Ending Better Than Beginning

[jducoeur]

So just to remind myself that things don't entirely suck: last night was quite pleasant. msmemory took me out to dinner at McCormick & Schmick's. This is the "new" (past couple of years) seafood restaurant in the Park Plaza hotel -- we originally found this chain down in Philadelphia, and have become quite fond of it now that they have an outpost up here. It's pricier than Legal Seafood (we paid about $100 for a big meal, including apps and dessert) but generally a notch higher in both creativity and quality.

We both started with the seared tuna -- the classic presentation of yellowtail sliced thin, cooked just around the edges, with wasabi, soy and a Japanese salad. She had a scallop casserole with bacon and a preposterous number of artichoke hearts; I had monkfish (a strange, slightly sweet fish with a rather lobster-like texture) with shiitake and cranberries in a port wine reduction. For dessert, she had the flourless chocolate torte and I had the sundae. Quite yummy all around.

We were rather amused that they are clearly having to cater to the tourist crowd heavily, though. When we asked for recommendations, the waitress focused way too much on the "classics" menu (the boring stuff), mostly ignoring the vastly more interesting (not to mention longer) specials. While I'm sure that they make an excellent lobster casserole, I'm not going to spend that kind of money on something quite so ordinary -- the whole point of coming to this restaurant is to try the cool stuff.

Also, the Protonix (the PPI that I've been put on) seems to be helping fairly quickly -- my doctor had said that was possible, since we caught the problem early, but I was being pessimistic. By the end of the evening it had already helped enough that the fish didn't make me *too* queasy; by this morning, I was feeling about 2/3 normal again. (Still a bit of acid pain, but nothing like yesterday.) I dislike being stuck on drugs (I have a fairly deep-seated negative reaction to the concept of chemical dependencies of any sort, due to some past errors), but it's nice when they at least work well.

Finally, I'd just like to note that "Fish and the Protonix" would make a really great name for a new wave rock band...

Comments

[tpau]

i need to make it to that restaurant at some point. it is allways way too crowded there for arisia, but maybe i will go there for my birthday or something.

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

I have to admit.... my mind slightly boggles at the idea of considering lobster casserole as 'ordinary' :)

Re:

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Well, not ordinary as in "we'd make it at home," but ordinary as in every fish place within 50 miles seems to have some kind of baked-lobster-meat-with-cream-sauce casserole.

Re:

[dmnsqrl.livejournal.com]

Ok.... I'm gonna have to start poking my boyfriend to find me some different restaurants then.

ordinary food

[richenza.livejournal.com]

ok, I have to laugh, because you did order the flourless chocolate cake. While not too many folks will order lobster (price, allergies and kosher diets being the most frequent reasons,) 1 out of every four people will order that cake. You wouldn't think that's a lot of people, but belive me, it adds up to a considerable percentage.

Glad you had a great birthday. if you come to the Chocolate bar, tell a waiter and I'l come out and visit. (Unless you come on valentine's day... ::shudder::)

Re: ordinary food

[jducoeur]

Well, okay -- you're right that the flourless chocolate cake isn't all that unusual. While McCormick's fish selection is very esoteric and cool, their desserts are competent but pretty normal all around. (Flourless chocolate cake -- check. NY Style Cheesecake -- check. Creme brulee -- check.) If we'd felt ambitious about dessert, we would have gone next door to Finale, but that was just more effort than we were into at that point.

And we are coming to the Chocolate Bar -- on Valentine's Day, I'm afraid. Yevsha's putting together a party that has turned into a small army, getting there at noonish...

chocolate bar?

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Tell us about the Chocolate Bar! (We'll be out of town on VD, but it sounds intriguing.)

Re: chocolate bar?

[jducoeur]

Well, richenza can probably describe it better than I, but suffice it to say that it's a really fabulous, rather agonizingly sweet brunch. It's basically an all-dessert meal, with umpteen kinds of cakes, crepes, cream things, chocolate drinks and so on. It's a large buffet -- all you can eat, but most people have a limit on how much of it they *can* eat.

Not exactly good for you, but we find it a very nice once-a-year outing. It runs during the cold months, at Le Meridien downtown...

Re: chocolate bar?

[baron-elric.livejournal.com]

The things I never knew about.... Sounds excessive, and worth trying someday. Unfortunately, if we're up to anything this weekend, it'll be happening at Boskone.

Well, someday.

Have fun! And, for those of us who've never heard of this experience before, tell us something about the menu. Please?