Over the summer my family and I visited Boothbay and Bar Harbor, Maine, a trip which, while having its ups and downs, honestly ended up being really cool.
First, onto the good stuff. Most of the food I had was pretty delicious, though I don’t usually find myself branching out in terms of trying new food. I personally don’t like seafood, so I mostly avoided it during this trip. The closest I got to eating it was on the first night in Boothbay when I ordered a Chicken Caesar salad that tasted a bit fishier than I expected (I didn’t have any more Caesar salad during the trip). One meal of note was the absolutely banging hamburger that I decided to order after I saw my sister get it. I had originally ordered some type of salad with blood orange dressing but pushed it to the side immediately when I saw how delicious the burger looked. Granted, I couldn’t eat anything until way later that night (I don’t eat meat very often, so I felt a bit nauseous for the next few hours, so I know I’m crazy to say that it was worth it). This meal was after our e-bike tour around the harbor, so I had definitely worked up an appetite that a measly salad couldn’t satisfy.
I know this doesn’t technically count as “Maine food,” but some of the snacks we brought fit the vibe of the trip in my opinion. At night, we would all sit out on our balconies looking over the harbor while I drew in my sketchbook and ate BBQ Pringles. On one of the more mild nights there was even a boat light show. The last meal of Boothbay was an unexpected one because we spent the better part of half an hour trying to find somewhere to eat. We finally came across a restaurant in a little corner of the town where I ordered vegetable dumplings and a dish that had chips and guacamole along with pitas and hummus. They were both appetizers, but this was my favorite meal of Boothbay, so I’m glad it ended on a high note.
Before we got to Bar Harbor for the second part of our trip, we went to a place called Moody’s Diner for breakfast. I mention this (and emphasize that it was breakfast) because I ordered and consumed a piece of cheesecake with a strawberry glaze because I missed non-ice cream desserts so much. We’ll address this in just a bit.
We did a lot of hiking in Acadia Park, another activity that worked up an appetite, so having good food here was also very important. Though the weather was constantly cloudy which resulted in an eerie feeling of never knowing exactly what time of day it was, we still hiked at different locations at Acadia each of the days we were in Bar Harbor. On the first night I ordered a BLAT (BLT with avocados) and onion rings. After another one of our ventures to Acadia we drove into town for lunch and I got this really flavorful salad with roasted vegetables, which I can’t remember the name of. We also encountered another staple of Maine displaying its love of ice cream, which was Baxter, the mascot of ice cream. To give our trip a proper send-off, I ordered yet another salad and yet another cheesecake at our last restaurant in Bar Harbor. I know I said Caesar salad was the closest I got to eating seafood, but just look at the lobster made out of blackberry glaze.
I think I should now address the elephant in the room (or the title), the ice cream. One of the first things I noticed in Boothbay, after the first meal and walk around town, was that there seemed to only be one type of dessert available: ice cream. This needed its own category because while ice cream isn’t inherently bad, it was truly criminal that it was the only dessert available within a ten-mile radius for most of the trip. Despite the bright pink neon sign, ice cream does not solve everything. I’m not completely against eating ice cream, but it’s nowhere near my favorite dessert, hence the cheesecake for breakfast at Moody’s.
Despite the cloudy and rainy weather, and of course my nemesis, the ice cream, this ended up being a really fun trip. I enjoyed some tried and true foods like salad, though I appreciated how each restaurant put a unique twist on it, and even enjoyed the new foods I tried like the burger and veggie dumplings with soy sauce. The sights, smells, and tastes really drove away the relentless fog and mild temperatures to reveal a truly unique and fun vacation.
