Family reunion this weekend to celebrate 2 milestone birthdays. We rented a big house at the coast in Charlestown RI (with my parents and my brother’s family from NY). We stopped for lunch at Mews Tavern on Friday before meeting up with the rest of my family. Simple pub fare always reliably good and lots of tasty beer on tap. My salad with mahi-mahi was large and fresh but the amount of fish was stingy. But I chalk these types of observations up to Covid. B was happy with his Cobb salad topped with salmon. Spring Onion barely touched his mac and cheese - too excited to see his cousins.
Friday dinner, my bro and SIL went to town, grilling Fred Flintstone-sized steaks, making garlic shrimp, asparagus, potatoes cooked in bacon fat, Korean banchan (cabbage kimchee and cucumbers) from mom, blistered shishitos. Forgot to take a photo! Lots of wine. 
Celebratory lunch yesterday (Saturday) at Matunuck Oyster Bar, which was crazy busy. Thankfully, we had a reservation. Mussels in white wine sauce and oyster sample to start (forgot to take a photo beforehand). I had a cup of clear RI-style chowder and I can never pass up linguine and clams (chowder was a tad too salty but I love a clear chowder and the linguine needed a little umami but the clams were ridiculously flavorful - I wished some had been chopped and mixed into the pasta). Grilled salmon for my bro and dad (plus NE-style chowder for my bro), a tuna poke bowl for mom (mom loved it), lobster roll for B (as good as usual), pasta with fresh marinara for Spring Onion, burger and fish sticks for the cousins. The adults were particularly envious of the good-looking fish sticks. Awesome fries. The one bummer was SIL’s scallops dish. The scallops were cooked beautifully but the veggies underneath was just a big steamed pile of stuff that didn’t have much flavor or textural contrast. I could tell as soon as it hit the table that it didn’t look awesome. She didn’t want to send it back. The Skouros Greek white went down way too easily. Weird lighting because we were seated under the “big top,” which was literally a circus-looking tent. Perry, the owner, checked in with many tables, including ours. @passing_thru I hope you make it there this summer.
Saturday evening was pizza night - my bro and SIL are Costco shoppers we’re not) so that meant pre-made pizza shells. Spring Onion was like, “I’m going to make my pizza in the shape of Massachusetts,” and was surprised when my bro showed him the “pizza dough.” If I had time, I would’ve made dough but alas, work got in the way. Oh well. The kids were happy and the adults liked the pizza I assembled with leftover steak and thinly sliced leftover potato. I passed on pizza after the giant plate of linguine at lunch and stuck with a small bit of rice with mom’s miyuk guk (seaweed soup, which is traditionally eaten on one’s birthday) and more banchan. And we broken out the bottle of Caymus Cabernet that we’ve been holding onto for a special occasion. Which swiftly disappeared. Again, forgot photos.
Today (Sunday), we checked out and headed to our RI vacation home. We needed lunch and went to Aidan’s, a comfy pub in Bristol. Spring Onion desperately wanted…you guessed it, a hot dog. I wanted RI chowder again but they were out so hot NE chowder (theirs is delicious, ungloppy and tasting of the sea) and smoked salmon plate with horseradish cream, capers, and toast. A lovely light lunch. Salad with salmon for B. We’ll be here for a few days for April vacation week.
