Weird places for great eats

You might not think of a country store as having the best doughnuts around, or an off-the beaten-path bakery for fish stew and stuffies, but this is the SouthCoast and that means there’s hidden gems to be found, especially when it comes to weird places for great eats.

Here’s a few of our favorites:

1. Chourico pies at Perry’s Bakery.

Sure the Westport bakery at 1037 Main Road might be known for its delicious cinnamon sticks and blueberry scones, but the chourico rolls are every bit as popular to the locals. “They’re the best around,” said Richard “Buck” LeBlanc, 70, who said he’s been coming to the bakery since he was a kid. The soft rolls are filled with just the right mix of ground chourico and linguica, making them not too spicy to pop a few on the way to the beach or for a quick lunch on the run. Karen Smith, who grew up working there with her sister, Marsha Miranda, ran it for the original owner for a while before buying it in 1981. Miranda said her sister came up with the idea of the chourico roll, which has been flying off the shelves ever since. The savory offerings at the bakery also include ready-to-go croissant sandwiches: Bacon, Egg and Cheese; Spinach and Feta; Sausage, Egg and Cheese; and Ham and Swiss.

2. Stuffies and fish stew at Continent Bakery.

It’s not like this out-of-the-way bakery at 198 Pinehurst Ave. in Swansea’s Ocean Grove is a well-kept secret. On Christmas Eve, the line goes out the door and snakes around the building and down the road, said Suzette Medeiros. It’s a family-run operation and made-from-scratch bakery that started in 1947 with her great-grandparents, Manuel and Engracia Corga.

And sure, they’re a traditional bakery offering all the sweet treats one would expect, especially on the cream-filled side, but this gem of a bakery also has savory side. And that’s where the fish stew and stuffies come in. The stew — a tomato-based brothy concoction with fresh codfish and potatoes and the stuffies, filled with a quahog-based spicy bread stuffing — are customer favorites, said Medeiros. A Herald News staffer or two also said the bakery’s caciola sandwich was the best they’ve ever tasted. The spinach and Italian sausage torta and the individual-sized quiches with spinach and chourico are also tops on customers' lists, added Medeiros. The bakery closes for a couple months after Christmas and it’s no wonder foodies on Facebook start speculating about when they’ll be open again in the spring. Good news: they’re open, and super busy, even on a Friday morning.

P.S. Looking for a sweet ending to lunch? Try the rice pudding; it won a gold medal in a competition in Lisbon.

3. Indian meals at the Big Bazaar International Market.

Let’s just say, walking into the Big Bazaar Indian Grocery International Market at 856 N. Main St., can be more than a little intimidating if you’ve never attempted making Indian food. There are aisles and aisles of spices, chutneys, sauces, rice blends, beans and whole lot of odd looking packages that could be sweet or savory treats. But fortunately, the manager, Paul Mandeli, and his wife, Chandni, are kind and friendly and willing to answer upteen-gazillion questions about what something is and how to use it. (Yes, I’m speaking from personal experience here.)

Even better, head over on a Friday or Saturday when they make hot meals, ready to be packaged up to take home. There’s a table in the store, too, for those dining on the run. They generally offer a meat-based dish such as Chicken Tikka Masala and a vegetarian offering such as Chana Masala, made with chickpeas in a tomato-based sauce. Both are served over rice, sometimes it’s the spice- and veggie-studded biryani. On this day, the vegetarian dish was a mixed lentil curry that was served with cumin seed rice. Don’t forget to order a side of naan bread to soak up every last bit of the delicious sauces. They also sell warm samosas, a triangular pie-type of appetizer with varied fillings: potatoes and peas; chicken or lamb served with chutney and coriander and mint green dipping sauce. If you’ve never tried Indian food, this would be a good place to start.

4. French fries at No. 1 Chinese restaurant.

When takeout is your business, and the lauded Fall River Chow Mein sandwich is on the menu, you’ve got to have fries to go with it. At No. 1 Chinese Restaurant, 407 South Main St., the fries are the best in the city, at least according to a couple of Herald News staffers who even order them without a side of Chinese fare. What makes them so great? It’s the type of oil they use, that gives these crinkle cuts just the right amount of crispiness.

5. Weekends and cream-filled doughnuts go hand-in-hand at the Somerset Country Store.

The convenience store is a must-stop for gas, bread, milk, and all those other items you just don’t feel like sprinting through the supermarket to pick up on the way home from work every day. And yes, owner Elie Karam sells doughnuts, cinnamon buns and Danish every day (except Mondays) and they usually sell out fairly quickly. But the cream-filled doughnuts that SouthCoasters crave are available only on Saturdays and Sundays at the Somerset Country Store, 1804 County St. Even store clerk Debbie Darcy can't resist them. “People can’t get enough of them; they sell like crazy,” said Karam.

6. The Hot Cheese Sandwich.

If you’ve ever driven by the former Nite Owl diner and noticed the Hot Cheese Sandwich sign, you may wonder, what the heck is a hot cheese sandwich? That is, unless you grew up in Fall River in the diner-era heyday. Much like the chow mein sandwich, the hot cheese sandwich was a Fall River specialty and there are only a couple of places left in the city to find it including JJ Coney Island Hot Dogs on South Main Street and Grahams Hot Dogs on Bedford Street. Bearing no resemblance to a grilled cheese sandwich, the hot cheese sandwich is made with a crumbly warm cheese served in a hamburger bun with chopped onions, relish and a touch of yellow mustard. Sisters Jennifer Pacheco and Michelle Camara, daughters of the owner of J&J Coney Island Hot Dogs, said the trick is all in the handling of the cheese. “It’s the way the cheese is melted and falls together…. We whip it,” said Pacheco. Try it for yourself at J&J Coney Island Hot Dogs, 571 South Main St.

Email Linda Murphy at lmurphy@heraldnews.com.