Dojny (The New England Cookbook) has created a dependable travel guide for seafood lovers touring the Northeast while simultaneously offering mouthwatering recipes sure to torture those who have no access to fresh seafood or a decent deep fryer. From coastal Connecticut up through Maine, 25 clam shacks, lobster pounds and chowder houses are lovingly mapped, photographed or illustrated, and profiled with their specialty dishes presented for home cooks to take their best shot at. For those who can't make the trip, there are recipes from Two Lights Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where the fresh lobster is drizzled in butter and perked with paprika; there is also Roast Bluefish (served at The Place in Guilford, Conn.), which is caught in the Long Island Sound by the same men who immediately grill it over hickory and oak with just a little lemon and butter. Even a Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Tomato gains elite status—served by the Cod End Cookhouse in Maine, done up on bread made of oatmeal and molasses. The book also offers all the tips one would expect on how to eat lobster, shuck oysters, dig clams and fillet a fish. Lessons on regionalism include proper usage of Stuffies (i.e., stuffed clams, or stuffed quahogs, depending on where you are) and a heap of New England Clam Chowder variations, some with salt pork, and a Rhode Island Red Chowder that dares to use tomato. Other fun features include photos of essential local ingredients like Snow's All Natural Clam Juice and Golden Dipt Fry Easy breading. (May)
