Sliced open and displayed against a luxurious shellfish cream and trout roe, its flesh radiated a purple so deep it was almost black.
Scallops, too, were nicely pan-seared and presented, with a green pea risotto under one lonely strand of bright green broccolini, the mustard-colored shellfish cream sauce adding a fanciful touch.
It is delicious without being overwhelming, without being much more than ethereal pike, light as mist, buttery rice, a shellfish cream sauce with just a hint of nutmeg, a dab of American caviar.
The best starter was a soft-boiled egg with crayfish, cepes and a classic sauce Nantua, (made with cream, shellfish stock and brandy).
Even in its rigorous two-week Induction Phase, however, Atkins provides a rich larder of bacon and eggs, steak, lamb, pork and poultry, fish, including most shellfish, cheese, butter, cream (but not whole milk) and green vegetables except leeks, onions, peas and artichokes.
(What's the big deal -- bacon during Ramadan, shellfish in a cream sauce, Old Glory -- or a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" -- tossed onto the bonfire?) Buckley closes this Pandora's box by picking targets of common antipathy -- the French, the Saudis and the Carlyle Group -- and by making almost every character equally grubbing and small.
Fermented dry, chenin blanc becomes a full-flavored but lean-bodied wine, perfectly suited to shellfish and dishes with cream sauces.
Very little about the soup of smoked bacon, cream and shellfish would be out of place in Hyannis or Kennebunkport, although this version is more seductively smooth than usual.
Mare (Slices of fish and shellfish, finished with onion creamed rice with salmon, red tuna, hamachi, octopus, shrimp, cockles, mussels, razor clams, oysters and seaweed).
The stew-like sopa de mariscos, a gently creamed, light-pink shellfish soup, is, at $8, one of the most expensive main courses.
Overseas, outbreaks have also been linked to shellfish, raw fish, smoked seafood, pork tongue, cream, rice salad, coleslaw and rillettes.
