So every summer around late July or early August, Jackie and I like to make our way out to the north fork on the east end of Long Island in Suffolk County, around the Laurel to Cutchogue stretch of Highway 25 and stop at one of the 5 or 6 or maybe 7 stands that sell roasted corn and eat an ear or two. It is something that seems like a real Long Island thing, in as much as we have spent a lot of time in corn country from upstate New York to Kansas and Nebraska and have never seen it anywhere else. Maybe it is my imagination, but I think you can taste the morning mist of the Long Island Sound in the produce out there.
Although you might not think so, the do take their corn seriously on the North Fork, possibly because it is such an anomaly in a place that wrote the book on the horrors of suburban sprawl, the Long Island Expressway aka "the world's longest parking lot" and gave birth to Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin, and Lindsey Lohan, et al.
We've eaten at a few, but more recently, we have settled on Schmitt's, right across the street from the Laurel Post office.
That's me eating corn at Schmid's..I look a little demonic especially because this year, we were kind of disappointed. The corn was soft and well cooked, dipped in butter and served with the husk pulled back to hold onto, but it wasn't particularly sweet or tasty. So much so that while I am always open to second chances, if we are disappointed next year, we will move on. There are lots of choices, Hardly an exhaustive list, since we didn't go out too far due to time constraint, but you might check out...or keep going on the 25 and see what's out there.
Harbe's looked good, maybe next year, we'l give it a try...
They do try hard to make an impression so who knows? There is also a place called Gabrielson's that looked quite good as well as Bayview Market Farms where the picture of the truck at the top was taken. As I seem to have said, this is hardly an exhaustive overview. There are lots more so look around. Took the next picture at a place called Wells Homestead. No roasted corn, but they do sell duck eggs among other things, very LI.
A few more random shots of a day roaming around.
The town beach in New Suffolk overlooking the Peconic Bay. Since I'm on the subject of north shore LI beaches, took the next on at the Bayville town beach on the sound right before Center Island last August and was looking for a place to put it.
The Mattituck Presbyterian Church shot from the Old Bethany Burial Ground. As I get older, I have been taking fewer and fewer cemetery photos, so this is a rare one for me lately. And last but not least, is a strange photo of a photo, one of many scattered around Riverhead in which this photographer took the photos of the eyes of locals in town, printed them on a cloth mask which she wore and took a picture of herself wearing their eyes in front of their house or place of business or whatever and posted them where ever appropriate. There were many I just took this one. Did a Google search, but was not able to track down the artist. Strange!!!
Pablo
