Chowdahead

Glasgow, Scotland, I am hungry. I haven't had the best luck getting a decent lunch out of you. I want you to feed me something light, satisfying, fresh, tasty, enjoyable, brief, surprising...I want a good lunch. Can you help me out? We started looking for you, elusive respite, after Christmas. We went to a new place called 'Butchershop & something something' and sat awaiting some meat for nearly an hour. I want to be as fair as I can be. I am not writing this to dis this new restaurant. I just wanted a steak frites in about the time it takes to cook a steak. I thought we might get the hamburger in the same amount of time. It was busy, not that busy, but busy. We had pleasant service and the food was good. That is all I can say.

We don't give up. The next day, we went over to 'The Crab Shack'. We went in and they asked us if we were ok at the bar. They told us they didn't have much on the menu because the fishing boats hadn't been out from Christmas. No crabs, langoustines, mussels, etc. We ordered up two seafood chowders and the fish dinner. The chowders showed up pretty quickly and they were not small cupfuls, they were lovely big bowls with thick bread. Now, I am from New England, I consider myself a chowder expert. I have been eating chowdah since I first supped on soup. I have had every possible chowder concoction and they measured from the inedible, stomach churning canned type to the fresh, creamy, made at the dock as the clams came off the boat variety. Chowdah, how I luv ya, how I luv ya chowdah. So, I was so excited to dig into a bowl and this is it. This is a wonderful chowder. Thank you Crab Shack, Glasgow. Thank you friendly waitstaff, thank you nice American dude who plunked this bowl down in front of me. This steaming, creamy, leek filled bowl of yumminess. This chowder is one that I want to make, that I am going to attempt to make, that I need to make. The chowder itself is creamy but not thick or heavy. It holds the seafood and leeks and suspends them in its level richness. Those leeks, the tender mussels and clams, the scallops and fish...

Creamy goodness, chowder, welcome to my tummy.

Well, it was really very good. We were fully satisfied by the end of the bowl. So, although I don't recommend this as an everyday thing, we asked if they would cancel the fish and chips we had yet to come. I don't think I have done that before. It did take G and I some discussion of if it were alright to request and had they said no, we would have just had the dish anyway but, they said no problem and smiled. Thanks again Crab Shack. We ordered up some lovely oysters (I can't remember where they were from) and finished a lovely lunch.

Glistening oysterless shell

We headed out again for lunch a couple other times that were successful. We went to the always satisfying 'Left Bank'. They do their snack foods right. G's lovely friend owns it and I think we eat the same things. All of the little bites on the menu are attractive to me and I wanted to eat my way through it. I only had enough room for the chicken satay with lovely peanut sauce, the side salad and the fries. The fries had rosemary and were salty and delectable. I dipped them in ketchup. I dipped them in peanut sauce. I ate them on their own. I looked at G sideways when he ate some of them.

We also got an impromptu lunch at this funky cool East Village type resto in a hotel. They make a messy little hand pulled pizza that hit the spot. It was thin crusted and had tasty toppings on. So, Glasgow, you have made a luncher out of me.