Roll With It

So, more on New York. I am ashamed to say that yet again this meal was precipitated by a plethora of both television and written references I have come across relating to lobster rolls. The idea of this very American snack has always intrigued me. Until recently I was not really a big fan of mayonnaise – I had tried both exquisite fresh, hand-made versions and rather less impressive dollops out of jars but neither had excited my taste-buds nor added any particular value to the dishes they were part off. However of late I have come to enjoy the unique silky texture and rather indulgent oily-ness of it and so suddenly the combination of firm, fresh lobster meat and some good mayonnaise seemed rather appealing.

Now I have to say the mayonnaise was rather different than I am used to. As I mainly make my own and so have come to enjoy it to my exact specification I found that used in this lobster roll a little on the thin side. Although to be fair the thinner texture, speckled with chives, probably suited the chunky lobster and springy, soft brioche roll more than my rather dense home-made version which is really meant for fat, fresh chips. And of course the mayonnaise is not meant to be the star of this dish – it’s all about the lobster. On that point the roll excelled itself. Generously packed with big chunks of perfectly cooked lobster flesh the roll teased your taste-buds with the sweetness of lobster, complemented by the sweetness of the brioche roll, in every-bite. I am usually one who opts for scallops as their favourite seafood but I think that might be because before this meal I had never had really good lobster. It was a revelation – wonderfully compact without being heavy and deliciously sweet in that peculiar “taste of the sea” way. It’s testament to the lobster that I am only devoting a few lines to the impressive shoe-string fries. Thin, crunchy and fresh they came just as I like them

If I had had more time I would have gone back to Mary’s Fish Camp, where I had the lobster roll, to have their other lobster dish. But as it was I had to stick with this one meal at this rather wonderful little restaurant. Decorated in what I assume was meant to be a casual seafood shack style it was incredibly busy and yet invitingly relaxed. The staff were surprisingly friendly (I am from London where good service is hard to come by) and not at all impatient despite the numerous customers making demands of them. It’s hard to say which of my meals in NYC was the best as they were all so different but this one definitely rates in the top five. I don’t know if it’s still the season for lobster rolls but if you are in New York I would get down to Mary’s Fish Camp as soon as possible.

Mary’s Fish Camp
64 Charles Street
at the Corner of 4th Street
1-646.486.2185
Open Monday - Saturday
Lunch 12:00pm - 3:00pm Dinner 6:00pm - 11:00pm
http://www.marysfishcamp.com/

Do You Remember that Meal?

I know what you’re thinking “That really doesn’t look like the most exciting of meals” but the reason I decided to put up this picture is not because this was the greatest hotdog I have ever eaten but because of the reason why I ate this hotdog. As is not obvious from the picture I was at the time in New York, a city which has many varied delights to offer anyone interested in food. As later posts will hopefully reflect I did not spend my entire trip eating junk food but there was the odd meal or snack which I had to have for less gastronomic and more sentimental reasons. And this is where the hotdog comes in. As someone who watches more television than is really good for her and who has a penchant for American sitcoms set in New York a Gray’s Papaya/Papaya King hotdog has become something of an obsession of mine. I could list at least three television instances in which they feature but I appreciate that that would not make the most interesting of reads. However thinking about how personal and sentimental reasons cause most people to occasionally indulge in foods they would not normally consume made me consider how particular foods or meals take on a life of their own in our memories and imagination.

For me perhaps two foods stick out for their nostalgia value. The first is not a particular food but a meal. A very English pub snack called a Ploughman’s Lunch made up of bread, butter, cheddar cheese, pickle and salad. I know it sounds as if it is an unmade sandwich and that is basically what it is but every summer for about three years of my life I ate this every Saturday at the pub my father went (and still goes) to in rural Hampshire. I can not remember if the bread was of particular note or if the cheese had any great pungency (I doubt it as I was around six at the time) but I do remember looking forward to both the meal and the accompanying fun that was to be had on the pub’s play-frame for at least two or three hours (as I said I was only six) before we left to go to the pub. And really the meal and the play-frame are inextricably linked as I made up a complicated and extensive circuit based around the play-frame and the surrounding trees which I had to complete in ever faster times in order to get back to the relative safety of my father and my Ploughman’s. I have a feeling my father was oblivious to the convoluted reasoning behind the timing of my playing and eating but, as is often the case, to me at the time it made perfect sense and I doubt my attachment to either cheese Ploughman’s or the play-frame would be as strong without the other.

The second is a Trinidadian snack food called “doubles”. It's made up of two palm-sized pieces of fried dough, called bara, sandwiched with a spicy chickpea filling, called chana. When I was around nine years old I was taken on a family holiday to Trinidad, where my mother is from, and it is from this holiday that my memories of doubles emanate. Doubles are eaten for breakfast in Trinidad and I have a clear memory of one morning walking into the kitchen in my grandparents’ house to find that the rest of my family were already up and dressed. My aunt had been out to the doubles seller and there were empty, oil speckled, wax paper wrappers and brown paper bags littered all over the table. With the lack of self-consciousness that comes from being nine years old I proceeded straight to the table, found a couple of doubles and then started the morning ritual which I performed daily on that holiday. This consisted of gently separating the two bara, scraping out the chana and then putting the bara back together and finally eating this now chana-less double to the amusement of both my immediate and extended family. The memory of the greasy, salty, fluffy dough spiked with the odd taste of chana where I hadn’t fully removed the unctuous sauce reminds me of Trinidad as much as a steel band or picturing the inside of my grandmother’s shop ever could. Even now I am often tempted to remove the chana when I eat doubles but there are really some things you can only get away with when you’re a child and, in all honesty, it is better with the chana.

So this picture really hasn’t been the focus of much attention in this post. Perhaps its relevance comes in in that it now represents a new set of memories inextricably linked to my food experiences. As hotdogs go it was good and the chips (or fries) were suitably crunchy and very fresh. It certainly makes an acceptable snack if you’re on the run in New York but for me this picture and my sensory recollection of it will rekindle memories, both of food and of other things, that defined my trip to New York. It is arguably this ability to make aspects of life unique and peculiarly personal that makes food such a potent carrier of memories.

And the winner is…

Over the last few weeks I have had access to more high quality chocolate than most people would really want and although this has occasionally left me never wanting to see another chocolate again my access to all this cocoa-y goodness has come to an end. And so it seems appropriate to deliver the conclusions of the arduous, chocolate-eating research I have been undertaking by describing my top three choices.

Number 3: Neuhaus Cornet Doré

On the recommendation of a fellow chocolate enthusiast I tried this inconspicuous (despite the gold foil wrapping) little cone. I was dubious about trying it largely because I an not a big fan of milk chocolate and by the time I got to the Cornet Doré I had eaten so much chocolate that my tolerance rate for chocolate as a whole, and milk (and white) chocolate in particular, had reduced to almost nil. However the Cornet Doré revived my faith in chocolate as my anti-depressant of choice and even made me reconsider my attitude to milk chocolate although as my first choice will highlight I still have a preference for dark chocolate. But I digress. The Cornet Doré is a combination of milk chocolate, almonds and hazelnuts. It is basically a praline chocolate without the bother of separating the different elements. As a big fan of praline this suits me as I am always frustrated by how you either have to down a whole praline filled chocolate in one go or take careful considered bites in order to get an equal distribution of chocolate and praline and so really enjoy the combination of flavours. At this point I can see most people thinking “Oh for goodness sake, it’s only a chocolate” but once you have eaten a Neuhaus Cornet Doré you will see why the chocolate-praline ration is so important and hence why the Cornet Doré is so good.

Number 2: Galler Bruges (Milk chocolate with a salted butter caramel filling)

From a previous post you have probably already realised that I have a somewhat unnatural obsession with caramel salé which did cause a little embarrassment the first time I saw this chocolate on sale as I actually gasped out-loud in the middle of the shop. Up to this point I had been casually searching for caramel salé in a variety of food shops and although the internet had provided some solutions I am not a big fan of internet shopping as I like to see what I’m going to buy even if its already in a jar or packet. So there I was, more excited than I should be about a chocolate, which of course meant I purchased one immediately. And believe you me it did not disappoint. Again a reappraisal of my attitude towards milk chocolate was required although with a caramel I am increasingly coming to the belief that the type of chocolate is of less consequence as it is really the caramel which will determine whether or not you enjoy it and, to be honest, if you do not like particularly sweet things then choosing a caramel, even if it has been deliciously tempered with sea salt, is probably not the best idea.

Number 1: Charbonnel et Walker Mint Truffle (pictured above)

So for those of you for whom either nuts or milk chocolate or caramel are out of the question I present my first choice which, although not a pure dark chocolate, should satisfy even the most savoury of palates. I say that because the mint in these truffles is not the lacklustre, jar of mint-sauce kind but of the “here’s a mint-leaf I just picked, have a chew on it” kind. Although I would not go as far as to say it is ‘spicy’ this truffle is getting there and the dark chocolate provides, as ever, the perfect partner to the bittersweet and pungent qualities of the mint. I must myself admit being surprised that my favourite chocolate is made by an English company. There are many outside the UK who are dismissive of British chocolate regarding it as consisting entirely of overly sugared, low cocoa-butter content, cheap-as-chips, chocolate bars. I, although having been aware of English chocolate companies such as Charbonnel et Walker, Roccoco and Prestat, had always tended to prefer Belgian and French chocolatiers but that was before I tasted Charbonnel et Walker truffles. I think I can go as far as to say they are the best truffles available in the UK if not in Europe. It was the Charbonnel et Walker Bucks Fizz truffle which made me realise that I really should give champagne truffles more of a chance as I had up till then not been a fan of the chocolate and champagne combination even in the finest of truffles. And the Charbonnel et Walker Lemon Truffle made me accept that all white chocolate is not as unpleasant as I remember. So Charbonnel et Walker has come up trumps and as a little acknowledgement of the beautiful pyramids their truffles are so beautifully arranged into I must say that the Mint Truffle is certainly the pinnacle of their achievement!