I had the privilege of a week long journey on the Explora I ship. Explora ships are a luxury branch of the MSC Cruise Line (Swiss/Italian). The ships are much smaller than the behemoth MSC ships, about 900 passengers, with spacious cabins, a 1.25:1 passenger/staff ratio, and all-inclusive pricing, meals, drinks and most activities. Of the six on-board restaurants, the Anthology restaurant is an exception, in that it’s 5 (or more) course meals have an up-charge of about $165 per person. This is still way less than major city dining, and since your travel agent may well have given you an on-board credit, the actual cost is much less, in my case $15. The style is fine Italian cuisine, curated by Head of Culinary, Franck Garanger.
My experience at Anthology was utterly top-notch, and I thought I’d share it with you.
When I arrived, a punch cocktail was already poured, sort of a lemon punch with gin. Bread soon arrived, along with some of the finest peppery Sicilian olive oil I’ve ever tasted, from a producer that has been in business since 1911.
The menu is divided into 5 sections with around 3 choices in each section. And note that some of the palate cleansing intermissions are included as well
After placing my order, they brought out the first amuse-bouche, a creamy, cheesy topping over a bit of diced tomatoes and other vegetables. And, a small bowl of lobster bisque with bits of several vegetables (but no lobster).
Soon, the first course arrived, shown at the top of the article, Osetra Royal caviar atop lobster and green apply, served with a sweet an sour vinaigrette. In some ways this beautiful presentation is one of things I’ll always remember from that evening.
This was soon followed by Canneloni di Capasanta, a scallop cannelloni with black truffles, herb salad and a Parmigiana Reggiano foam. I savored ever delicious bite.
The next course, Raviolo Allo Scampi was equally outstanding: Langoustine ravioli, San Marzano tomato consommé and sage butter.
Then it was time for a palate cleanser, a Granita alla Grappa. This is a premium grappa, transformed into an crystalline, icy sort of dessert. Not to be missed!
The main course was Wagyu beef with Amarone sauce, and, amazingly chard stuffed with porcini mushrooms and s truffle potato pallet. The beef was, as you would expect, very tender and juicy and the chard quite a delicious surprise. The potato was excellent as well.
Then, as another palette cleanser, a lemon-vanille grapefruit compote with a blood orange sorbet.
And, almost finally, the dessert course: Euforia di Ciocolatto, with dark chocolate leaves made with chocolate and tofu, covering a chocolate-tofu custard, with amaretto toasted almonds.
But, wait, there are the petit fours! From the dessert cart we picked out couple to finish with. What a spectacular evening!
The Anthology restaurants are on all of the growing line of Explora ships. I hope to run into you on one sometime soon!
To make good fried chicken, you need to start with small birds, weighing less than 3.5 lbs. The smaller pieces on these birds fry much better than those of the 4.5 lb behemoths, which seem to taste old and the breast meat more likely to dry out. Chicken is best when briefly marinated in salted buttermilk, for half an hour or so.
Most fried chicken emporiums cut the thighs to include the backbone ribs and then bread and fry it that way to make it look bigger. However, since there is no meat on those ribs, you just get more breading.
We visited all but two of these businesses (Popeye’s and Stop and Shop) twice to make sure we had a fair appraisal of their products.
KFC
The KFC Chicken Combo with 3 pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, a biscuit and a soda is $12.39. The KFC original recipe chicken was warm, moist and flavorful. The flavor was enhanced by the “herbs and spices” in their breading, which while tasty, fell off the chicken onto the plate. The accompanying mashed potatoes and gravy were smooth and had an excellent flavor.
On a second visit, we just ordered a few chicken pieces and specified “extra crispy.” This was a much better choice, and the crust adhered to the chicken much better than the original recipe. The mashed potatoes were very good and the biscuit nondescript. Chicken grade: A. Oh, and one of their drinks is “lemonade.” It’s bright red and has a weird taste. Stick to the sodas.
Popeye’s
We ordered the Popeye’s 4-piece Chicken Combo (all dark meat) with mashed potatoes and Cajun gravy (very mildly spicy). The chicken crust was crisp the the chicken meat moist and juicy. It also comes with a nondescript biscuit, for $13.69. Absolutely perfect. Grade: A.
The website says that their business name is New Canaan Chicken and BBQ, and much of their menu features barbecue items. But they still have fried chicken.
You get 3 pieces for $12 or 4 pieces for $14. But if you want to have it delivered, the minimum order is $15, so we ordered the tomato-mozzarella salad (1 lb is enough for 2 or 3). We ordered all dark meat, which was OK, but didn’t have much chickeny taste. Some spices in the breading would have helped. They do not offer mashed potatoes, and the French fries were tough, dry and cold. The tomato-mozzarella salad was really quite good considering they had to use winter tomatoes, but it took me scissors, pliers, and a bottle opener to open the plastic salad container. They also offered “potato cones,” but not for delivery, so we didn’t get to try them the first time.
The second time, we ordered the 3-piece dinner, but added the potato cones, which turned out to be mashed potatoes mixed with a bit of flour, breaded and fried. They are better than the French fries, but not all that tasty. The coleslaw was quite liquid and had a somewhat unusual taste. This second time, we found the chicken crust had a nice snap, but the chicken itself was rather dry. Grade: B.
Greer’s Southern Table is a full service restaurant at 7 River St in Norwalk. But don’t be confused by the address. The actual entrance is around the corner in an alley across from a parking garage. There is also ample street parking in front of this side entrance. You can also try to enter from River St, but no one will notice you, since the hospitality entrance is around the corner. Greer’s does have an extensive take-out menu, and you can eat in or take out as you wish.
They offer steaks, shrimp and grits, salmon, ribs, jambalaya, roast chicken and of course, their Buttermilk Fried Chicken. You get 4 pieces of chicken along with cornbread, and coleslaw, and one other side. Since they don’t offer mashed potatoes, we ordered the succotash, which frankly was better than chicken. The waitress said they had baked potatoes, but she was mistaken. The on-line menu does offer Marry Me Duck Fat Potato fingerlings, which might have been fun to try.
The waitress told me you get two pieces of dark meat and two breast pieces. In fact, I got one decent drumstick, one small, juicy boneless piece of breast meat and two enormous chicken breast pieces that may have come from a young pterodactyl. They were tough and dry and I didn’t eat them. This was a Sunday night, and the B team may have been in the kitchen. Our second experience was much better.
On this second visit, we ordered the $29 Buttermilk Fried chicken dinner with cornbread and coleslaw along with the Marry Me Duck Fat Potatoes as takeout. The potatoes had a garlic flavor and were a nice addition to the meal. The crust was crispy and the 3 thighs were juicy and flavorful. The one chicken breast was fairly moist as well. BUT, they left out the cornbread and coleslaw from my take-out bag. I tried to reach someone for a comment on this, but was not successful. The chicken was absolutely outstanding: Chicken grade: A+.
Village Market
The Village Market Is a beloved specialty grocer in Wilton, CT. They are noted for their fresh meats and vegetables, their baked goods, ready to eat meals and sushi. Their deli provides meats and cheeses as well as rotisserie chickens. There is also a hot food display case where they offer freshly made fried chicken. We bought a drumstick and a thigh for $6.78. They are sold by weight, so the heavy breading is not surprising. The drumstick and the thigh weighed about the same at around 4.3 oz.
And, if you’re lucky, they also have a tray of fresh mashed potatoes you can take home warm. If the warm potatoes are gone, there are usually some mashed potatoes in the cold takeout display case that you can heat up in a microwave in a minute or two. We found that adding a dab of butter and a little salt made them quite tasty.
We found the chicken crust very substantial but snappy, and the drumsticks were good, but the thighs tended to be dry in spots. Chicken grade: A-
They usually sell out of dark meat before 4pm, so plan your shopping accordingly.
Wegman’s
Wegman’s supermarkets just recently came to Connecticut, with a relatively new store in Norwalk. It has an enormous 2-level parking garage as well as some front parking, and is open daily from 7am to midnight. The staff is plentiful and helpful in helping you find things in what is quite a sizable store. And, there are plenty of staffed checkouts as well as a self-checkout section. We are particularly partial to Wegman’s fresh bottled orange juice: far better than Tropicana, and it is the only local store that carries cultured butter.
Wegman’s has a substantial prepared food section offering all sorts of sandwiches, seafood and chicken. You can pick up hot chicken wings to eat right away, but their fried chicken pieces are in the chilled food display. They suggest you heat up the chicken for about 30 minutes in a 350˚ F oven. We tried this with a 4-piece package, but the chicken had a dry, tough crust and dry meat. The large breast piece was around 12 oz, and quite dry.
While they offered a package of mashed potatoes that looked much like the one at Village Market, it was not the same thing at all. We tried heating one of the scoops of potatoes in the microwave, but the ball deflated into a gooey pile, because it also contained cream, butter, water, roasted garlic, citric acid, carrageenan (seaweed thickener), cornstarch, cultured sugar (whatever that is: it retards spoilage) and sodium pyrophosphate. The pile of goo didn’t taste much like potatoes, and the four scoops cost $8.
Chicken: D, Potatoes: F.
Stop and Shop
We hadn’t realized until today that Stop and Shop also offers fried chicken, right next to their rotisserie chickens. There were only a few packages at 11am, but they may add more later in the day.
We bought a package of 8 pieces of fried chicken for $7.98, about half the price of the other suppliers. Surprisingly, this chicken was very good. It was warm and juicy and had a nice, crispy crust. It was actually one of the best of the fried chickens we tried. Chicken grade: A.
Conclusions
It is no big surprise that the chicken emporiums: KFC and Popeye’s make some of the best fried chicken. That is all they do and they do it very well. Typically, chicken by the piece is around $2 at these places, while Greer’s is much more expensive. Stop and Shop was a big surprise, with their excellent chicken about a dollar a piece.
