Looking over this year’s coverage of food, drink, and all things cooking brought back some fond memories — mostly of last summer when we wrote about Lobsterville and Lambert’s Cove Inn, about hanging out on decks overlooking Oak Bluffs Harbor in the August sunshine.
One of the stories that stands out for me is when Vineyard Haven selectmen gave the go-ahead to serve liquor at the town’s restaurants. That’s when the Scorpion Bowl came to town. I rustled up co-workers on a September afternoon, and we tried a table full of apps at Copper Wok. We also tried the infamous Scorpion Bowl; we each had a straw in the game.
We had a sweet, sweet story from Sophia McCarron, who’s left us for a more worldly experience at University of Edinburgh. She walked us through a recipe for a sponge cake paired with rosewater whipped cream and raspberries. She made it for her dad for Father’s Day, and it’s a lovely story about the pitfalls of baking rescued by a good outcome. “Everyone was patient, however,” Sophia wrote, “and in the end, my dad went back for seconds.”
Brittany Bowker was impressed with her experience at the new Edgartown restaurant, 19 Raw. It has a polished outdoor bar where you can sip a Menemsha Mule. “Everything has a glossy finish in an upscale but casual way,” she wrote. It didn’t hurt that she tried Scallop Crudo and Tuna Carpaccio while she was there.
Lily Cowper, who at a tender age can do just about everything at the newspaper, gave us some insight into her culinary skills when she wrote “Eggs are easy” back in August.
“When in doubt, put an egg on it,” Lily wrote. She also wrote, “I wished the egg was easier to handle. Its cool exterior is misleading.”
Summer Dine stories were full of outdoor eating experiences, farm-to-table dining, and tall, cool drinks. Winter brought soup, burgers, and warm holiday treats. We had help from Catherine Walthers, who gave us recipes for every season, and Ava Castro from Island Grown Initiative, who kept us abreast of what was growing when. In one of our last issues of the year, sommelier Sam Decker returned to The Times to share his knowledge about wine in his column “The Sip.” Overall, we kept ourselves fed and interested in a year that some might say welcomed diversions.
