With all the miles that I drove, the road never took me to Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough in Noank, CT.  I really, really tried to get there.  I did.  And I was very close.  However, dilly-dallying and rainy weather called for a change of plans and I ended up here  instead.   An oyster lunch was nice but it was still a consolation prize.

Abbott’s is a little off the beaten path (don’t try to find it without  GPS) and a late afternoon lobster on the water’s edge ranks among my favorite of meals.  Trust me, I have eaten my way around the world and three star Michelin restaurants can’t begin to compare.   Well, that is a stretch but all that fine-dining protocol really interferes with the pleasure of the meal.  I prefer authentically casual any day.

Here’s how it works at Abbott’s; queue up and order at the window.  The lobsters come in any size you want.  On my first visit, I ordered moderately and had to get back in line for a second go around.  On my second trip, I was a little concerned about propriety when I ordered a two-and-a-half pounder for my own but the gal taking the orders didn’t bat an eyelash.  And for the record, on another visit, I have also ordered THREE chicks (little lobsters), too.  I don’t share either.   Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that!

Place your order and pay your bill, once your name is called you can claim your prize.   Sit outside at a  picnic table with a great view of the harbor and Fisher’s Island Sound.  The wires stretched overhead prevent the greedy gulls from screeching down and making off with your lunch.  Trust me, this is nothing fancy but it’s really as good as it gets.  We usually bring a bottle of Pugliny-Montrachet (a Premier Cru if we are feeling flush) put on our bibs and toast with the plastic cups. 

As for the next best thing, I did discover a fishmonger on Argyle Street in the Vietnamese and Thai section of Chicago. (edit: Sea World Food Market, 1130 Argyle Street.  Cash only. Closed Tuesdays.)  The woman who runs the shop will fish your lobster out of the tank with a smile and put them in plastic bags for you to take away.  The price? $8.95lb.  That, as my friend Meredith likes to say, is a coupon coup. We have been eating a lot of lobster.

I ended up making lobster potato salad with these guys. Loaded with tarragon, celery and chives it’s the most perfect high/low dish.   The fragrant anise flavor of the tarragon is a divine marriage with the sweetness of the lobster. It’s almost as good as a trip to Abbott’s.

1. Dissolve 2 TBSP kosher salt in 1/3 c rice vinegar.
2. Make dressing with 1/3 cup mayonnaise (Trader Joe’s tastes like homemade and is the best), 1/3 cup buttermilk,  1 TBSP lemon juice and 1/3 c. chopped fresh tarragon, freshly ground pepper and salt.
3. Submerge two 1.5 lb. lobsters in boiling water.  Bring pot back to a boil and set timer for 7 minutes.  After 7 minutes, remove the lobsters from water and set aside to cool. Reserve water.
4. Bring the lobster water back to boil.  Add 3lb large Yukon Gold potatoes to the lobster pot and boil in the lobster water until fork tender. Drain potatoes and set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel and cube.  While still warm, toss cubed potatoes in the rice vinegar and salt mixture. 
5. While potatoes are boiling, remove lobster meat from shell and claws and devein the tail. Chop coarsely.
6. Add 1/2 c. sliced celery,  lobster meat, 1/4 c. snipped chives and dressing.  Toss and adjust seasonings. 
7. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Photo credits: Image 1: cag2012 via flickr.  Image 2: spunkytwit via flickr.

Cute Boys With Cupcakes also accepts submissions from all over the world.  I’m still waiting to bump into Nacho Figueras so that I can give him a cupcake and take his picture.

While I was in Harbor Springs, MI for a trunk show at Monogram Goods, we ate some cupcakes.  Red Velvet with a filling of chocolate.  Fancy cupcakes crowned with a nonpareil. They were  flown in from New York.  It was my birthday, after all.

Harbor Springs is filled with good looking men.  When Luke popped into Monogram Goods, I decided to gift him a cupcake, take a picture and submit an American version of cupcake cheesecake to the London blog.  

 My next stop on the trunk show circuit is Meadowbrook Polo Club in Old Westbury, NY.  Would someone please tell Nacho I’m looking for him?

The fragrant plants grew and the couple bestowed their harvest on friends.   So, Serge grew more.  Their friends exhausted their uses for the gifts so Serge and Susan put a little lavender stand in front of their home with a donation box.  On the very first day, the couple discovered that honor was alive and well on Long Island.  They came home to find the lavender was gone and the money box was full.  Overflowing.

Serge continued to work his earthbound magic and stock the little stand.  Soon,  they bought a field  on Gardiner’s Bay and laid it out in rows of lavender.   They pitched a tent, posted  a “U-Pick”  sign, and customers wandered the field gathering the purple bounty to take with them.

Business was good and soon the little tent was replaced with a handsome shingled cottage.  

Before too long, help was needed to harvest and bundle the lavender into precise little bouquets which were neatly stacked into wheelbarrows.  For those so inclined, it is still possible to gather your own lavender with scythes to fill old-fashioned cutting baskets. 

And the moral of this fairy tale is: Some things happen by serendipity.  Watch for the clues and let life unfold.

*If you are wondering what I did with my lovely, little bunch of lavender, I dried it and made this magic potion –> click here

Conrad the man/boy left for three weeks of sailing in the Caribbean.   We shopped for the perfect board shorts for weeks.  Unfortunately, I didn’t discover these until yesterday. I wonder if he would wear these amazing beachy-chic board shorts from Shortomatic?   

I found Shortomatic via Style.com and think it’s the most brilliant concept.  Upload your own graphics and design your own board shorts.  A wonderful spin on my love of all things personalized.  The shorts come in sizes to fit both men and women.  For the effort,  I don’t think that any design I could come up with would please me more than these white and hot pink shorts emblazoned with variegated phalaenopsis. 

The beach + orchids =  my new favorite flavor!

On Saturday, when it was time to head for Chicago, the day dawned perfectly bathed in brilliant sunshine.  I have the most amazing adventures when left to wander as I please, and thus, decided to take the long way home.  My first stop was a Jack Rogers trunk show in Sag Harbor to see my friend Steven Stolman. 

Sag Harbor exudes pure Americana,  and Sylvester & Company is perfectly suited to the locale and to hosting a trunk show.  Located on Main Street and billing itself as a contemporary general store, it offers home furnishings and houses a wonderful coffee bar that serves up thier their own special “Dreamy Coffee”.  Steven contends that if you haven’t tasted Dreamy Coffee, you really haven’t tasted coffee at all and I concur.  

Exquisite chocolates in the goodie case  called to me with their siren’s song but I resisted.  

Steven and I met at a private sale in Boston years ago.  The sale itself wasn’t much to talk about but the friendship I fell into there certainly is.  Steven Stolman beacame the first, and still the best, retail customer that QoC ever had.  Six years later, I am lucky to count this extremely talented man amongst my friends.  He is generous, gracious and is the embodiment of sprezzatura.  So, when I saw that invitation announcing the Sag Harbor trunk show, I knew where the road would take me.

Steven is now the Creative Director for Jack Rogers.   Who could better update the look of Palm Beach chic that brands this  label?  Not another soul, really.  And he has done a stellar job.  The line is true to it’s original DNA but completely modern and elegantly simple. I’m crazy for the guipure lace tunics that incorporate the signature JR roundel. When is the next cutting, Steven? I’ll take two — black and white, please.

 I have been wearing Jack Rogers classic sandals since high school but everything was so fresh and great looking that I couldn’t help by a pair (or two, or three).  You can find these shoes on www.jackrogersusa.com and the bedazzled style at www.saks.com

I bought these

And these (in white)

and these

The Consort and I rode our bikes along the lakefront to the Art Institute to take in the Matisse exhibit.  The foot and bicycle traffic was so heavy that I didn’t stop to take a picture of the Great Mediterranean Lake with it’s confetti of sailboats on the horizon. My fear of being run over and swept along with the river of  people was too great so we just peddled like mad.  

Once we reached the Art Insitute we stopped for an iced tea in the McKinlock Court which is a quiet oasis in the middle of the city.  And it’s populated with mermen.  The Fountain of the Tritons by Carl Milles was installed in 1931.  I found it much more appealing than the exploration of Matisse’s cubist period which was being shown in the upstairs gallery.

What exactly is a triton?  Well, it is a mythological Greek god; a messenger of the sea. They are the love-children of Poseidon (god of the sea), and Amphitrite (goddess of the sea) — usually, represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, with shoulders barnacled with sea-shells.  A triton’s special attribute were twisted conch shells, which they blew like  trumpets to conjure or calm the waves.  They are also known to have sung irresistible songs to lure humans.

I am happy to be lured to the water’s edge by these tritons all summer long.

 There are two Goyard shops.  You can see the main store in the reflection of the glass storefront of #352.

The sign on the facade of #352 lets you know it’s distinctive from the mothership across the street.

The entire first floor is dedicated to canine follies and indulgences — le chic du chien.   And you know how I feel about my petite follie, LouLou, ne c’est pas?

There were custom collars galore.  All bespoke and personalized according to the master’s taste and inclination.  

There were doggy travel bowls made portable in Goyard signature cases.  Perfect for our Queen of Cashmere road trips.

There were custom dog carriers which in my universe is referred to as a  ”sneaky-bag”.  My current bag just isn’t cutting it.  LouLou and I have been discovered many a time and been thrown out of the very  best of places.   All Goyard dog carriers can be made to order and completely customzied which means the sneak-quotient can be upped considerably.  Embarrassing removals could  become a thing of the past.

Below is Joseph who offered to make a harness to fit LouLou if I sent him one of hers for sizing.  He is extremely charming and accommodating.  Anything for LouLou that my heart might desire can be had. 

Later, The Consort asked, ” How much was a harness?”  He hates it when I don’t ask the price of anything.  In his eyes, it’s my gravest failing.  I promised to work harder at reform in the future. 

 Tonight, over dinner at Le Divellac to celebrate The Consort’s birthday, I’m going to try my best to persuade him to stay in Paris just one more day. 

 Oh, volcano, where are you when I need you?

Surely, from the sound of it, the Scottish national dish made from lamb offal (the heart, liver and other organs) that are chopped,  highly seasoned,  mixed with oats and lard before being stuffed into a lamb stomach and steamed, would be off-putting to even the hardiest of omnivores.  Sounds disgusting, no?  Well the reality of the dish glorified by Robert Burns in “Address to A Haggis” is that it is absolutely de-lish!   I kid you not.

Traditionally, in its most humble form, haggis is served in equal amounts with “neeps and tatties” which are mashed turnips  and potatoes that mix and marry well with the earthy savor of the haggis.  It’s a big plate of mushy comfort food with seemingly magical restorative properties – mainly as a component in a full Scottish breakfast after a night of over indulgence.

Sometimes haggis is served sauced and sometimes it’s not.  Generally, I prefer my haggis with a little sauce.  The very best version, in my opinion, is the way it was served to me a few years ago at Glenmorangie House in Cadboll on the Scottish coast.  That was my first experience with a straight shot of Scotch whiskey over the top of a haggis stack (which is the gussied up cousin of the humble dollops one finds in most pubs).

When I’m in Scotland, I try to make sure that haggis in on the breakfast menu, on the lunch menu and on the dinner menu, too.   I will travel to source out the best (or the next) haggis.

This trip, I had heard that W.T.S. Forsyth & Sons, the butcher in Peebles, made the yummiest haggis pies so we  made a special stop to buy some.   Unfortunately, they only make them between Robert  Burns Night in January and the end of April.   That is Mr. Forsyth the proprietor showing off his haggis handiwork in the image below.  Even though he didn’t have any pies, he made certain that we didn’t leave empty-handed.  He sliced two thick rounds of the haggis sausage for us to take away.  The next morning, our hostess topped it with fried, organic eggs from her hens for breakfast.  Just so you know, runny egg yolks count as sauce.  

I must admit, Mr. Forsyth makes a divine haggis.  The oats were perfectly pearl and the haggis was a more coarse style and slightly fluffy.  Haggis will vary in style from butcher to butcher and I haven’t found one yet that I didn’t like.

In contrast, at Monachyle Mhor, a glorious restaurant and inn  that is run by the renowned British chef Tom Lewis and his family,  we were presented with some very elegant haggis “bonbons” with our cocktails.  Chef Lewis used a finer textured haggis to shape into perfectly round balls that were lightly breaded and deep fried.  It’s a pity that they only served us one each and an even bigger pity that my husband, Rom,  forbade me to take out my camera.  I would have loved to show them to you.

Lastly, there is a Polish restaurant in Edinburgh called Pani Solinska’s and they make haggis periogi.   My Polish husband thinks these sound like the stuff of dreams but we ran out of time before we could eat there.  It’s a good culinary excuse to plan a return visit to Edinburgh not too far in the future!