The City Merchant in the Merchant City

What can be a better combination - historic ambiance with fresh seafood and traditional fare done in a contemporary fashion! We had a great dinner at the City Merchant, a restaurant in the midst of Merchant City in downtown Glasgow.  The place was packed when our group of four arrived.  We didn't have a reservation but was told we could wait half an hour for a table for four to be freed up.  But if we split up, there were two tables for two waiting - so we did.


We had their homemade squash soup, the grilled lemon sole and beef medallions with haggis. Of course I have to try haggis while I'm in Scotland. It was just a small piece but just enough to give me a taste - interesting flavour!  Both dishes were done to perfection.  Like everywhere else in Glasgow, the staff were friendly and chatty. It is a welcoming place serving delicious food!
 

Grilled whole lemon sole with baby shrimp and caper butter

Beef medallions served with haggis and mushrooms

We enjoyed the stained glass around us, including the door to the kitchen.

Eating in Iceland

We spent 11 days travelling in Iceland with a tour group in June, 2018. We have already heard from other travellers how expensive food is in Iceland so was mentally prepared for the prices on menus.  Before the tour, we spent a day in Reykjavik and tried lunch and dinner at restaurants. We were surprised at how good the food was, and the prices, while steep, were not outrageous - not much more than what we would have paid at a good downtown restaurant in any North American city.  And because it was good quality, it was worth the price, affordability aside.  

We had an excellent first meal at the Iceland Fish and Chips Restaurant which has a blackboard menu with specials of the day. We get our choice of fish for various prices averaging around 2000 kronas ($20 USD).  A special included a salad and chips.  The cod was fresh and lightly battered - perfectly done. Our bill for two came to around 4600 ISK.

Dinner was at Þrir Frakkar,  run by chef Úlfar Eysteinsson in a residential area near the downtown core, in fact right next to the airbnb apartment we stayed in. The restaurant has excellent reviews and it was a good thing we made a reservation for dinner - the place was packed. The food was excellent! We tried the whale breast, the grilled cod, arctic char and our friends tried the Icelandic specialty hashed fish with black bread.  All the dishes were well-prepared, tasty and fresh. Service was super-friendly.  It was an excellent start to our icelandic food experience.  (Entrees averaged around 4500 - 5500 ISK, meat is more expensive than fish).  We got a discount because we were "neighbours" ;-).

Whale breast - delicious (tastes like roast beef)

Arctic char

Grilled cod

Hashed fish with black bread - Icelandic specialty

All the breakfasts and dinners were included in our tour but we didn't expect much more than cafeteria style buffets at the hotels. It was a pleasant surprise to find the food at our first stop at the Hotel Bifrost  to be an exceptionally serviced buffet with quality smoked and cured salmon as appetizers and perfectly cooked and trimmed salmon and cod for hot dishes.  It turned out to be one of the best meals we have had on the trip.  The rest of the dinners were all served - there were some slight variations in quality but overall the standard was quite high.  We had a great lamb fillet dinner at the Hotel Laugar, where again we saw the wait staff being carefully trained by the executive chef.

A most memorable lunch was at the Narfeyrarstofa restaurant in the seaside town of Stikkisholmur where we had one of the best seafood chowder ever - chock full of fish and two huge scallops that were tasty as ever.  The soup was around 2000 ISK, not bad considering the quality.  We also had terrific appetizers while we were on the boat cruise to see birds - fresh scallops and sea urchins straight out of the shell from the sea.

Scallop just out of the sea (so delicious!)

Scallop roe (yummy!)

Sea urchin (these would have tasted better if rinsed in fresh water)

We had other lunches while on the road, sandwiches were mostly around 1000 ISK; we even had smoked salmon panini in Husavik and that was only 750 ISK, not likely to find this price in Toronto even.  But then it's Iceland and fish is their specialty.  

When we returned to Reykjavik, we had dinners with the group at the Sky Restaurant at the CenterHotel and the Kolabrautin Restaurant at the Harpa Concert hall.  Both excellent dinners - the former memorable for its scallops appetizer and the latter for its tender roast beef.  I think Iceland is definitely the place for scallops!

Six big delicious scallops in this appetizer at the Sky Restaurant

Roast beef medallions at the Kolabrautin Restaurant

Overall, we had a wonderful food experience in Iceland - highly recommended, but be ready to pay!

Braised duck with onions

It's not often that we see fresh duck in the market - it must be spring somewhere!  A fresh duck is so much less work than a frozen one as the defrosting process could be quite time-consuming.  So when I saw a fresh one, and knowing I'll have time on the weekend to babysit it, I grabbed the opportunity. When buying ducks, look for a long, lean body rather than a wide one, as the lean bodies are usually less fatty - makes perfect sense when you consider the human example.

I used my mother's recipe - a basic, easy to do one that works hundred percent of the time. Marinate the duck with soy sauce, pepper, wine and dark soy on the skin for an hour or so. Quarter 3 medium onions or 6 small ones (if you have a big enough wok). Brown the onions first in oil, remove from pan then brown the duck on all four sides until golden brown. Remove any excess oil that has been rendered. Today's duck is not fatty at all and there was very little fat left in the pan.

Arrange the duck and the onions in the wok, add enough chicken or duck broth to cover half the duck, add rose wine, ginger, pepper and garlic.

Simmer for about half an hour, turning duck over at mid point. Remove onions and continue to braise duck for another half or so, turning, and checking to make sure it doesn't get too soft. Check this by poking a chopstick through the duck to see if it goes through easily.  Stop the cooking when there is just enough "give".  Cut up duck and serve in a deep dish so the sauce can be poured over it. 

A delicious double!

We had the good fortune of enjoying lunch and dinner at the same restaurant on the same day while we were in Hong Kong.  It was great that it is Shanghai style food which we only eat very occasionally at home so we were not in danger of having too much of a good thing. The food at this restaurant,  Shanghai Lu Yang Cun (上海綠楊邨酒家) is very good so it was double the treat!

The tough thing at a Shanghai style restaurant has always been knowing what to order. If there is expertise, one can end up with a delicious and exceptional meal. If we just go by the popular offerings which is usually what we ultimately fall back on when we order on our own, there is nothing special. In this case, our lunch host had specially consulted Shanghainese friends about the menu and we got to try some really different dishes. 

馬蘭頭百葉卷  Soy rolls with Indian aster - nice contrast in textures between the soy and the greens.  (Indian aster is a wild herb from the sunflower family, fairly common in household meals in China although not so common in North America)

An unusual presentation of the Compoy broad bean cake 瑤柱豆瓣酥 - but it's tasty

My all time favourite - braised bamboo shoots - still have fond childhood memories of these

Briased soy "goose"

Love this fried rice with salted meat and pine nuts even though I'm not usually a rice eater

This fish head soup, with mushrooms and yam noodles among other things, was the most delicious concoction I've tasted in a long time.  I love how the cartilage from the fish head is both soft and chewy at the same time. It was so good I must have had at least three bowls and then in the evening, suggested to our host at dinner to order it again!

Dinner was more regular fare but we were again lucky to have someone at the table familiar with the regional cuisine so the right dishes were ordered.  The food was well-prepared and flavourful.  And the soup was just as good the second time around!

Starters:

Jellyfish, drunken chicken and smoked eel - all very nicely done

 

The shrimp went very well with the sauce

This is one dish I've never tried before - cured ham, lotus seed and a piece of fried potato (?) put together in steamed buns - all succeeded in providing a delicious combination of textures and tastes - soft, salty, crunchy in a hot steamed bun

"Squirrel fish" (deep fried with sweet and sour sauce) - always a favourite - not as crunchy I would have liked but still good

And the crowning glory - meringue puffs stuffed with red bean paste 高力豆沙 ! I like how the icing sugar was served on the side.

 

Bonus:  Nightview from restaurant