July 2024 – Page 2 – Deep Fried Kudzu

July 15, 2024July 19, 2024

Yoken’s Whale Sign, Portsmouth NH

Thar She Blows!
Yoken’s Neon Sign
Portsmouth NH, 2024

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July 10, 2024July 23, 2024

New Haven Pizza, Yale & Harvard

We’re in the midst of college tours for Shug, and as part of our New England trip this summer (Shug’s now overseas for the summer and we have Shugie here a bit longer before he leaves the country) wanted to show Shugie some of the big universities in this part of the country.

In New Haven, of course, Yale.

And lunch! New Haven is famous for a certain coal-fired pizza like at Pepe’s

They had a nice-size queue outside too

but we decided to have lunch at Zeneli’s Pizzeria e cucina Napoletana further down Wooster Street. We ate outside and the weather was terrific. Shugie gets all the credit because he picked Zeneli himself (here’s a piece about them from CT Insider)

above, we started with the ricotta e miele

the meatball appetizer was my dish

and the tre carni pizza with spicy salami, proscuitto cotto, sweet salami, and basil got a great reception too

Shugie spotted Libby’s Italian Pastry Shoppe across the street so we hopped over

and this was the selection — a peanut butter cheesecake, a peanut butter cannoli, and a Heath bar cannoli.

And next we were off to Cambridge, where one of my besties works at Harvard. My sweet-sweet Suzanne showed Shugie some of the oldest parts of the school (and he did a good walk too) and we were really taken with the newer buildings:

It was great to see my niece-doggy Tulip, and we had a terrific supper at Waypoint

oysters

Shug’s Jonah crab angel hair pasta

salt & pepper soft shell crabs

fish & chips

BTW, we happened to drive by the Julia Child home in Cambridge — it’s a private residence, so there’s nothing to stop for. If you visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, there’s a replica (down to things placed *exactly* as she had them) of her kitchen. Some pics from my last visit in 2020:

Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is on exhibit through September 2, 2024 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.

July 8, 2024July 9, 2024

Touro Synagogue, The Oldest Standing Synagogue in the US

I just got back from a trip to (mostly) New England and Canada; one stop was in Rhode Island at Touro Synagoge, built 1763, making it the oldest standing synagogue in the United States. The congregation there actually first met in 1658.

Above: the mezuzah at the entrance

The architect Peter Harrison who was a Newport resident started as a sea captain and was active in the rum trade, which was a huge part of Newport’s commerce at that time. He also designed in Newport the Redwood Library (1748–49), Touro Synagogue (1759–63), and Brick Market (c. 1760). Elsewhere, there’s Christ Church in Cambridge (1761) and King’s Chapel in Boston (1749–54).

I’m a big Roosevelt fan and that includes both TR and FDR and Eleanor, especially Eleanor! — I’ve visited Christ Church in Cambridge where TR was a Sunday School teacher while attending Harvard and that post is here.

Featured prominently in the tour is the letter George Washington wrote to the congregation in August 1790, and is read aloud at Touro in commemoration yearly each third Sunday of August.

In part:
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

Touro serves as a museum and is a National Historic Site of the National Park Service, the Orthodox congregation (different from the original as there was a lengthy break in meetings and the makeup of the membership changed) conducts services weekly and on holidays.

July 7, 2024July 9, 2024