Three Course Lunch!!

The cabin I stayed in allowed me to eat in a special restaurant each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It is a rarity these days on cruises where you can have three sit down meals every day.  Most cruise lines only offer that for breakfast (sometimes brunch) and dinner, where lunch is only in the dining room on sea days.  When you stay in the Haven on Norwegian you can have sit down service for all three meals.  Today was a chance to see what they had for lunch.

I started with Seafood Frito Misto which was an assortment of fried seafood and veggies including scallops, fish, calamari, mussels, onions and zucchini.  The batter was very light.  I think they use a batter that is at least partly rice flour so it some out close to a tempura.  The most surprising item on the plate was the mussels. I have had those prepared many ways although mainly steamed.  I had never had them fried in the shell. The surprising thing was that they were not overcooked.   I think they steamed them, then once almost cooked through  it when they battered them for frying.  They still had a chewy meaty texture I like in a mussel.  While the seafood was all good, the best item was the thinly sliced zucchini.  I had never had zucchini prepared this way even when getting tempura at a Japanese restaurant.  The texture was almost like potato chips since they had been sliced so thin. 

It was served with a sauce which at first I thought would be thick like a cocktail sauce.  Instead it was the consistency and flavor of what you would get in a bouillabaisse.   Thin and so flavorful.  I would guess they used shellfish to flavor it.  Such a great idea instead of aioli or cocktail sauce.

I next tried the lobster bisque.  While it could have been hotter, this had a deep flavor.  I would compare it to the base roux that you would build when making a gumbo.  There was a nice chunk of lobster tail meat in the middle as well as a drizzle of creme fraiche.  

For my main, I had the brie cheeseburger.  In an earlier blog I had stated how delicious the burger at American Diner had been.  This one topped that.  It was just as cleverly put together with a meaty, seasoned patty, topped with creamy brie.  I loved that they also included some of the rind which added lots of nutty flavor to the burger.  And the lettuce was on the bottom bun!!  They avoided one of my pet peeves of burgers!! 

Too often burgers are over complicated where a chef thinks about what else can they add to the burger. where instead they should be considering what should be removed.  I really don't need to see another "Texas BBQ Burger" with a fried onion ring.  Last I knew, Texas is not the home to onion rings.    This burger had everything it needed and nothing it didn't.  Served with some thin, crispy fries made it complete.