Turner Fisheries

You are currently browsing articles tagged Turner Fisheries.

Last week I had the delicious opportunity to attend a blogger dinner to taste the newest menu at Turner Fisheries. When I was invited to the event, my first thought was, new menu already? I felt like I had just attended a new menu tasting. Time definitely flies, but more importantly, Turner’s updates its menu frequently to reflect the seasons and the ingredients available.

I joined a fun group of bloggers for a glass of wine prior to dinner, and then we proceeded to our table to get started on dinner. Turner’s General Manager, Wayne Wood, dined with us, and was able to walk us through the menu using his expert knowledge of the dishes to help us all order.

image

First up was the Atlantic Shelf platter for the table to share.

The cold seafood platter was one of my favorite parts of the meal. I could pair the delicious Viognier we were sipping (Bridlewood), with cold seafood and spicy cocktail sauce for dinner every night. Mussels, clams,s callops,  oysters, and shrimp were all super fresh and delicious with a spicy cocktail sauce. As always, I dipped my bread in the mignonette. It makes for a zingy bread topping. Sometimes we make mignonette just to top lettuce or bread. This platter reminded me of summer in New England, just perfect.

image

In the menu introduction, Wayne  recommended the tomato bisque, even as someone generally not a fan of tomato soup. The soup, in addition to being delicious, also happens to be vegan; the pureeing of the tomatoes creates the creaminess. It was smoky, basil-y, smooth and creamy, and clearly I hated it. Winking smile

It was a dreary soup kind of day, and this hit the spot big time.

image

Turner’s has many tempting entrée options, and I literally went back and forth on a few until it was time to order. I just couldn’t resist the stuffed shrimp though. I love that you order them by the piece to decide how much you want to eat. I hate being super full after a meal or wasting food, so two of these large shrimp were perfect. The citrus cream underneath? To die for.

image

By the time dessert rolled around, I was fairly full, but I still wanted to give dessert a try. I thought an espresso and the Boston Cream Pie would pair nicely, and I was right.

image

The Boston Cream Pie was a delight, but it was Fiona’s dessert, the Meyer Lemon Puffs, that won me over.

image

I loved the fresh, lemony cream and light pastry. It was perfect for warmer weather, and I will definitely be ordering these next time.

image

Turner’s always does a really great job, and I was happy to be invited to try their latest menu. It’s great that they change things up seasonally; it doesn’t just guarantee the freshest ingredients, but it also keeps diners coming back to see what’s new.

*Dinner was provided by Turner’s, but as always, my opinions are my own.

Tags: blogger events, events, Food, restaurant, seafood, Turner Fisheries, wine

Happy Halloween! Do you have any fun plans for the holiday? I am excited to offload the giant bag of candy I bought last week. I am kind of obsessed with it, Bottle Caps, Sweet Tarts, and Laffy Taffy. I like chocolate every now and then, but I love sour candy! We’ll probably have some pumpkin beer with cinnamon sugar while watching some scary TV (Have you seen American Horror Story yet? Spooky!) and running up and down three flights of stairs to give out candy. It’ll be a Halloween workout for sure!

Whatever you do, have fun, be safe, and keep pets indoors!

If there’s one thing I really love, it’s a restaurant that changes up its menu according to seasonal availability of ingredients. Not only does it help us do our best to eat locally and in-season, but it also makes it fun to return to the same restaurant time and time again over the course of a year. There’s nothing worse than staring at a stale menu. When I was invited to attend Turner Fisheries’ blogger dinner to try out some of their new menu items, along with some of their favorites, I was very excited to see what they would have in store for us.

image

We all met in the bar at Turner Fisheries to meet with some of the members of the Westin Copley team while sipping on drinks and learning about the commitment to sustainability that Turners has. Their ongoing efforts to source sustainable seafood are impressive, especially given recent scandals in the seafood world.  When it was time to sit down for dinner, each table had a group of bloggers, in addition to a representative from the Westin or their PR agency, 451 Marketing. Michelle, Rachel, and I got supremely lucky in sitting with Westin Director of Food and Beverage, Monika, who was an incredibly fun, interesting, and inspiring dining companion.

To go with our seafood feast, we all chose Bridlewood Estate Viognier. I love Viognier for its full body and slightly oily mouth feel and stone fruit flavors. It was a delicious pairing with every part of the meal. The food started coming, and it didn’t stop for a very long time. By the end, I definitely had a huge appreciation for the creative, inspired, and delicious work of Chef Armand Toutaint, who graciously came out to meet all of us.

image

grilled island creek oysters, maitaki mushroom, riesling cream – Unforgettable. I need to eat these again and again. Hot, grilled oysters with a rich, warm, and earthy sauce combined the summery flavor of oysters that I love with a comforting warmth and texture perfect for fall and winter.

image

lobster taco soft corn tortilla, ancho aioli, corn fennel pico – Another of my favorites, chunks of perfectly cooked lobster meat enveloped in warm tortillas with nice bite from corn and a little bit of smokiness from the aioli, these were an appetizer but would also be great as an entrée. I am always really impressed when lobster is cooked to perfection; so often it ends up rubbery and disappointing in restaurants!

image

image

crispy calamarI , peppadew peppers, capers, roasted garlic aioli – We all loved the cornmeal crunch on this calamari, which again, was cooked to perfection. There was not a hint of the greasiness that can sometimes accompany calamari, just lots of flavor and welcome texture.

image

poached golden beet , frisee, micro beet greens, goat cheese, basil oil, sherry vinaigrette – A wonderful example of a fall and winter salad done really well, this beet salad was beautiful to look at and even more appealing to eat. The flavors worked wonderfully together, and it was a nice, light addition to the table.

image

tuna two ways: ginger-curry marinated yellow fin tuna,cumin seed crusted tuna, wasabi aioli – This was my choice for an appetizer, and it was definitely a good call. The tuna was so fresh, tender, and flavorful, and it was accompanied by fried asparagus. Why have I never had fried asparagus before?!

image

seafood risotto, maine lobster, bay scallop, caribbean shrimp, reggiano parmesan – This was my entrée, and I won’t lie. By the time this came, I was slowing down big time, full of outstanding appetizers. I ate a few bites, loving every bit of the creamy but toothsome risotto and the really substantial amount of seafood that was, again, cooked to perfection. I had it packed up to take home, and enjoyed it for lunch for two days. It was definitely a sizeable portion!

image

And then there was dessert. I could barely muster a bite of these beautiful treats, just tasting the butternut gelato and a bite of Turner’s take on the classic Boston Cream Pie.

warm bourbon glazed pecan pie
butternut gelato

gold dusted opera cake
raspberry coulis

boston cream pie
crème anglaisee, fresh seasonal berries

The meal was a mix of great food, great wine, and great conversation, all much-needed on an unnaturally cold and dreary Boston evening. Turners kindly hosted us for dinner, but I will definitely be returning soon. I have to have my husband try those oysters!

 

Westin Wedding to Remember

You may remember my visit to The Westin back in the spring to check out their beautiful new rooms. During that visit, I got to chat with Alice who is on the PR team for the hotel and restaurant. She told me about an amazing initiative that The Westin is hosting for 11-11-11. Their A Military Wedding to Remember contest is giving one lucky couple a beautiful Westin wedding while also helping two other couples make their honeymoon dreams come true. How sweet is that? I can’t wait to hear more about the wedding.

Turner Fisheries on Urbanspoon

Tags: Boston, events, Food, restaurant, seafood, Turner Fisheries, wine

Blogging in Boston has opened so many doors for me and most importantly has allowed me to meet some really great people. Part of all of that is the ability to attend events and try things I may have never encountered in life pre-blogging. I had the pleasure yesterday morning of attending Bloodypalooza at Turner Fisheries in downtown Boston. The fabulous Christine from Citysearch organized the event which was full of delicious food and of course, spicy Bloody Marys.

Turner Fisheries

Turner Fisheries has a fun, swanky design and layout AND offers lots of great light for food photos. The important things we bloggers have to think of!

Turner Fisheries

When we arrived at Bloodypalooza,  were given an overview of what was available for the make your own Bloody Mary bar. Pickled string beans, jumbo shrimp, lobster, crab claws, seared tuna, and oysters were on ice, and containers of regular olives, blue cheese stuffed olives, and citrus were available for garnishing.

seafood bar

image

 

seared tuna

lemons and limes celery

To get us started, our hosts provided shots of their clear Bloody Mary mix which is made by juicing tomatoes through cheesecloth to get the color out. As a result, you get more of a tomato broth. This was mixed with lobster juice, and while I am glad I tried it, I will stick to the more traditional mix. Other available bases included Bloody Caesar mix and clamato juice.

lobster shot

For my drink, I opted for a jumbo shrimp and olives in a classic Bloody Mary. The homemade mix was perfectly spicy with lots of horseradish and black pepper.

Bloody Mary bar

Alongside these delicious drinks, we were served a few of Turners’ food specialties.  I didn’t try it, but this chicken top a Bloody Mary risotto looked delicious, and my husband loved it.

chicken risotto

There were also lobster tacos and these sandwiches, upstate New York specialties called spiedies. Apparently, spiedies are a big deal; there is even a festival to celebrate them!

spiedie

It was great to spend some time on a beautiful Saturday sampling great food, sipping one of my favorite spicy drinks and seeing some blogger/Twitter favorites like Michelle and her fiance, Bret, and Justin and his wife, Leah. Here Michelle and I are posing for our high school yearbook photos with the over the shoulder smile 🙂

Boston bloggers

Many thanks to Citysearch and Turner Fisheries for hosting such a fun event. I look forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Do you like Bloody Marys? Which combo would you have chosen?

Tags: bloggers, Boston, brunch, cocktails, events, Food, restaurant, Turner Fisheries

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera