Getting to know Connecticut

So we've been here almost a month - what have we done so far? Here are a few things:

1) Ate white clam pizza at the famous Frank Pepe's pizzeria. The original location is in New Haven near Yale University, but we went the Fairfield location, closer to us. In case you were wondering, here's what a white clam pizza looks like - its actually really good!:


2) We spent one Saturday afternoon walking around Greenwich, CT. Greenwich is one of the wealthiest towns in Fairfield County and the main street in Greenwich is filled with all sorts of high-end restaurants and stores - most of which we cannot afford :) It was a beautiful day and we ate some sandwiches in the park and just wandered around. I'm excited to go back and have a butter-sugar crepe at the "creperie" we found while we were there!

3) We're starting to discover local places to eat, shop etc. There's nothing to exciting about the local grocery store, CVS pharmacy, Home Depot etc., but we've found some interesting places

• Stew Leonard's - the self-proclaimed "World's Largest Dairy Store." The feel is very similar to Central Market, not quite as high-end, but we still think Central Market stole the store design from this place. Just to be different, there are farm animals to pet outside the store and several dancing cow displays throughout the store - like this one

We tried our first lobster rolls from Stew Leonard's - delicious! Also delicious from the World's Largest Dairy Store - ice cream!

• Chocopologie - a yummy chocolate truffle store in South Norwalk. My new favorite truffle - caramel sea salt - amazing! They have all sorts of interesting flavors like Raspberry Peppercorn, Marigold, or Blood Orange Chili. If you watch food network, you may remember the truffle battle on Bobby Flay's "Throwdown." The owner of this store, Fritz Knipschildt beat Bobby Flay in a landslide. I can't wait to go back to try their crepes!
  
• Another very exciting store in South Norwalk - a dutch store, complete with chocolate sprinkles!! (for those of you who don't know, I've eaten toast with chocolate sprinkles ever since my family lived in Holland when I was young - and only the Dutch chocolate sprinkles will cut it!)

4) As most everyone knows, Tommy and I love to go out to eat. So far, we've found a sushi place and a thai restaurant we love in South Norwalk. We've found a great hole-in-the-wall pizza place in South Stamford and a really good pizza place for take out right down the street from our house. We had a so-so experience at the diner down the street, but the bagels at the shop next to the diner are great! The thing we have yet to find and are starting to doubt we will find - good TexMex food. One place even served my fajita meat with Buffalo wing sauce :( I miss Lupe's and Chuy's!!

5) Other interesting notes - dry cleaning is expensive, the Target store in downtown Stamford has a pay parking garage and multiple stories, and everyone in Connecticut runs red lights!

There are many other exciting places nearby for us to explore. Come visit and we'll explore together!