Today was our first rainy day. We had intended to go to the beach but the
weather conspired to ruin that idea, so we read and Cynthia and Ricardo talked
to their friends who had been at the wedding and everyone decided to get
together for lunch. Everyone was keen to
go to Pier 77 and we all drove over there but it was closed, so we all decided
to go to General Jack’s Brewpub in Kennebunkport.
We were 11 and we ordered drinks in the bar while we waited
abut fifteen minutes for a table to be set up in the restaurant. General Jack’s is a large institutional
style restaurant, completely different from the exquisite boutique Pier 77 Restaurant. Suzette and I ordered clam chowder which
turned out to be completely different than Cynthia’s milk soup chowder. General Jack’s was a thick stew of fish and
potatoes. I am not sure I ever found a
piece of onion in it. It was if they added
fish and potatoes to the standard New England Sysco clam chowder mix. Then for entrée Suzette and I ordered the
steamers.
They were delicious and served in the traditional manner
with a cup of broth and a ramekin of drawn butter. I loved them, but Suzette did not like the
large long neck clams. She apparently
was expecting manila or cherrystone clams.
I also think she did not like having to peel the membrane that covered
the clam’s opening between the shells and the long neck. So I gladly had to eat most of them.
We had discussed loosely with Cynthia a concept for dinner
so after lunch, Cynthia and Ricardo went to Rick and Nora’s house to reminisce
with their friends and at about 3:00 p.m. we drove to the Lobster House fish
market and bought a lb. of Haddock ($7.95) and a lb. of lobster ($38.00) and
then went to the Hannaford Supermarket and bought five large haas avocados and
some more milk.
We then went home and rested. None of us were hungry. I had made one of my egg and rice egg foo
young breakfasts with Italian Sausage and spinach and a touch of salsa, but by
about 7:00 p.m. I started making a dressing for the lobster salad. Willy went to Portland to spend some more
time with Drew.
I wanted to make a Sauce Louie which usually includes mayonnaise,
catsup, Tabasco and a little horseradish.
Unfortunately, we had no catsup or horseradish, so I had to
improvise. I chopped up two vine ripe
tomatoes and added 1 cup of mayonnaise and a Tbsp. of pickle relish to give it
a slight tartar sauce flavor and the juice of about ½ lemon. This produced a very watery sauce. Suzette came to my rescue and suggested we
try to chop and smash some avocado into the dressing to give it body, so we
chopped ½ avocado and smashed it into the dressing and that helped give it more
body and then we put it into the fridge to chill and thicken for about ½ hour and
that helped.
While I was doing the dressing Cynthia and Suzette had
peeled and halved two avocados and plated them with baby arugula. After I finished the dressing I watched Cynthia reconstitute the chowder. She chopped up two white potatoes and about ½ onion and sautéed that in a skillet with butter. She then added that the PPI Lobster chowder and then added the 1 lb. of haddock to it and simmered it all together.
I then cut up the 1 lb. of lobster, which was whole tails
and claws into ½ inch cubes and we were ready to plate up dinner. We filled the avocado halves with lobster and
dressed them with the now thickened dressing and we filled bowls with the lovely
fish chowder. I have discovered that good fish chowder is
pretty basic, corn milk, fish and potatoes.
It is a poor person’s dish but when fresh white corn and fresh lobster
and fresh fish are used it raises the dish to a level of delicacy that can hardly be
imagined.
I opened the bottle of Le Vielle Fermé rosé and Ricardo a glass of Sterling Sauvignon Blanc from a bottle he had opened. We ate and drank and talked until we got sleepy at around 11:00. I would judge the dinner as near perfect as it could be. It really put us in a good mood and we enjoyed each other’s conversation and got to really know each other as we discussed our previous spouses, experiences raising families and divorces.
Bon Appétit
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