The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
TIME FOR TEA
What Eric Lanlard doesn’t know about afternoon tea isn’t worth knowing. The master pâtissier’s partnership with P&O has yielded a series of genuinely innovative, intriguing menus, served in elegant surroundings. Late last year, he unveiled a series of dishes inspired by his travels (he did his national service with the French marines, and saw the world), including a savoury pancetta and porcini éclair, a spiced chocolate tart and a Mediterranean-inflected orange blossom and bee-pollen scone, served with a rose-petal preserve and Cornish clotted cream. “I start with a story,” he says. “It could be memories of a destination, a recipe from friends or family, a smell or an occasion.”
Afternoon tea menus are available at The Epicurean on Azura, Britannia and Ventura and at Ocean Grill on Arcadia (£15 per person); pocruises.com
LOCAL HEROES
Farm-to-table eating – a movement emphasising traceability and “locavorism” – is gaining traction. Hurtigruten’s Coastal Kitchen menu, served on voyages along Norway’s coastline, changes daily with what comes in from the ports: think lamb from Geiranger, king crab from the Barents Sea, cheese and cod from Lofoten, reindeer from Finnmark and apples from Hardanger. Meanwhile, expanding on its successful Galapagos programme, which sees local farmers supplying its two ships with produce, Lindblad Expeditions is now working towards supporting farmers in four more of its destinations: the Falkland Islands, Costa Rica, Baja and Arctic Svalbard. The produce that comes on board will be used to create a varied menu of regional specialities.
hurtigruten.co.uk; expeditions.com
EASTERN PROMISE
For unrivalled Asian and Asian-fusion dining at sea, look no further than Crystal Cruises’ Umi Uma and The Sushi Bar. The fruits of a partnership with chef Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa, they serve beautifully composed dishes such as yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, Nobu-style lobster tacos and chocolate soufflé cake with homemade sesame ice cream. This is exquisite food, with service to match (nothing is too much trouble for the team, and Crystal boasts one of the highest staff-to-guest ratios in cruising) – and what’s more, each Crystal guest gets to dine at a speciality restaurant once for no extra charge (most ships offer one or two venues incurring a surcharge).
Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, plus Crystal Endeavor in 2020 ($30 for second and subsequent reservations); crystalcruises.com
Humorous table projections show a quartet of tiny chefs preparing dishes you are about to eat