Island Creek Oyster Bar

If you are a lover of seafood and are a raw oyster enthusiast, you cannot go wrong with Island Creek Oyster Bar. For our 12th wedding anniversary, a repeat visit to my favorite restaurant in Boston was planned. Service is friendly, impeccable - with some heartwarming touches. Check out the menu which are printed daily to capture the specials. Last time I visited, I commented on how delicious the butter was - blended with sea salt, paprika and honey. When we left, everyone in our party received a goody bag - inside was the butter recipe card with a jar of local honey and sachets of the sea salt and paprika!

I am not a huge fan of very briny, strong-tasting raw oysters and luckily, Island Creek oysters are totally opposite - buttery and mild. We started with a dozen of Island Creeks and a few sweet raw clams to start. The standout entrée was the lobster roe noodles with braised short rib, grilled lobster, mushrooms and pecorino. If you love seafood and are in town, let me take you to Island Creek!

A new Xmas Tradition: The Ham

I have never cooked a huge ham for Xmas. With only one unhappy recollection of very dry gammon slices (served with pineapple!) at a friend's house almost two decades ago, I wasn't prone to trying anytime soon. However, with more family coming into town this Xmas and hams on sale at the supermarket, this proved too much for my mother-in-law to resist. Result being - I was given a ham to cook. After some internet research, I decided to glaze the ham with a glaze consisting of honey, mustard, brown sugar and butter. 3 careful hours later at 325F resulted in a succulent, juicy, incredibly tender ham. Served with a smorgsbord of cheeses, smoked salmon spiral, pickled herrings, cornichons, bread and salad. Of course, a big ham just keeps on giving - ham sandwiches the next day, ham and aspargus alfredo for dinner and of course, I kept and boiled the ham bone for over 4 hours to make a ham and swede soup. What's on the menu tonight? Maybe a ham stir-fry....

Icelandic Fish & Chips

On our first night in Reykjavik, we were recommended to try Icelandic Fish & Chips near the harbor area. It wasn't expensive for an organic bistro and it seemed a good way to try some seafood. Depending on the day's catch, there would be only 4-5 fish options to choose from. The place was bustling which was a good sign and we waited a few minutes for a table to open up. It was also our first foray into Icelandic casual dining where often the water, glasses, cutlery and napkins were on a sideboard which you help yourself too. There is no need to tip in Iceland so I guess it's few less things for the servers to be concerned about. For drinks, I tried a Malt Ale - a very soothing light ale with very low alcohol content. It was quite sugary and pleasant though.

Icelandic Fish & Chips does not provide ketchup. Salt&vinegar was something you had to request. Instead, they created their own in-house "skyronnaise" - a rich flavored dipping sauce made from skyr in various flavors including coriander-lime or ginger wasabi.



I chose the ling which came on a bed of mango salad. Ling is a beautiful fish - silky smooth but the batter overpowered the taste a bit. The salad was fine - unfortunately, Iceland does not import the really sweet champagne mangos. The mangos in the salad were crunchy and green.

Paul had the classic haddock and chips. The "chips" were not french fries - but rather Roasted small potatoes halved.

He also had the onion rings which were beautifully stacked, crunchy and sweet.

Overall, the fish was fresh but the flavors lacked punch - perhaps a tad more salt needed? The skyronnaise was fine at first but after a while - I was missing the salt & vinegar. The onion rings were delicious though especially when hot. As they got colder, they started to taste greasy fast. The meal was serviceable - not blow-out fantastic. Or perhaps it spoke to my ambivalence with fish&chips in general. Thinking back...I never ate it when I was in England...

Fire & Ice - Best Meal in Iceland

A little unexpectedly, the best meal we had in Iceland was not at a restaurant - but at a guesthouse near Akeureyi. The Skjaldarvik guesthouse provided dinner if you ordered in advance - they also offered special "Ride & Bite" tours which consisted of a 1.5 hour horseback riding tour plus dinner for a decent price. There were two choices for starters and entree - I had the "Secret" Soup - a vegetarian concoction - they would not reveal the ingredients or the recipe. The secret soup was fine - I detected onion, swede, paprika.

Paul had the foal carpaccio which was amazingly tender - dressed in olive oil, lemon, s&p, some arugula and parmesan.

The foal was a very good dish. For the entree, chicken lasagna didn't entice so we both had the organic lamb with mint creme fraiche which was excellent. It was paired with a little salad and a beautiful slice of potato galette cake. This is quite a fiddle to make as I have looked into it. After making very thin slices of potato with a mandolin, you layer them over one another with onion etc. before baking. Afterwards, we gave our compliments to the female chef and she asked if we would like dessert.

We were both full but if this was the standard of her cooking, we should not refuse! We were both given a beautiful dessert which she called "Fire & Ice". A hot molten chocolate cake bomb in a hot glass paired with ice cream which was devastatingly well-executed.

Beautifully presented - the chef used tear-outs from old books to serve as liners. Home cooking at its very best.

Rye Bread Ice Cream

This was the find of the holiday! I try to order the more unusual items on the menus while on vacation. No point eating stuff you can get at home. At Cafe Loki in Reykjavik, Paul ordered the rye bread ice cream which comes with cream and rhubarb syrup. I think rhubarb is quite plentiful here as I'm positive I saw it growing by the roadside in some places. The ice cream was dense - obviously made from good quality cream and the slightly sweet rye bread crumbs gave the dish a really nice texture! The cream on top was super too - obviously not the fake squirts from a can. We loved it so much - we had to grab another one when we returned to Reykjavik on our last day.

Iceland - Dried Fish

Recently got back from a 10 day trip in Iceland and perhaps a little surprising, the food was quite good! Lots of seafood, organic lamb and other exotic meats on the menus. However, the grocery stores were a mix of US and UK items with a definite Scandanavian flair. The yogurt was fantastic and muesli with yogurt/milk was a breakfast staple. One uniquely Icelandic item that I did find in the supermarkets was the packets of dried fish! These were quite pricey - about US$5 a bag and are known as a good source of protein. Loving the Asian dried cuttlefish, I had to buy a bag to try. There wasn't much flavor - it was not sweet, salty or spicy. It was just dried fish. The texture seemed odd too. It wasn't chewy but just kind of melted in your mouth. Not sure if I would buy again but I ate the whole bag anyway...

The Sad State of Afternoon Tea in Boston

The magnificence of clotted cream teas in my home county of Devon - indulged from an early age - has given me a discerning palate for all things afternoon tea. Unfortunately, I have never found anywhere outside of England that comes close to making that fatteningly rich clotted cream. Can't stop trying though and with that in mind, I set out to find a decent spot in Boston to satisfy cream tea cravings. Hours of research later, it was a toss-up between Boston Harbor Hotel or The Taj. Bloggers raved about the elegant and opulent atmosphere at The Taj and the sea views at the Boston Harbor. It didn't seem as if there was any place in Boston that served clotted cream but I guess I was thinking that there would still be some approximation of scone, jam and cream plus other delectable bites. I chose The Taj as it meant we could indulge in some shopping at Newbury Street in the same afternoon. The setting was certainly refined; the service polished and the tea china suitably chintzy and floral. After a few photo ops, we settled down to choose our teas. I loved my choice which was a Shanghai rose black tea and Rach settled for a floral jasmine green tea. As our eyes are frequently larger than our stomachs, we both opted for the full Taj Royal set which gave us some savory bites and tea sandwiches before the sweet stuff. It certainly looked delicate and delightful but with my first bite of a smoked salmon sandwich, I knew that things were not as they seemed. The bread was slightly hard and stale! We were hungry so the small tea sandwiches went quickly as we eagerly awaited the next tier. Unfortunately, again - although it looked beautiful, the pastries were not as good as we had hoped for. The lemon curd for the scones looked and tasted as if it came out of a jar and the small ramekin of paltry whipped cream was a very pale comparison of my beloved Devonshire clotted cream. It's a sad day for pastry chefs everywhere when the chocolate-dipped strawberry won the show due to the fact it was a very sweet and fat strawberry. It was a sad day too for my wallet as I realized I had spent more on this afternoon tea than a regular dinner for two at a good restaurant. Oh Devon! I miss you and your beautiful clotted cream...we have a date in front of Cockington Court where I will smear a very thin layer of strawberry jam and big spoonfuls of rich clotted cream on a fluffy warm scone....hope to eat you soon...

Ippudo, New York (2nd entry!)

Couldn't resist blogging about Ippudo again. I was thinking whether I would give Momofuku ramen a try but better to stick with the tried and tested with Rach in town. This time, to ensure we did not have to wait, Rach and I were outside the door at 10.45am, getting in the way of the wait staff, trying to clock in before their shift time begins. Success! When they opened their doors at 11am, we were the very first customers and offered pride of place at the communal table round the hearth. Aside from the prerequisite pork buns, we had the Akamaru Modern ramen (my favorite ramen dish on their menu) plus the spicy one which was very good as well. For those that know me, you will know that I am also a big fan of dishware china so Ippudo's bar decor (pictured) certainly caught my eye. Lots of nice touches in the restaurant from the "I love ramen" t-shirts on the wait staff in the Star Spangled colors of red, white and blue to the downstairs window where you can see the ramen-making machine as you walk to the restrooms. Don't miss Ippudo next time you are in New York! Only their ramen broth is at the level that I enjoyed in Japan...no place in Boston comes close in my opinion. Other places in New York? I'm open to suggestions...

Sakagura, New York

By now, perhaps you have realized I am a big fan of Japanese food. 2nd stop on the NY culinary tour was Sakagura for dinner. 400 types of sake...sign me up. The decor was wonderful..like we had discovered a small sliver of Tokyo in the basement of a non-descript office building. The bathrooms were encased in barrels and they had the required Toto toilet with all the buttons. We ordered a selection of small dishes including their version of chawanmushi with a yuzu sauce, a cold onsen tamago dish and a homely mackerel wrapped onigiri. Ordered as a last dish, it was the very best of an interesting bunch. The food certainly enhanced the sake (or is it vice versa?) yet after a spectacular lunch at Aburiya at 2pm, perhaps it paled a little in comparison.

Aburiya Kinnosuke, New York

Fresh off the bus and heading to eat! Last month with Rach in town, we headed down to New York for a few days of culinary indulgence. You can call it plain gluttony if you like but quality is important to the Hungry Laws, not just quantity. Our chosen spot for a Midtown lunch was Aburiya Kinnosuke ( http://aburiyakinnosuke.com/) at 215 E45th Street. Perhaps it was my low expectations but this place blew them out the water. I was very very impressed. We went for two lunch sets - the most expensive one was $35 but it came with a boxed appetizer sampler, a dish of fried foods including a delicious crab claw enveloped in custard, then breaded and fried. There were also two pieces of cooked fish on shiso leaf and laver which were a great combination. The main entree was a beautifully-cooked just-done salmon fillet wrapped in sakura (cherry blossom) leaves and then cooked/baked under a salt crust. Magnificent. The server brought a wooden hammer to chisel away the salt, leaving salmon with a subtle taste of sakura which you can enhance with the surrounding salt, to your taste. Rice, pickles and miso soup was part of the course and the dessert was an incredibly fine slice of green tea mousse cake with green tea ice cream (which tasted store-bought). Rach was happy with her set which came with wagyu beef slices grilling on their own hot plate. We hustled a little for a private booth (which we got) and Rach spent a long time in the toilet. She told me she had to "press all the buttons".