IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK; GETTY. ILLUSTRATION: TANYA COOPER
NEW ENGLAND
Q&A Sebastian Belle, director of the Maine Aquaculture Association
WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM MAINE’S FOOD SCENE? We have one of the highest per capita concentrations of James Beard [culinary award] nominees and winners in the country — and our aquaculture products and oysters feature prominently.
WHICH DISH CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF MAINE? A ‘shore dinner’. We gather on a beach, build a firepit and line it with stones. We let the fire die down and pile lobsters, mussels, oysters and clams in between layers of seaweed over the coals, covering the whole thing with more seaweed, husked corn and a top sheet of canvas. Half an hour later, the seafood flavours have mingled, and the corn is moist and sweet.
Nantucket’s Jetties Beach to catch a sunset overlooked by a lighthouse as stripy as a prep school tie. Bed down in one of the captains’ houses turned cottages.
nantucketferries.com
CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS
Leaving Nantucket, it’s another two-hour ferry to mainland Cape Cod, the fi shing hook-shaped peninsula that’s as romantic and windblown as New England gets. It only takes around 90 minutes to drive but merits much more time. The fi shing community of Chatham has clapboard houses, picket fences and crab cakes. An eco-cruise from Harwich Port takes you to sand spits populated by grey seal pods. The Cape Cod National Seashore, meanwhile, is 30 miles of umbrella-free beaches. Journey’s end brings travellers to Provincetown, one of America’s great LGBTQ+ destinations, with bars, carnival colour and burlesque clubs.
KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE A four-hour drive north, Kennebunkport is often introduced as Maine’s prettiest town. It deserves that billing, with mansion houses,
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, MAINE
The classic New England coastal scene, familiar from a million photographs, might just be of this national park on Mount Desert Island, with several ocean-bracing nooks. Base yourself in Bar Harbor, a three-hour drive from Kennebunkport and the main jumping-off point to discover this 47,000-acre landscape. The quirks of the topography here give rise to granite cliff s topped by lighthouses, silvery lakes to cannonball into and countryside ideal for hiking and camping. Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the region’s Atlantic coast, is not to be missed.
nps.gov
HOW TO DO IT: Trailfinders’ 15-day Lobsters & Lighthouses of Massachusetts & Maine self-drive tour costs from £2,879 per person, including car hire and accommodation but not flights.
trailfinders.com
fetching docks and streets with antique stores and old-time sweet shops. It’s a slow sort of place; if you want more excitement, tag on an extra day and head to Portland, the state capital 40 minutes to the north.
WHAT OTHER EXPERIENCE DO YOU RECOMMEND? The Maine Oyster Trail highlights local farmers. We started it eight years ago and it’s become one of the most popular ways to sample our local pride and joy. You can visit places like Spartan Sea Farms in Portland’s Casco Bay area, or Maine Ocean Farms in nearby Freeport. Another must is a Portland raw bar like Scales.
maineoystertrail.com
WHAT MAKES MAINE OYSTERS SO COVETED? Our water is cold and clean, so they grow slowly and acquire special ‘merroir’ — that’s the flavour that comes from an area’s unique marine environment. Our oysters tend to be high in glycogen, which makes them sweet and almost buttery in flavour.
From top: Commercial Street in Provincetown, on Cape Cod; hiking in Acadia National Park
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