Text 35937, 99 rader
Skriven 2010-03-18 19:51:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tastes 939
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It's Restaurant Week, a gimmick that either serves as a
showcase or gives places an opportunity to experiment
with weird things. This year the only such meal I went to
was lunch at Clink, which is the sibling of Scampo at the
ultra-fashionable Liberty Hotel (fka the Charles Street
Jail) in Boston. You get a prix fixe menu, 3 courses, for
20.10 ... one can see right away that the pricing idea is
going to fall apart at some point, and in fact, not so
long ago, the routine was lunch or dinner, 19.xx, and then
it evolved into lunch, 20.xx, dinner 30.xx. Now, the 20.10
lunch is getting a little threadbare, especially with
these places for which it isn't a loss leader but rather
an attempt to make a profit.

Clink is in a former cellblock, with some bars and big
armored doors still intact. I was seated by the cutish
hostess at a table right next to a former cell window,
with a view of the entrance (just in case - it has been
pointed out to me that men especially are leery of being
seated with their backs to the door, something about the
fear of getting machine-gunned, I guess). A pleasant and
knowledgeable waiter who actually knew that the Liberty
Ale on tap was made by Anchor.

Bread for the table was a chewy-crusted moderately sour
sourdough; its butter was heavily salted. I considered
having a burger (16 or so), but the 3 course thing
appealed to my sense of thrift. The meal turned out not
to be what my body craved but was worthwhile anyhow.

Here's the Restaurant Week Menu:

Starters
Seafood Chowder with Brown Bread Croutons
Bluebird Grain Farms Farro Soup with Black Cumin Yogurt
Roasted Beet and Mozzarella Salad with Arugula
 and White Balsamic

Mains

Housemade Corn Pasta with Wild Mushrooms and Truffled
 Breadcrumbs
Crispy Chicken and Egg Salad Sandwich with Kimchee and
 Sweet Potato Fries
Port Clyde Monkfish Sandwich with Turmeric, Dill, Cilantro
 and New Potato Salad

Desserts:

Frozen Lemon Souffle with Cake Crumbles
 and Young Coconut Water
Green Apple, Rhubarb and Raisin Cobbler with Vanilla
 Bean Ice Cream
Kefir Lime Panna Cotta with Candied Citrus/Ginger
 Compote and ANZAC Biscuits


The chowder came in a cute bowl with a huge rim, a sort
of bowl and plate in one piece. Its main ingredients were
bits of things that the kitchen didn't have a use for any
more - the fatty bits of salmon, the dark part of a swordfish
steak, the floppy stuff at the end of a lobster claw. Its
broth was well flavored and not too thick, and it all tasted
quite good, though the leftoveriness of it was pretty obvious.
The croutons were really crunchy, which is good, as I ate the
soup slowly, and they slowly sank in the west but were still
somewhat crunchy as I slurped the last.

Next I had the corn pasta - slightly yellow and corny-tasting,
al dente bordering both on hard and gummy, a danger of low
gluten pasta I think. The wild mushrooms were not shiitakes,
which is good - they were oysters, in a slightly creamy sauce.
Truffled breadcrumbs of course were leftover bread tossed with
the oil of the same name; it was a restrained treatment,
though, so the rubber tire taste didn't really come out, and
one almost (almost!) got the impression that there was real
truffle somewhere there, which I believe there wasn't. I think
that when truffle oil came out, people used to use it with
reverence, and the effect wasn't disgusting, as it is now that
cooks have determined that it's a relatively cheap way to add
pizzazz to a dish, so add enough that even the most palate-
challenged diner can detect it. Okay, I pushed most of the
breadcrumbs to the side. What I should have done is put them
in an envelope and sent them to Weller.

The panna cotta hit one over the head with its liminess, and
the ginger orange marmalade didn't add much but confusion.
Anzac biscuits were pretty standard, a little undersweetened,
which is good.

I had a Harpoon Ale followed by a Liberty Ale, both good and
both hotel priced, so my total bill with tip came to $40 on
the nose, which made me feel somewhat punched on the nose,
as I estimate that the dishes cost between $2 and 4 to make
total, and draft beer is pretty cheap.

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