Organic in New Hampshire

Have you ever been on a vacation, indulged in all the local food, and gained 5 lbs in 3 weeks? Well I just got back from doing that and had a blast! Read below to experience some of the fun I had. 

This August I stayed in Rye, New Hampshire since last Saturday enjoying the beautiful beaches, weather, and food. I was not in any position where I could cook my own meals, so I ate home-cooked meals by my boyfriends mother and went out to eat local everyday. I may have a gained a few inches here and there, but what is a vacation if you're not enjoying the food and fun of the natives?

Staying in New England has given me the opportunity to eat loads of seafood for a very low price. This is a picture of my first Halibut sandwich at Ronnie's Seafood. We drove down from Chappaqua, NY and stopped halfway at this cute place in Auburn, Mass. They have two separate places in on parking lot that are owned and operated by the same staff: one that serves seafood and the other that serves up ice creams and frappes. (Frappe is the word New England uses for milkshakes.)

It has this cute outdoor picnic area to sit after you order and pay at the window. You can see the locals, as well as the people like us that stopped off the highway to grab some grub. I normally don't eat fried foods but had to start my trip off right: trying something new. 

Next stop was the beach house where I was staying. It was the boyfriend's brothers birthday so the festivities were on. For dinner I had a home prepared lobster roll, green salad, and Utz potato chips. The lobster roll was great! It was assembled from finely chopped "lazy-mans" lobster, mixed with a mayo, salt, and pepper. I was in heaven. I didn't take any pictures of the homemade food to keep my impression as a nice, normal girl...and not the tourist who is taking pictures of everything. I've had lobster rolls once before at a restaurant in California named Opah, but these homemade ones beat them out of the ballpark like the Yankees versus a Little League team. 

The following afternoon the group of kids in the house (which were all adults under the age of 32) traveled a short distance to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for a yummy brunch. The Friendly Toast is a hipster-ravished, eerily-decorated, mound of yummy foods that cater to everyone. Trying to be slightly healthy, I ordered up the "Kate's Tofu Scramble" which had tofu that looked like scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, mushrooms, corn, and cilantro. It comes with feta and provolone but I'm lactose-intolerant so I said, "Hold the cheese please!" The meal also came with baby red potato hash browns and a humongous slice of cinnamon-raisin bread which tasted like a cinnamon roll. I covered my plate in sugar-free syrup and went to town. I think I had a tiny dinner that night because that plate was full of calories and goodness! Here is me hugging an animatronic cheetah that moved it's tail and mouth if you turned a dial. Tara, my boyfriends cousin, suggested I should hug it like I just caught it. I was happy to oblige, as you can see from my creepy smile. :) 

So you might be asking by now, why is this title contain the word organic if you're not eating anything organic? Well let's just say it is hard to find...and pay for! The house had plenty of organic vegetables in the fridge, but the restaurants, less the five star ones, didn't have organic products on their menus. I set my organic-ness aside for the time being and enjoyed the meat-free, dairy-free delights that entered my mouth...until I found these places. :) 

There was one day that I stopped by this place called "The Juicery." It was near the Friendly Toast, as I saw us drive by it on our way back and thought to myself, "I have to try that!" It's a stop-in and order kinda place that has organic juices, smoothies, and wraps. I ordered the "American" which was sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine, and a non-dairy creamy dill sauce in a whole wheat tortilla. Sounds like my normal veggie sandwich I get from my beloved Bagels N' Brew. But this one was all organic, local, and fresh... and delicious! We sat on these cute little benches outside because there was no room for chairs and tables inside.

 

On Sunday after a few hours of Cupcake Wars, I was craving one of my own. I looked up vegan places on Happy Cow to find The Portsmouth Baking Co. that served up a vegan cupcake of the day. I was overjoyed and ready to jump in the car. Below is a regular dairy-ful peanut buttercup cupcake alongside my beautiful (and I might add huge) chocolate coconut cupcake. Have you ever had a Costco muffin? They were that big! I got a definite sugar rush, but wasn't too full for dinner. (Eat dessert first!) Afterwards we headed for an Organic pizza and movie. 

Flatbread Co. in Portsmouth, NH is an organic, locally sourced ingredients, hippie and hipster haven. They offered all types of salads, flatbreads, and organic meats. Here are some random photos around the place. We only got food to go, but I definitely want to make time to visit another Flatbread Co. It reminded me of my dearly beloved ZPizza here in Orange County, but was a camp-cafeteria style eatery with a more hippie feel to it. As my sister would say, "Perfect!"

As we waited for our pizza to go since we were off to a movie (Crazy, Stupid, Love), I saw these awesome lamp and chair duo. It really made me feel like I was in a "green" setting and that this company was 100% eco-friendly. My boyfriend thought I was ridiculous to take so many random pics of meaningless things, but I had to give you an idea of this place somehow! Don't you love that peace tomato painting? 

I had many more meals and adventures in New Hampshire and this is only a snippet of them. I'm looking forward to going back next summer to explore more!