Seafood paradise

With its fish-filled waters, seafood and fish play an important role in New England.Lobster is the star of Maine. It's impossible to visit this state without indulging in the must-taste lobster in all its forms. Try the lobster roll, a brioche bun filled with lobster pieces and mayonnaise, or poached in hot butter. Anecdotally, over 3 million of these crustaceans are caught in a single summer off the coast of Maine. There are even names for their size, from chicken lobster (450 g) to jumbo (over 1.125 kg).

And don't forget the delicious shellfish: clams, mussels, oysters and razors. On Cape Cod (Massachusetts), the specialty is clam chowder, a creamy soup of clams, potatoes and onions. Bacon is sometimes added. In Rhode Island, try the clear-broth clam chowder, prepared with a light broth and no cream. Don't miss the clambake, which consists of cooking food (lobster, crabs, shellfish, corn on the cob, potatoes, etc.) in an oven dug into the ground, lined with white-hot pebbles and wrapped in seaweed. This ancestral cooking method is also found in Chile and Polynesia. In New Haven (Connecticut), you'll find clam pie, a kind of pizza combining seafood and cheese. Fish is popular, and you can enjoy delicious salt cod cakes.

Vermont is the only state in the region without a coastline, but it has a real local culture. It would be a shame not to sample the local produce, featuring cheeses, beer and, of course, maple syrup, of which Vermont is the nation's leading producer. The Vermont Cheese Council brings together nearly 40 producers, including Crowley Cheese Factory, Grafton Village Cheese Company and Shelburne Farms, who make over a hundred varieties of cow's, goat's, sheep's and buffalo's milk cheese, the star of which is cheddar. Hard or soft, fresh or matured, the quality is constantly improving.

Thanksgiving

William Bradford, Governor of Massachusetts, established Thanksgiving in 1621. This key date in the calendar of all Americans was gradually codified by subsequent governments, which fixed its celebration on the last Thursday in November. In fact, many of the specialties eaten across the country today originated in New England. While Thanksgiving is normally a family event, there are plenty of restaurants offering a delicious assortment of festive dishes. Theturkey takes center stage. It's usually marinated for several hours before being put in the oven.

The turkey is accompanied by gravy (a thick meat juice), stuffing (a kind of toast stuffing flavored with apple, onion and herbs) and, of course, cranberry sauce (a tangy cranberry sauce). There's also a variety of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and the famous green bean casserole with green beans, mushroom cream and fried onions. For dessert, you can't miss the pumpkin pie, topped with cinnamon-ginger pumpkin purée. Served with a dollop of whipped cream. It's a typical dessert of the region, but in the southern U.S. it's more commonly known as pecanpie.

A large choice of desserts

Other Thanksgiving desserts include the eponymous Boston cream pie, a cake invented in the 1850s, filled with vanilla custard and covered with chocolate icing. You'll find it revisited in the form of a doughnut, the Boston cream doughnut, not forgetting the cider d oughnut, rolled in cinnamon brown sugar.

A host of tarts are available, including the famous apple pie, made with apples and cinnamon, decorated with latticework pastry and served with blueberries, rhubarb or cherries. More surprisingly, apple & cheddar pie contains grated cheddar in the pastry. It may sound strange, but the cheese will give a slightly salty, caramelized buttery aftertaste, delicious with apples.

There are also cookies, brioches and other small cakes, such as blueberry muffins - with blueberries - whoopie pies, a kind of soft chocolate macaroon topped with vanilla cream, or Fig Newton, a shortbread filled with fig paste created in 1891. And don't forget the chocolate chip cookies - sometimes nicknamed Toll House Cookies - invented here in the 1930s.Indian pudding, a cornmeal and molasses porridge flavored with cinnamon, is probably the region's oldest dessert. Other pastries include Boston brown bread made with rye flour and molasses, topped with raisins; popover, a kind of puffed brioche; and Portuguese sweet bread, a large, fluffy brioche.

On the drinks side

To enjoy these desserts, Americans will be fond of coffee. Traditionally considered very light for our European tastes, there are now more and more stores offering more substantial coffees: cappuccino, espresso, etc. Very common in the southern USA - hot or iced - tea is less consumed in the rest of the country, and this beverage is at the origin of one of the founding events in American history: the Boston Tea Party, when the colonists - fed up with the excessive taxes of the English - threw 342 crates of tea into the sea in 1773. The locals' aversion to tea eventually faded during the 19th century, and it was even an American - John Sullivan - who invented the tea bag in 1907.

As for beer, New England also boasts an incredible number of craft breweries(Sea Dog Brewing Company, Shipyard Brewing Company, Smuttynose Brewing Company, etc.). And don't forget Flip Hot Ale, a cocktail made with ale, rum, egg and brown sugar. The region is also renowned for its cider production.