A Quiet Sunday Afternoon

Afternoon

I spent time this afternoon loading pictures to Flickr, writing up yesterday evening's events for the blog and making a start on today's. Drew in the meantime was busy reading his latest book. He has completed two already this holiday, when I'm still on my second.

I rang the restaurant to see if we could book a table for tonight, but like many seaside restaurants they are first come first sat in their arrangements, so it is not possible to book.

Next I booked a Taxi for tomorrow morning to take us the 6 miles to the Hertz garage in Salem where we are to pick up our hire car for the rest of the holiday.

That all sorted I responded to some emails and kept up a running dialogue on Flickr with my friend Robin who has been through all the photos with thoughtful and helpful comments.

Dinner at Landings.

We left the hotel at 6.30 and walked gently down the hill to The Landing Restaurant which we had passed earlier today. 

The Landing is in a fantastic location on the Marblehead sea-front. The staff are pleasant and welcoming. 

We were sat indoors, we could have waited for a table on the deck, but I'm not a huge fan of outdoor eating, so indoors suited us fine. 

It was quite busy, but people had been in eating early so a table was available almost immediately. 

The menu had a clear seafood focus with a fascinating range, there was also a specials' board with some interesting items. 

For starters I had Grilled octopus - chickpeas and cucumber in a vinaigrette with pesto on the octopus. Lovely and tasty, the pesto set things off very well. 

Drew opted for French Onion Soup - there was lots of cheese on top. He said it had a very french style with lots of caramelised onions, this gives it a sweet flavour rather than the sharper Spanish sopa de cebolla style which retains more of the onion flavour itself. This is not a complaint as it was to be expected given it was called french onion soup. It was very good. 

Drew's main was Honey Maple Glazed Salmon with sweet potato and corn hash, Brussels sprouts and corn bread which was as billed. Sweet with honey, yet firm salmon, lightly charred with accompaniments which were well cooked and complemented the sweetness of the honey very well. The corn bread (or madeline) was a little dry, but overall it was a success.  

I opted for one of the specials - Seafood Casserole with Rice and Greens. The Seafood Casserole had shrimps, scallops and haddock braised in butter with breadcrumbs on top, this had been baked in the oven and I felt it had been in for about 2 minutes to long as the seafood was drier than I would have expected rather than rich and plump as scallops and shrimps can be. This wasn't a big complaint, but it could have been a little juicer. The rice was lovely, el dente to the taste and the greens were rich in iron - a mix between broccoli and spinach in both texture and flavour (maybe someone can recognise them from the picture. I loved them.

Overall a good meal, but my main could have been cooked more carefully than it was.

We were back to the hotel by 8.30pm after another lovely day.

We sorted out our suitcases, so we have clean clothes in one and dirty in the others, ready for a launderette (or laundromat as they call them here) visit tomorrow. But more of that then.