Sucker For Scallops

Every wondered how to end a good week?  With an even better dinner accompanied by a stellar lady friend.  That’s right: Mary and I had a date tonight and it was LONG over due.  Seriously, I can’t live without this woman.  She is all sorts of awesome.  Basically she matched our dinner.  =D  We met at a local seafood place, McCormicks & Schmicks, right off the center of downtown.  It was around 8pm so we were seated right away.  When we sat down I meant to take a picture but I spaced.  We were placed in a booth that had thick green velvet curtains we could have drawn across to sequester our table from the rest of the dining room.  How neat/weird!

Anyways, first up was bread.  No regular basket for this restaurant.  They brought out a hunk of bread and some pretty whipped butter.  We attacked it so quick I didn’t snap a shot.  Oh well, how many times have you seen bread before??  Yea, that’s what I thought.  You haven’t seen these entrees before though so let’s bring it on.  I was pretty hungry since the last time I ate was a Peanutty bar at 5p.  Honestly, I made it all of halfway down the list of food and saw this –>

Yes ma’am.  I take seven one please!  As fast as you can get it out of the kitchen because I am a sucker for scallops peeps.  A total softie, seriously.  They are something I haven’t ever bought to make at home so when I go out and see a great lookin’ dish like this, it’s hard to pass it up.  Also, did you see that crab potato hash?  Oh yea, that didn’t hurt either!

So, let me take you through this piece by piece: 1) The scallops were phenomenal.  They were cooked perfectly and caramelized like whoa.  I cut them with my fork like it was nothing.  Yum. 2) The sundried tomato pesto was in short supply so maybe that could have been amped up a little.  Plus, it didn’t seem much like a pesto but rather a paste.  Still a nice accent taste. 3) The lemon butter was actually much subtler than I anticipated but it went well with the buttery smoothness of the scallops. 4) Crab potato hash!  Heck yes.  More please, now, thanks.  It had some great pan-fried crunchy bits. 5) Finally, the sautéed spinach wasn’t really sautéed as much as it was steamed kind of.  That’s okay, I didn’t need the extra oil anyways!

On the other side of the table was Mary and her lump crab tower.  This baby was layered with avocado, mango, and huge chunks of lump crab.  It was supposed to come dressed with an orange vinaigrette but Mary asked for it on the side.  Not only did the dressing come in a bowl but the balsamic reduction and some olive oil came on the side too.  I used a hunk of bread to try out the orange vinaigrette and it was beyond yummy.  I tried a bite of the whole dish too and I give it a great!  Light and refreshing for sure.  After we paid for dinner, it was already close to 9:15.  In the search for something sweet, we walked to a chocolate shop and snagged some goodies before going and walking around, seeing the sights, and shopping some shops.  Mary got two pieces of candy, something with peanut butter and chocolate that I forgot the name of, and I got some dark chocolate covered cherries with a few peanut butter malt balls.

Perfect way to end the evening I must say.  I was sad to see Mary go but we already have potential plans for church together on Sunday and we were talking about hitting up another restaurant soon.  We’re foodies, we’re friends, we just get each other and sometimes there is no one else you’d rather try out a new restaurant with.  =P

Friday French –>

NEW ONES
Phrase: chocolat noir recouvert cerises
Translation: dark chocolate covered cherries
Story: See above.  ‘Nuff said.

Questions: What food are you a sucker for?
What’s your favorite chocolate treat?