This is a Caesar. A spicy version of the Bloody Mary invented in Vancouver. Vodka, 'clamato' juice (clam ‘nectar’ and tomato), squeeze of lime juice, Tabasco, Worchestershire sauce, celery salt.
The Chook has been having a holiday from cooking, but I have been on the lookout for tasty morsels as we've traveled. We tend to travel as economically as possible, ie., not going to fancy restaurants, in fact rarely going to restaurants at all, choosing instead to self-cater. Oh boy does that have limitations! But we did embark on some tasty walking tours. In Chicago, we took a fascinating architecture, history and food tour with Chicago Detours, a women-owned tour company for the curious - that's me! We strolled for a delightful few hours. From Fanny May's handcrafted candies to the Intercontinental Hotel commissioned by the Shriners Organization in the 1920s to house the exclusive Medinah Athletic Club and now among other things home to Michael Jordan's Steak House. From super glitz to the Billy Goat tavern, the hang out of Chicago’s newspaper men, and to 437 Rush, the first Black and Tan club, a favourite hang out of Al Capone during the prohibition era and where the word ‘jazz’ was first recorded. More architecture and food awaited us in New York where we wandered the Financial District tasting street food from a selection of New York’s street carts (with Turnstile Tours) as well as taking a whirl wind architecture, history and food tour of the Flatiron district taking in among other delicious stops, Eataly - a huge Italian food emporium, the 90 year old Eisenberg’s deli and Beecher’s handmade cheese factory right on Broadway (Like a Local tours).
This is a great greasy spoon in Chicago with lots of history and colour.
The seafood section in Eataly a vibrant Italian market place with just about everything you might want food wise - eating, buying and cooking classes
We were fed well on the trains across USA and Canada, the latter being more interesting and varied each day. I indulged my taste buds with juicy veal in a black current-balsamic reduction (somewhat like my Christmas Gastrique - 14 December 2017), melt-in-your-mouth rack of lamb and seared cod - and a Bison burger! The French influence was very evident - except for the latter perhaps! Meals on board the Polar Pioneer, our expedition ship, while not silver service, were imaginative and plentiful – fillet mignon, veal pillard, prime ribs, rack of lamb, salmon, red fish and cod. This menu with amuse you - it’s a traditional Aurora next to last night menu:
Roast Musk Ox served with sautéed Narhwal Muktuk (a traditional Inuit meal of whale skin and blubber) with a Barnacle Geese garnish. Finished off with Arctic Hare sorbet.
We actually had a delicious BBQ out of the back deck that night served with mulled wine completely perfect with icebergs floating passed.
G and T with a small chunk of iceberg.
But we did indeed try Musk Ox in Ittoqqortoormiit, a tiny Inuit village at the mouth of Scoresby Sound, East Greenland, population ~300. Quite delicious. Tasted like a cross between like veal and goat (makes sense it is a member of the goat family!)
This lovely little man was offering us morsels of cooked Musk Ox
In Iceland, we lunched at a world-class restaurant on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, the Sker, where we ate cod fresh out of the Greenland Sea with Hollandaise sauce and a delicious warm salad.
In Newfoundland, we just had to try a traditional meal - Fish and Brewis. This is made from salt cod and hardtack soaked overnight then boiled and served with scrunchions (salted pork fat which has been cut into small pieces and fried). Think of those arteries! And we tried another traditional Newfoundland dish in Port aux Basque – fried Cods’ Tongues (actually not a tongue but a small muscle extracted from the back of the fish's neck). Interesting and tasty. Cod is an east Canada fish, that and Haddock, we ordered it wherever we saw them on the menu. Other local dishes we enjoyed were deep fried Brussel sprouts and crab cakes; we enjoyed both in Toronto.
We’ve come home to a very depleted larder albeit with a few tubs of yummy soups in the freezer, so we lashed out and bought a whole Red Emperor fish at the markets. It was way too big for one meal so I sawed it in half and we enjoyed the tail end last night baked with lemon, pepper and oil; I used some fresh lemon but also some preserved lemon prepared by our son and daughter-in-law. Delish and delicate!
Sprinkled with EVOO and Svaneti salt (brought back from Georgia in the Caucasus), and popped into the oven. Yum!
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