The 62nd Annual Strawberry Festival in Adairville began last Saturday, and continues through next Saturday, the 17th.  You've already missed the 5K Run, the Car, Truck, & Tractor Show, the Little Miss Pageant and the Sr. Miss Pageant, and the Arts Affair.  Not to worry, however, there's plenty more still to come!  There'll be rides, entertainment on the square, Pets & Kids On Parade, a pancake breakfast, crafts on the square, a reenactment of a duel involving Andrew Jackson, and much, much more.  And of course, plenty of strawberry ice cream and strawberry shortcake!  For more info, click here.

A chase scene set in 1957 from the new Indiana Jones movie was shot in New Haven, CT, and the city wants to celebrate.  They are planning an Indiana Jones-themed festival for this Saturday that will include music, classic cars used in the film, and contests.  Claire Criscuolo, owner of Claire's Corner Copia, has created a new scone for the event, named Kingdom of the Crystal Scone.  This scone will contain crystallized ginger, cranberries, and blueberries.  Sounds like reason enough to show up!

Read more about the event here.

For those individuals lucky enough to live in eternally-warm locales, ice cream is often a year-round staple. In New England, however, local ice cream is more often a seasonal indulgence constrained by days on the calendar such as Memorial and Labor Day. With the recent sprouting of the leaves on the trees, however, has come the season openings of some of our favorite local ice cream shacks and stands. As a result, the past two weeks have been a mad ice cream frenzy highlighted by a decadent Chocolate Lace and Rich Chocolate sundae at Dr. Mike’s in Bethel, a hefty helping of Toasted Almond (on the CT Meet and Greet) at Big Dipper in Prospect, and a double scoop of Maple Walnut and Grapenut at We-Li-Kit in Pomfret. Pictured above are before and during shots of our Dr. Mike's sundae with everything (meaning gobs of hot fudge and a small mountain of freshly whipped cream!).

Forgetting that Clamp's Hamburger Stand closes every day at 2pm (but then reopens at 5pm), I arrived for lunch today at 2:10 only to watch picnickers enjoying the last of their fried-onion-topped burgers. As I grumbled my way back to the car, who should I run into at a table but Ed Levine, author of New York Eats and the man behind the excellent website Serious Eats. Ed and his wife were finishing off a meal with two friends from nearby Roxbury, Arietta and Sam, who had a suggestion: Mamie's in their home town. More...

Larry "Ribrater" Jay has an excellent post on the Roadfood.com Forums about his trip through Avery Island and the surrounding areas.  You can read more about his experiences through Cajun country here: http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27157

In our travels, the one thing that can trump our indulging in Roadfood is a night at a drive-in theater with a tub of popcorn to share. A true American icon, the venerable drive-in now survives in remote locations. Numbering 4,000+ theaters at its peak in the 1960s, the rise of color TV, VCRs, and the multiplex has whittled that number to less than 400 around the country.

With spring now in full swing, we’ve been anticipating the opening of Mansfield Drive-In Theater, 20 minutes south of us in Mansfield, CT. Even with a lagging economy, Mansfield’s ticket prices have not risen: a mere $9/person gets you a double feature on three screens. And the concessions are wonderful: hot dogs, burgers, chicken tenders, fries, ice cream, nachos, and clam fritters—an oddity outside of New England. We think that Mansfield’s popcorn (no butter, please) is the best around, perfectly crunchy with just enough salt.

We’re not fanatical about ribs, but we do indulge in the presence of quality. In BBQ-starved NE Connecticut, a beacon of hope opened last month in our town: No Name Café in Stafford Springs. Their menu claims that they regularly sell out of ribs, so we decided to take the challenge, and pictured above is our half-rack plate. The verdict: very gristly, very little meat, and the sauce wasn’t spicy enough for our tastes. The bland sides didn’t help, either. Yet people go crazy for them! Next time, we’ll stick with No Name’s wonderful steamed cheeseburgers and admirable pulled pork.

Virginia's Eastern Shore, between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, is best known for the city of Chincoteague and the feral ponies named for it. Like the Eastern Shore of Maryland, it is a place of natural beauty and delicious hard-shelled crabs, but just today at lunch, I discovered another of its culinary highlights: the hayman potato. More...

Starting in January, I stalked the empty commuter parking lot next to Chuck's Steak House in Danbury, where the Big Ed's truck had parked last year, but as time passed and the truck never appeared, my hopes of ever eating a Big Ed's hot dog again waned. I began to think it had moved south permanently and gave up checking the lot every week. Today around lunchtime, on my way to Marcus Dairy Bar, lo! There it was! I was assured it will be parked in its usual place every day for lunch from Tuesday through Saturday until the end of 2008. Unfortunately, my excitement about eating a couple of the tube steaks precluded my taking a picture of them until I was halfway through one with hot onion relish (on the left) and another with sweet relish (right).

With the Roadfood.com tour of Texas only a week away, I've been thinking a lot about barbecue and revisited this video I made a while back at Smitty's (formerly Kreuz) in Lockhart, Texas. It now looks like Bud Royer of Round Top will be bringing us a bunch of pies to have for dessert after we enjoy Smitty's great barbecue.