The Way to Eat in Cape May

      First and foremost, before discussing crazy New Jersey Ghost Stories, we must address the delicious meals to be had at The Mad Batter Restaurant & Bar - a favorite places to grab some grub in Cape May.  I recall watching adults feast on such delights as soft shell crab and frogs legs (which looked oddly like half of a little man) here at the Mad Batter, in my youth....shutter.

The Restaurant is part of the Carroll Villa, built in 1882, and just makes a person giddy to walk by it, what with all the Alice in Wonderland references.  Plus, it's on Jackson Street - the most haunted avenue in town - and incidentally, where my family stayed in 2003 during Hurricane Isabel, causing the owner to board up all our windows and the ocean to rise all the way to the boardwalk in an angry, river-like current of darkness.

...but I digress.  Back to dinner!   We chose to sit out on the screened-in porch for our meal, which is nice and breezy.  The ocean is only a block away from this villa.











To start... some homemade baguettes,
and a make-your-own dip of olive oil and spices.

Mom ordered a bowl of clam chowder (generously shared), which may-or-may-not have been served with whole clams.  She is allergic to clam bellies - as in, hospital allergic - so I helped her out with finishing those (woo-hoo!). The soup was decidedly shalloty, and we think shallots are underrated.

Then...dinner.  Mom went healthy-style and had a chicken Caesar salad, which had approximately three pounds of tender chicken on top.


Her salad made me feel guilty about ordering fish and chips, which consisted of freshly caught-battered-and-fried cod, and the best tarter sauce this side of - well, France.  But clearly not guilty enough to change the order.






For some reason, it was difficult for us to finish our meals.  Did I mention we had already ate a good amount of fudge and candy-coated nuts?  We did.  Like, within 90 minutes of arriving in Cape May.  Hey, we have our priorities straight, here.  After dinner was the Trolley Ghost Tour...stay tuned!

~A

P.S.  Back in Room 10 of The Hotel Macomber (see previous NJ entry), which I will get into (eventually), we supplemented our ghost-hunting with more fudge, more candy-coated nuts, and a couple of homemade macaroons.  If you need a reason to visit Cape May, look no further than the homemade fudge and sweet treats - they are some of the best I've ever tasted, anywhere.  None of the goodies made it through the night!