Crab Two Ways and Stilton Comparison

Goal for this week: update more than once.

There's too much to write about if I procrastinate until Sunday night. Before I get to my weekend re-cap I have a couple of noteworthy meals to report from earlier this week. (By the way, as I write this, Tim is attempting to use the ice cream ball for the first time. Except we don't have rock salt, and so we're experimenting with kosher salt. By the time I've finished my update, we may or may not be eating vanilla ice cream.)

Meal highlights for the week:

Monday

New hire lunch at McCormick & Schmick's. Nothing spectacular about the meal as a whole, but I did enjoy my appetizer. How much does this sound like something I'd order: Fried green tomatoes topped with barbecued shrimp & goat cheese. The tomatoes were actually a little too ripe, and so they didn't hold their texture like they should have, but the batter was extra crunchy and the barbecue sauce was nice and tangy (a good foil to the goat cheese.)

Tuesday

3 course dinner for $29.00 at Oya with Erin & Ginzee. I had a tuna tempura roll with 7 pepper sauce to start, followed by the best course of the night, seared scallops with truffle jus served with slim egg noodles and hen of the woods mushrooms. I tried the ice cream trio for dessert and was disappointed. The flavors (vanilla, espresso & rum raisin) were spot on, but it had the consistency of sorbet. I would have forgiven the iciness if it were limited to the rum raisin, but I expect much more from vanilla ice cream (they should try the decadent ice cream at 2 Amy's to see how it's done right.)

Friday

Lunch from Ella's. Pucillo pizza- prosciutto, arugula, tomato & smoked mozzarella.

(Update on the ice cream experiment: Ten minutes into the process and much cursing.)

A very good weekend for dining out. I think this week should be open for a little more (much needed) home cooking.

We spent this weekend at the Northern Neck. Sadly, it didn't involve any surprise jewelry. We hit up a local restaurant, Good Eats, for dinner last night and had a fabulous time in spite of some service "glitches". Let's just say the chef/owner is a tad on the arrogant & unpleasant side. (Breaking news: kosher salt = somewhat soupy ice cream. But even it has a better consistency than Oya's vanilla ice cream!) We had a considerable wait, but were able to spend it on some benches outside with our wine glasses.

Once inside we had rosemary focaccia rolls to start and then a variety of appetizers. I had Italian tomato bread soup with mozzarella & basil, while Tim had the crab pot stickers. Real, flavorful crab inside and served with a spicy dipping sauce. (Erin would like me to mention that the sauce was too spicy and overpowered the pot stickers- I can see that.) Most of us had soft shell crabs for our entrees. Choice of starch and slightly overcooked (and over-minted) veggies to accompany. I could have cared less about the sides - the soft shell crabs were wonderful (served with lime butter). Tim and I shared chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert.

The gorging continued today with more crabs. This time steamed.

Later, we had apple slices topped with smoked trout and watercress and then two stiltons for comparison. The first was traditional blue and the second was white stilton with lemon zest. The cheese monger at WF described it as tasting like the filling of a Danish- woo boy was he right. It made for a great dessert cheese and paired nicely with both a rose and pinot blanc.