*Sadly, they barely survived the trip home in my purse.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Cranberry Bogs and Macarons
Visited the Ocean Spray cranberry bog at Rockefeller Center, an annual installation that I'd not been aware of. It's cute, but a cranberry bog is probably more exciting in situ. In midtown, it's just a bunch of floating cranberries, although I did appreciate the free juice.
The tourist-riddled area is also home to La Maison du Chocolat, which is well worth a visit, particularly if you've got money that you don't know how to get rid of. I bought two macarons--raspberry and coffee--that were, in fact, well worth the $2.50 price tag, even though each one was about the size of a stack of three silver dollars.* The raspberry was particularly well executed, suffused with the essence of the berry without being in the least cloying. The coffee leaned a bit toward the mocha, but was quite satisfying as well. More fun that a tubful of cranberries!
*Sadly, they barely survived the trip home in my purse.
*Sadly, they barely survived the trip home in my purse.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Part One: The Maine Chronicles, or, Does Coleslaw Count as a Vegetable?
Spent much of the last month travelling, most recently in Bruce's ancestral homeland, Maine, which, over the last decade, has burst forth in the most dangerous traffic circles I've ever seen. Mercifully, we survived--and ate.
on Pine Point, our traditional first stop. We ordered two shrimp rolls, two lobster, and two crab. The rolls themselves are much sturdier than the standard Maine roll; they would probably hold up well to meatball parm. That said, the meat in each roll is fresh and sparkles with salinity. These are not overstuffed, ridiculous NY-style lobster rolls. (Never thought I'd see the day I typed NY-style lobster roll. I was once amused at Bruce's father's gobsmackedness when we told him that, no, you couldn't get a lobster roll in New York. That's all changed, of course; you can get them everywhere, if you're willing to pay thirty dollars or so for a ton of lobster salad that dwarves the butter-grilled bun to the point where it looks like a damned crouton. Further aside: I don't like the idea of being able to get all foods all the time everywhere. I want to eat poutine on Old Orchard Beach, not Orchard Street.*) You can walk with a Maine lobster roll, and don't need a fork to eat it. All the rolls were under eight bucks. The shrimp roll was three.

The ordering

Breakfast is deeply satisfying. The clam cakes are plain and dowdy in a thoroughly Maine way, chewy with clams in a dense almost-pancakish batter. Ken's chowder threw me for a loop, something I've come to expect at Ken's. The chowder was among the best I've ever had: no flour, no filler, no garlic, mercifully, but lots of floury potatoes, clams, pork, and dairy goodness. I'll have to add it to list of must-haves at Ken's, which is growing problematically long. Bruce and I have finally figured why this place never makes it into food magazines. No dock. Scenic view of the parking lot. Needless to say, I am fine with this.
P.S. We returned for dinner, for lobster rolls, Bruce nixing a shared order of fried clams. I am growing restive.
*According to today's NY Times loony L.L. Bean descendant Linda Bean is buying up lobster wharfs in the hope of establishing lobster-roll franchises across the nation. She wants to change the name of lobster claws to lobster cuddlers, as the word claws sounds "scary." Great. First the lobster roll was tarted up beyond recognition by New York chefs; now it's going to be dumbed down into a McBean Cuddler. Head north and get the real thing while you still can. Or make your own; more on that later.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Farewell, Gourmet
Sad news, via the National Post's the Appetizer. Gourmet magazine, which began publication in 1940, is no more. Upside? I have a copy of the first issue, complete with subscription card. I'm guessing that its value just went up a bit.
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About Me

- Barbara L. Hanson
- I'm a ninth-generation Brooklyn native living in Manhattan.