In bisques, the purée is so silky smooth the texture is almost creamy.
At Mother Kelly's, a longtime fixture on Chestnut Street, the ladies who lunch can indulge in lobster bisque and play mah-jongg at tables in the back.
The lobster in a bisque receded into the background, demonstrating the same timidity as the lobster in an over-dressed salad.
A £10.50 starter of pork belly, scampi and crisped fish skin (the advertised "scratchings", presumably) sits in a bisque that muddies the dish's impact.
I could see slivers of the advertised lobster in a bisque with "green apple essence," but I couldn't taste them.
WHAT WE LIKED Tortellini in brodo, beet salad, salumi, eggplant rollettini, stuffed meatball Calabrese, mushroom risotto, lasagna Calabrese, tagliolini Portofino, spaghetti Amatriciana, orange roughy in lobster bisque (special), red snapper with capers (special), Cornish hen under brick (galletto alla diavoce), chicken cacciatore (special), blood orange gelato, panna cotta, tiramisu, affogato.
While I worried that the shrimp shells in the bisque had been simmered too long (the soup tasted acidic and gritty), the sherry lentil and the caldo Andaluze soups were utterly soothing, steaming with winter vegetables like Swiss chard, carrots and red kidney beans.
I fall into the latter camp, and use the truly genius Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light Bisque (£19; there's an unheard-of-elsewhere 21 shades, so they cater for everyone), but I also highly rate NYX's Dark Circle Concealer (£6.50; four shades, from fair to deep), which offers great coverage at a low-ish price point.
They originally sold for $350 to $1600 and came in black, bisque, white and stainless steel.
But her affection for the unexpected phrase, the kooky observation, the unlikely juxtaposition is essential to her central belief that the smallest and most trivial things in life — a bowl of lobster bisque, in Gordon's case — can be charged with meaning.
