Ptown – Better with Lemon

There is a time of day when Provincetown becomes magical. As the sun sets behind the town’s houses and gradually changes colors, it illuminates the harbor. The water, dotted with little boats, becomes a palate of teal blue and tangerine orange, while the sky goes from bubblegum pink to ruby red before letting darkness take over. When you are standing on the deck of a restaurant or a bar, or walking along the cool sand, and watching this live painting take shape in front of your eyes, you understand why so many painters and other artists have flocked to this little enclave for decades. Resting at the tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown has beckoned to everyone from Eugene O’Neill to Jackson Pollock to Michael Cunningham and they have found inspiration here to produce some of the best work.

For decades, Provincetown has been called an “artist colony”, which for a long time also served as a veiled euphemism for what Ptown (as it’s also know) really is: a gay town. This is a place where gay men and women have felt safe and welcome even before they did so anywhere else in the country. It’s a town where couples of same sex (as well as couples of opposite sex) can display affection publicly without any reproach or fear of being attacked. Where drag queens are a constant sight on the main street that runs along the town and families with children will be eating lunch next to a group of leather-clad bears like it’s an everyday occurrence.

Provincetown is one of my favorite places on earth. That’s where we spent a week this August, as our last summer vacation before the beginning of the fall and work taking over. It was, as always, a wonderfully relaxing, yet exciting six days, doing nothing but walking around, eating and drinking, and enjoying the beauty of the town (as well as dancing for two hours to nothing by Madonna music at the famous Boat Slip tea dance on a Wednesday afternoon).

It’s never easy to say goodbye to summer. It makes me understand why people pack up and move to Los Angeles or Florida. But I try to remind myself that even after Labor Day is gone, we’ll have weeks of beautiful weather that’s even better than some of the unbearably hot days in August. And to stay in a summer mood, we’ll eat “summery” foods, like this farro salad that I first tasted when our friend Greg made it while we were on Fire Island (another “artist colony”) for a weekend earlier this summer. I loved it so much, that we’ve already had it at least four more times in the last couple of months. It’s incredibly flavorful and the chewy farro and crunchy pistachios give it a substance that makes it sufficient as a dinner main dish. Take advantage of the late season basil and make this today. I plan to make it year round, substituting what’s out of season with something that is. And when I eat it, I will think of next summer when I’ll be back at Provincetown, watching the sunset.

Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad – Slightly adapted from the New York Times

Note: For a vegan version, omit the parmesan cheese or substitute it with vegan cheese or some nutritional yeast.

Ingredients:

1 cup farro
1 cup apple cider or apple juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more as needed
2 bay leaves
8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
70 grams Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler (about 1/2 cup)
70 grams chopped pistachio nuts (about 1/2 cup)
2 cups arugula leaves
1 cup basil leaves, torn
1 cup mint leaves
¾ cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
⅓ cup thinly sliced radish
Maldon or other flaky sea salt, for finishing

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, bring farro, apple cider, salt, bay leaves and 2 cups water to a simmer. Simmer until farro is tender, about 30 minutes. If all the liquid evaporates before the farro is done, add more water. Let farro cool, then discard bay leaves.

In a salad bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Add arugula, herbs, tomatoes, and radish and toss well. Add cheese and pistachio nuts and toss lightly. Sprinkle flaky salt to taste and serve immediately.

Last week we spend a long weekend at Cape Cod, at Truro and Provincetown. It’s a summer tradition that for me almost started with a disaster.

It was the fall of 1994. A few months before, at the end of June, I had just told my friend Brad that I was gay. It was the first time I told anyone and during the next few months I was swimming in a mix of exhilaration and loneliness. The freeing sensation of finally acknowledging to someone else that I was gay was an experience like none I had ever experienced (or have since). “You don’t have to come out to your mailman,” Brad joked in that fall of 1994 after I told him how I was on a coming out rampage. I just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

But it was also a time of loneliness. Here I was, freshly out and eager to start my new, my real, life, but I was stuck. I had just finished college and I was living in New Jersey, in a drab and depressing apartment next to a highway, with a straight roommate I had just met who didn’t know I was gay and with absolutely no gay friends or any idea where to find other gay people. My occasional trips to New York to meet with Brad were just not enough. Most of the time I felt trapped and alone.

So, it was during that fall that Brad told me about the vacation he had just taken with some friends. “We went to this amazing place!” he gushed. “It’s a little town at the tip of Cape Cod and its full of gay people! It’s like heaven.” Neither of us had heard of Ptown, as it’s often called, so this was a revelation. For me, it sounded like exactly what I needed.

So, since I couldn’t take time off from work and since I needed some time to plan my trip, I ordered a TripTik from AAA (remember those?) and decided that I would drive up to this magical place called Provincetown…in February. Yes. In February. I had no idea that Ptown in February is bitterly cold, as you’d expect for a tiny village perched on the tip of Cape Cod in the middle of the North Atlantic across from Boston. And I didn’t know that almost everything would be closed and only a few locals who stayed around for the winter would be there. That there would be very few if any gay people and they would be old timers, hunkered down in their homes. This was 1994. There was no web and no other easy way for me to know any of this.

When February came, I kept delaying my trip. March came and I still hadn’t left. And then right when I was gearing up to drive up there, I went to a gay community event in New Jersey where I met a guy named Wayne who went on to become my first boyfriend. And when I told him about my plans he laughed. He explained how Ptown would be nothing like what I expected if I had gone in February and instead we planned a trip there that summer. It turned out to be exactly how Brad described it. So we went back the summer after that and the one after that and the one after that. And for twenty years now, along with peaches, chilled soups, and rosé wine, Ptown has been a summer tradition.

Chilled Peach Soup with Fresh Goat Cheese – Slightly Adapted from Food and Wine

Ingredients:

3 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 4 peaches), plus more for garnish
1/4 cup finely diced peeled seedless cucumber
1/4 cup finely diced yellow bell pepper, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup diced dried apricots
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons crumbled fresh goat cheese, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar, plus more for seasoning
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Kosher salt
1 large garlic clove

Directions:

1. In a bowl, toss the peaches, diced cucumber, yellow pepper and apricots. Add the honey, 3 tablespoons of goat cheese, 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Add the garlic. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Discard the garlic. Transfer the contents of the bowl to a blender and puree. Add 1/4 cup of water and puree until very smooth and creamy; add more water if the soup seems too thick. Season with salt and white balsamic vinegar. Refrigerate the soup until very cold, about 1 hour.

3. Pour the peach soup into shallow bowls and garnish with the diced peach and bell pepper, and crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and serve.