Lazy Sunday

AN ARTICLE ON SUMMER COOKING in this week’s East Hampton Star sent me on a Sunday voyage of discovery. (Yes, I know I’ve mentioned that newspaper in each of my last three posts. I like it. It panders to nobody.)

The reporter, Laura Donnelly, wrote of setting up her kitchen a few years ago when she purchased a one-room fishing cabin at Lazy Point. I hadn’t heard of Lazy Point, but that phrase “one-room fishing cabin” was enticing. And when I read this, I knew she was a woman after my own sensibilities:

I was able to furnish and supply Camp with two carloads in a Toyota 4Runner. An Aero bed, one rusty outdoor table, abandoned chairs found in the garage, linens, one pair of high heels.

I found Lazy Point; it’s on the north shore of the South Fork, halfway between Amagansett and Montauk in an unspoiled area called Napeague. On Shore Road, there are no McMansions, just a motley assortment of cottages and cabins with unbeatable water views — and not a “For Sale” sign to be seen. The feeling is of the 1940s, and I’ll bet many of the houses have been in the same family since then.

In front of one house was a dumpster with some wrought iron chairs going begging. I helped myself to a couple, making up for my no-hitter at the yard sales the day before.

Then it was lunchtime, and I remembered reading about an offbeat place called Fish Farm on the grounds of one of the South Fork’s last working fish farms. Found that too, at the end of a bumpy dirt road in a ramshackle industrial setting, and enjoyed my lobster and mango salad at a picnic table in view of Napeague Harbor. Next time I’ll bring a bottle of wine and a friend.

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