no antibiotics or growth hormones are fed to the animals. A new offering since 2006 is the Moosup River Farm at Knight Farm, which is a combination farm stand, café, and orchard at Route 116 and Snake Hill Road in Glocester. The formerly abandoned orchard is once again producing apples, peaches, plums, and heirloom apples. The Café offers breakfast and lunch, pastries, homemade pies and soups, desserts and specials. In 2008, the farm will sell field-cut flowers and vegetables. Visitors are welcome to walk the orchard and gardens. Phone: 401-949-7898.

Ciao! Federal Hill Is the Place for Italian Food

Food Network Chef Mario Batali calls Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood “one of the five best” Little Italy neighborhoods in the United States. Federal Hill is one of the most densely populated and largest Italian settlements in the nation. Italian restaurants, specialty and gourmet food shops, bakeries, and boutiques, among other businesses, line a mile-long strip of Atwells Avenue through this historic and authentically Italian section of Providence. From downtown Providence, visitors enter Atwells Avenue by passing below an arch bearing an ornate iron image of La Pigna, the Italian symbol of welcome. Most businesses on Federal Hill are family-owned. Live chickens, traditionally strong espresso and cappuccino, pastries and biscotti, cuts of cheese, meats, wine, olive oils, marmalades are available, as are a diverse and authentic selection of excellent Italian restaurants. Among the many fine restaurants are Camille's, Cassarino's Restaurant, Pane e Vino, and the Blue Grotto Restaurant.

Clam Chowder Doesn’t Get Better Than This

In the Ocean State, clams are found along the shores of Narragansett Bay and in the many salt ponds and estuaries along Rhode Island’s 400-mile coastline. Quahogs, the larger variety of clams, are used to make the famously delicious clam chowder. The Rhode Island version of clam chowder is made with a clear broth – no cream – thereby allowing the ocean-salty flavor of the clams to take center stage. Even in Rhode Island, though, the creamy New England clam chowder and the tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder are also widely served. The city of Newport holds a yearly Great Chowder Cook-off competition, when cooks compete for the title of the best chowder. The Mooring Restaurant in Newport (401-846-2260) took first place in 2007, so that is a good place to begin your taste survey of clam chowder. Also, the Boat House in Tiverton (401-624-6300), in the East Bay region, has won awards for most creative chowder.

Dairy Farmers and Bakers Working Hand-in-Hoof

To begin with, 130 Holstein cows give a lot of milk. Wright’s Dairy Farm and Bakery, a family-run operation in North Smithfield, milks that number of cows daily. The farm pasteurizes its own milk, which is sold at a retail store on the farm property, along with a luxurious variety of homemade baked goods like pastries, cookies, butter shortbread, éclairs, cakes, and tarts. Whipped cream made on the property fills the cream puffs, zeppoles, and rich chocolate cakes. The family business has been in continuous operation for more than 100 years and recipes for the baked goods have been handed down from generation to generation. Everything in the bakery is made on premises. The bakery doors open at 8 a.m. Visitors are welcome to come into the dairy barn from 3 to 5 p.m. daily, to watch the milking process and visit the animals. Phone: 877-227-9734.

DeWolf Tavern Is an East Bay Luxury of Food and Views

Rhode Island is blessed with an abundance of excellent restaurants as a consequence of its ethnic diversity, talented chefs, and the culinary arts program of Johnson & Wales University. One standout restaurant in the East Bay is DeWolf Tavern in the town of Bristol. The restaurant has a list of awards and commendations almost as long as its menu, including a recommendation in the February 2007 issue of Conde Nast Traveler. DeWolf Tavern is located in a historically renovated stone warehouse on the Thames Street Landing waterfront. Guests can enjoy the bay breeze on the patio in the warmer weather, or pop inside to enjoy the fireplace and a meal prepared by Chef Sai Viswanath. Chef Sai has created a cuisine that interprets contemporary American cuisine through the flavorful prism of Indian cuisine. Open daily, but call ahead for seasonal changes in hours. Phone: 401-254-2005.

History of Cooking on Display at This Museum

The Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Providence is a unique museum devoted to preserving the history of the culinary and hospitality industries. The museum contains more than 500,000 culinary items like antique stoves, kitchen gadgets of all vintages, a display of presidential state dinners, and other culinary showpieces. Within the overall museum are several specialty museums including the stove museum and the American Diner Museum, and the New England Tavern. See cookbooks dating back to the 1500s, more are than 4,000 menus, art works, artifacts, silver, kitchen gadgets, advertisements, autographs, and culinary showpieces. Julia Child and other famous chefs, restaurateurs, and food and wine-related corporations from around the world have been donating pieces or entire collections to this museum since collecting began in 1979. Phone: 401-598-2805.

Italian-Jewish Cuisine Has Roots in Rome, Promoter in Providence

Even before cooking class begins, Chef Walter Potenza of the Walter's Ristorante d'Italia in Providence presents a history lesson about a community of Italian Jews who have lived since the 16th century Rome. Potenza explains, “Over the centuries, Italy's Jews were often isolated from other Jewish communities, so they developed their own traditions of cooking. Roman Jewish food may not conform to the traditions of the Sephardic Jews of Spain and the Middle East, but has a definite Roman influenced cucina.” Then Chef Walter takes people out of the history books and into the kitchen for his hands-on cooking classes and private cooking parties. This spring, the month of March is devoted to ragús and stews and April is the month for fish stews and soups from the Abruzzo region. You don’t need to be Italian or Jewish to join in; you only need to love good food. Phone: 401-273-2652.

Johnny Cakes on the Menu Means You’ve Found Rhode Island

In the early1600s, Rhode Island was home to more than 7,000 Native Americans and corn was one of their staple crops. The English adopted corn cultivation, including the practice of grinding corn into a flour-like substance. Corn flour is the basic ingredient of Rhode Island johnny cakes, a thin, crispy corn pancake. (The name is derived from “journey cakes” because they were often made for travel.) A fine place to taste johnny cakes and other breakfast treats is the Seaview Station Family Restaurant in North Kingstown. The food is abundant and good; the waitresses are friendly and attentive; and kids will enjoy the model train, its boxcars plastered with old-time ads for Rhode Island businesses, that travels on a track encircling the main dining room. Open for breakfast and lunch year-round and for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays in the summer. Phone: 401-295-8666.

New England Diners

New England diners offer no-frills food, from corned beef hash to Boston cream pie

Authentic diners and traditional diner food are alive and sizzling in every corner of New England. From the outside, diners mark their territory with their characteristic barrel roofs, neon lighting, and fringe of cars and trucks with local license tags. Inside, counter stools and booths are packed with families craving hash browns, meat loaf, home made pie and other diner staples.

New England is the birthplace of the diner. In 1872, a pressman at the Providence Journal newspaper began to sell prepared food from a horse-drawn wagon outside the Journal building. Next, companies were founded to manufacture and sell “lunch wagons” with interior seating. Then others began buying old horse-drawn streetcars and converting them to diners. By the 1930s, diners began to adopt a more streamlined, railroad-car appearance. In the 1950s, diners began to lose customers to new fast-food establishments, but a diner revival began in the late 1970s. Hot spots for diner history also include Worcester, Massachusetts, home of the prolific Worcester Lunch Car Company.

The Web site www.dinercity.com has extensive listings of diners by state. Here are some highlights in New England:

Connecticut

Collin's Diner
Route 44, RR Square
Canaan, Connecticut
Phone: 860-774-1837
Notable: National Historic Landmark built in 1941. Open 7 days a week.

Curley's Diner
62 West Park Place
Stamford, Connecticut
Phone: 203-348-2020
Notable: Open 24 hours, near university, low prices, breakfast served day and night. Specialties are cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes.

Eggs Up Diner
1462 Portland Cobalt Road
Portland, Connecticut
Phone: 860-342-4968
Notable: Southern Eggs Benedict includes sausage gravy, a biscuit, and country ham. Really good food and service.

Norm’s Diner
171 Bridge Street
Groton, Connecticut
Phone: 860-445-5026
Notable: Popular with the locals, open 24/7. Great diner authenticity.

Olympia Diner
3414 Berlin Turnpike
Newington, Connecticut
Phone: 860-666-9948
Notable: 1950’s atmosphere with great neon lights. Great meatloaf and Olympian breakfast. Open daily until midnight.

O'Rourke's
728 Main Street
Middletown, Connecticut
Phone: 860-346-6101
Notable: Special dishes are the steamed cheeseburger — a Connecticut passion — 3-way chili “Seeley style” (named for the diner’s most devoted patron), and the tuna smelt.

Parkway Diner
1066 High Ridge Road
Stamford, CT,
Phone: 203-329-9511
Notable: Platter specials with big portions.

Quaker Diner
319 Park Road
West Hartford, Connecticut
Phone: 860-232-5523
Notable: Best breakfast in the world. Friendly people and great 1930s atmosphere. Super busy on Sundays after church.

Maine

A1 Diner
3 Bridge Street
Gardiner, Maine
Phone: 207-582-5586
Notable: This Worcester Diner arrived by truck in Gardiner in 1946. Flaky biscuits, grilled sandwiches and burgers are still favorites.

Brunswick Diner
101 1/2 Pleasant Street
Brunswick, Maine
Phone: 207-729-5948
Notable: This diner was a vintage Worcester Lunch Car that has gone under many renovations but has kept its charm and originality. Hot turkey sandwiches, breakfast at any time and thick frappes (milkshakes) are all good. Step up into the booths and play the Old Elvis songs on the juke box.

Becky's Diner
390 Commercial Street
Portland, Maine
Phone: 207-773-7070
Notable: Located right on Hobson's Wharf in the Old Port in Portland. Great breakfasts every time. Open 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

Maine Diner
2265 Post Road
Wells, Maine
Phone: 207-646-4441
Notable: Served its four millionth customer in fall 2005.

Moody’s Diner
U.S. Route 1
Waldoboro, Maine
Phone: 207-832-7785
Notable: The blueberry muffins won a gold medal from the Culinary Hall of Fame and Gourmet magazine has requested the recipe for the world-famous walnut pie.

Miss Portland Diner
49 Marginal Way
Portland, Maine
Phone: 207-773-3246
Notable: The diner appeared in the Mel Gibson film “Man Without a Face.” It is an original 1949 Worcester diner filled with Art Deco influence and lots of families.

Palace Diner
18 Franklin Street
Biddeford, Maine
Phone: 207 282-6468
Notable: A landmark 15-stool diner 1926 Pollard diner where mayors and mill workers have eaten side by side for almost 80 years.

Massachusetts

Al Mac’s Diner
135 President Avenue
Fall River, Massachusetts
Phone: 508-679-5851
Notable: Slogan is "Justly Famous Since 1910." Built in 1954 by the DeRaffle Manufacturing Company of New Rochelle, New York.

Arthur's Paradise Diner
112 Bridge Street
Lowell, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-452-8647
Notable: Authentic Worcester Diner car, circa 1937. A favorite item is the Double Meat Boot Mill Sandwich, with egg, home fries, cheese and bacon on a grilled roll, is a real stick-to-your-ribs breakfast.

Agawam Diner
Route 1 and 133
Rowley, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-948-7780
Notable: Tiny chrome diner with red vinyl seats. Hamburger plates, grilled cheese sandwiches, beef stew and terrific pies. Great prices too.

Blue Bonnet Dinner
324 King Street
Northampton, Massachusetts
Phone: 413-584-3333
Notable: “Has to be one of the best diners in New England.” Daily specials.

Boulevard Diner
155 Shrewbury Street
Worcester, Massachusetts
Phone: 508-791-4535
Notable: A classic Worcester Lunch Car with the wooden interior and wooden booths. Fluffy omelets, cheese steaks, and Brazilian-style hamburgers.

Deluxe Town Diner
627 Mount Auburn Street
Watertown, Massachusetts
Phone: 617-926-8400
Notable: Great breakfast. Many healthy choice meals. Classic dishes and unique desserts every day. Sweet potato pancakes with real Massachusetts maple syrup.

Morgan Square Diner
6 Myrtle Avenue
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-343-9549
Notable: Manufactured in 1941 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, with porcelain exterior, hardwood interior, beautiful Gothic lettering.

Miss Florence Diner
99 Main Street
Florence, Massachusetts
Phone: 413-584-3137
Notable: Classic techno-fifties diner with large portions of good food. Table juke-boxes to entertain. Pancakes are terrific.

Salem Diner
326 Canal Street
Salem, Massachusetts
Phone: 978-471-7918
Notable: This Sterling Streamliner was built by the J.B. Judkins Company in 1941 and has occupied a small lot at 326 Canal Street for nearly 60 years.

New Hampshire

Littleton Diner
145 Main Street
Littleton, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-444-3994
Notable: Traditional New England home-cooked food. Great cheeseburgers, French fries, meat loaf, and corned beef hash.

Plain Jane's Diner
Route 25
Rumney, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-786-2525
Notable: This beautiful 1954 O’Mahoney sits in the middle of nowhere, on a long stretch of mostly deserted but highly traveled mountain highway. A tasteful and tasty experience.

Peterborough Diner
10 Depot Street
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-924-6202
Notable: The Boston cream pie is out-of-this-world great.

Sunny Day Diner
Connector Road
Lincoln, NH
Phone: 603-745-4833
Notable: Beautifully restored diner made by the Master Company of Pequannock, NJ in 1958. The owner-chef is a Culinary Institute of America graduate. Everything is delicious and prepared from scratch. Don’t leave without having a piece of pie.

The Red Arrow Diner
61 Lowell Street
Manchester, New Hampshire
603-626-1118
Notable: Slogan: “We really serve it on a blue plate,” the diner says of its Blue Plate Specials.

The Tilt'n Diner
Exit 20 off Route 93
Tilton, New Hampshire
Phone: 603-286-2204
Notable: Slogan: “Think ‘Happy Days’ in New Hampshire”

Rhode Island

Haven Brothers
Parking space next to City Hall
Providence, Rhode Island
Notable: This historic figure is towed every night to the edge of Kennedy Plaza next to City Hall, this classic stainless-steel diner serves up food all night long to club goers, bikers, and other wanderers. Two barstool-style seats at a short counter are the only indoor seating. Outdoor annex seating is the front steps of City Hall.

Seaplane Diner
307 Allen Ave. at Mural Street
Providence, Rhode Island
Phone: 401-941-9547
Notable: A true mobile diner in every sense of the word. Many hidden surprises and nuances in their menu offerings. The service is terrific.

Jigger’s
145 Main St.
East Greenwich, Rhode Island
Phone: 401-884-5388
Notable: The best Johnny cakes (cornmeal pancakes) on the planet, according to aficionados.

Bishop's 4th Street Diner
184 Admiral Kalbfus Road
Newport, Rhode Island
401-847-2069
Notable: Thin and crispy Johnnycakes and biscuits and gravy that are not to be missed. Try the Portuguese sweet bread. Service is great and prices are what you want from a diner.

Modern Diner
364 East Ave
Pawtucket, RI 02860
Phone: 401- 726-8390
Notable: 1941 Streamliner Diner. First diner to be listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Cash only. Hearty breakfasts and great meatloaf.

Vermont

Blue Benn Diner
314 North Street
Bennington, VT
Phone: 802-442-5140
Notable: Authentic diner. Specialties include turkey hash, breakfast burritos, all sorts of pancakes and lots of vegetarian options. Local people rate it as the best diner in the country.

Chelsea Royal Diner
Route 9 West
Brattleboro, Vermont
Notable: 1938 Worcester Diner with breakfast and dinner specials and three or four blue plate dinners every day.

Farmers Diner
5573 Woodstock Road (Route 4)
Quechee, Vermont
Phone: 802-295-4600
Notable: Everything on the menu is from local farmers.

Miss Bellows Falls Diner
90 Rockingham
Bellows Falls, Vermont
Phone: 802-463-9800
Notable: Built in the 1920s by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, Vermont's only surviving barrel-roofed diner was moved here from Massachusetts in 1942. Look for part of an earlier name painted on the back.

Putney Diner
Main Street
Putney, Vermont
Phone: 802-387-5433
Notable: Serving classic Vermont cooking with a few surprises, like the Cajun Skillet Breakfast, a short, tasty trip from sugar maple forests to the Gulf Coast bayous. Also displays the work of local artists.

T.J. Buckley’s Uptown Dining
132 Elliot Street
Brattleboro, Vermont
Phone: 802-257-4922
Notable: T.J. Buckley's Uptown Dining Some say this is a Worcester from the 1920s; others claim it is a converted. Unusually tiny in size, with two seatings per night.

Yankee Diner
Quechee Village, Route 4
Quechee, Vermont
Phone: 802-296-7911
Notable: a beautifully restored 1946 Worcester Streamliner.

Diner Slang

Cup of Joe or Java -- cup of coffee
Adam and Eve on a Raft -- two eggs on toast
Soup jockey – waitress
Sun kiss -- orange juice
Baby juice -- glass of milk
Life preservers – donuts
Blowout patches with Vermont – pancakes with maple syrup
Wreck ’em -- scrambled eggs
Shingle with a shimmy and a shake -- toast with jelly
Burn the British -- toasted English muffin
Sweep the kitchen or Clean up the kitchen -- a plate of hash
Noah’s boy on bread – a ham sandwich
Cow paste – butter
Dog soup – glass of water
M.D. – Dr. Pepper
Mike and Ike – salt and pepper shakers
Sea dust – salt

And, to order a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion, your waitress may tell the cook to “burn one, drag it through the garden, and pin a rose on it.”

Web Sites

American Diner Museum

i Love Diners.com

Diner City

Diner Reading

Lost Diners and Roadside Restaurants of New England and New York, Will Anderson, 2001.

American Diner, Richard Gutman, 1979.

Diners: People and Places, Gerd Kittel, 1990.

Blue Plate Specials and Blue Ribbon Chefs: The Heart and Soul of America's Great Roadside Restaurants, Jane Stern, 2001.

Greasy Spoon. A quarterly periodical.

New England Foods

New England cookery combines the older English methods of steaming and boiling with ingredients familiar to Native Americans, like corn, game, shellfish, potatoes, cranberries, maple syrup, and cornmeal. New England has meager and rocky soil but it has a bounty of fish — especially cod — and shellfish, including clams, oysters, and lobster. Boston baked beans, which became a Saturday supper staple because of the Puritans’ Sabbath rules, cranberry dishes of all kinds, and maple syrup and candy have all found a place in the American palate through New England.

Clambake The New England clambake is both a meal and an outdoor construction project. The work begins with cooks assembling the ingredients (lobsters, whole fish, ears of corn, clams, mussels, red bliss potatoes, and onions) and cooking gear (firewood, charcoal, stones, seaweed, tarps, and shovels). The crew begins by digging a hole – preferably on the beach -- and lining it with stones, wood, and charcoal. Essentially, they are creating a below-ground bonfire and heating the rocks to create a steam bath for the food. When the wood has burned down to ash, saturated seaweed is laid over the hot rocks, creating a pit of steam. Small packets of seafood, corn, and potatoes wrapped in wet cheesecloth are laid on top of the seaweed. The food packets are covered with more seaweed, and the whole pit is covered with a tarp for up to about two hours. At the end of the cooking time, the food is unearthed and served with lots of drawn butter and compliments for the cooks.

Lobster A New England lobster feast is no place for the shy or faint of heart. It takes work and skill to bust open the exoskeleton of the bright-orange, spiny beast, but the delicate taste of the lobster meat, dipped in drawn butter, is well worth the effort. The most popular variety in the United States is the Maine lobster. It has five pairs of legs; the first pair is large, heavy claws that contain a good amount of meat. The other meat-rich portion of the animal is its tail. Boiled lobster is served with a bib, drawn butter, a cracking tool, and a narrow fork for easing the meat out of the broken shell.

Cod Cape Cod, the sand-scoured curl of land extending from Massachusetts into the Atlantic, didn’t get its name for nothing. Cod is New England’s fish, a white, lean, firm and mild-tasting meat. Cod and scrod (the name for young cod and haddock) can be baked, broiled, poached and fried. Whole fish, which can range in weight from one-and-a-half to 100 pounds, can be stuffed. Cod cheeks and tongues are a local delicacy.

Clam Chowder Clam chowder has many varieties, and each has its loyal following. One three-way division of clam chowders is New England clam chowder, with a creamy broth; Rhode Island clam chowder, with a clear broth; and Manhattan clam chowder, with a tomato-based broth. The chowders made by early settlers used salt pork and biscuits. Today chowder cooks discard the biscuits, but often sprinkle crackers on top of the chowder. Clams, hard or soft, are the basis of the most common chowders, but other types of fish are often used, depending on the season and the catch. According to “50 Chowders” by Jasper White, the oldest known fish chowder recipe in print appeared in the Boston Evening Post on September 23, 1751.

Cranberries Shiny, scarlet cranberries have a bigger job than just looking beautiful on the Thanksgiving dinner table. They grow wild but also are extensively cultivated in huge, sandy bogs, mostly in Massachusetts. The peak period to buy and use fresh cranberries is October through December. Apart from cranberry sauce, this fruit makes delicious chutneys, pies, and cobblers. Because they are sour, cranberries are best combined with other fruits, such as apples or dried apricots.

Maple Sugar The maple forests of northern New England do more than cover the hills with blankets of gold every fall. In later winter – February to March — the combination of freezing nights and warmer days causes sap in the maple trees to begin to move. The Indians collected sap by making slashes in the tree trunks. Early European settlers in New England at first copied the Indians’ sap-collection methods, but by 1800 they began harvesting the sap by drilling a small hole in the tree and inserting a tube made from a hollowed twig. In the early years, maple sap was boiled down and made into maple sugar, not syrup, because it was easier to store the dried and hardened sugar. Early makers of maple products boiled sap in iron kettles hanging over an open fire. This process evaporated water out of the sap, leaving the essential syrup. When it was thickened, the syrup was stirred until it began to crystallize, and then poured into molds. Today, during March and April, hundreds of sugar houses all over New England welcome visitors to watch the process and taste the fruits of the maple tree.

Boston Baked Beans The short definition of Boston baked beans is dried navy beans baked slowly with molasses and salt pork. The early colonists learned to cook dried beans from the American Indians, who would dig pits in the earth and slow-cook beans with maple sugar and bear fat. This dish evolved into baked beans with salt pork and molasses. It was traditionally served on Saturday nights in Colonial times. The Puritan Sabbath — when no cooking could be done — ran from sundown Saturday to sundown on Sunday. Puritan wives baked beans in brick ovens on Saturday for that night’s supper. The leftovers were still warm when the family returned from church Sunday morning.

New England Boiled Dinner This dinner, with roots in Ireland, is a one-pot meal native to New England that contains various ingredients, but primarily corned beef, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and potatoes. These ingredients, along with seasonings, are added at various times during cooking and slowly simmered together to create a hearty one-pot meal. Common condiments include horse radish, mustard, and vinegar. The dish is representative of the cultural heritage of the region, notably that of the Irish.

New England is Apple Country Apple growing has found a fertile home in rocky soils, long, hot summers, and crisp fall days of New England. The New England apple industry is still largely family-owned and orchards are an important community resource. Many growers offer pick-your-own sales and farm stands that sell homemade apple butter, applesauce, pies, and other treats. Among the other treats is apple cider -- fermented (“hard”) or non-fermented. Until the mid-1800s, hard cider was the most popular beverage in North America because apples were plentiful; it was cheap to make; and, unlike milk, it would not go bad. All the colonists, young and old, drank hard cider at all types of family and church occasions.

This Bazaar Features Delicacies from California to Europe

Cheese hounds will find a friend at the Milk & Honey Bazaar at Tiverton Four Corners. The neighborhood itself, containing about two dozen charming small specialty stores, is a cluster of buildings dating, in some cases, back to the 1750s. Visitors to the Milk & Honey Bazaar may sample some of the 100 varieties of cheese arriving from France, Spain, Wales, Normandy, Norway, England, Italy, Switzerland, Connecticut, Wisconsin, New York, California, and other cheese-making places. Milk and Honey Bazaar also carries pâtés, smoked meats, olive oils, vinegars, mustards, honey, flatbreads, baguettes, and an assortment of seasonal vegetables. Crackers are a favorite with cheese and the variety here is supreme. They include: Mustard Seed and Black Pepper, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sea Salt Crackers, Celery Crackers, and Chive Crackers. The staff is happy to advise customers on the best matches of cheeses to crackers, breads and spreads. Phone: 401-624-1974.