Halibut, Shrimp and Crab Cakes and Roast Chicken Salad at SoBo
OK, what happened here? It seems I (likely in a sleep and food-induced stupor) saved last night’s post instead of actually publishing it. It’s nice having each day blur into the next, and to not really be expected to keep on top of things, but it means I generally don’t. Keep on top of things, that is. But I do have tanned feet with flip-flop lines, and am adapting nicely to island time; when we went into town (past a tree that was born in 1202) to the municipal building to pay something or other yesterday, it was refreshing to find it closed for lunch. I am spending my days without a cel phone or even much contact with clocks, save for the cast iron sun dial in the neighbour’s yard, that is as accurate as we need to be.
The week hasn’t been completely devoid of stresses, but some are good ones: I’ve been invited to take part in a very cool new project, something that I can’t share with anyone yet but puts me in the company of some of my very favourite food bloggers. Ones I’ve always aspired to be like if/when I grow up. I’ve been thrust into a group with the cool kids, and I’m half-expecting an email to the effect of “we’re sorry, we thought you were someone else”. So nerves coupled with contracts and phone calls from lawyers in LA have not really been in keeping with my goal of rest and relaxation, but I’m not complaining. W, who appears to have a raging case of three year old boy PMS, has not exactly been facilitating this goal either, particularly this afternoon when I had to half carry, half coax 55 pounds of wet, sandy, runny-nosed boy up and down 500+ stairs that wound through the rainforest from the beach back to the car. Who needs pilates or jazzercise? (Note to self: do more pilates. For real this time.)
But I did manage a nap yesterday. It was by far the most delicious thing I’ve had all week. And these past two days I’ve had some pretty delicious things.
My Mom was here for a week before we arrived. She told me the day I got here that she had what she considered to be the best meal of her life a few days before, at SoBo, and had already been back for seconds. It was a halibut dinner with mashed potatoes, roasted veg and some sort of memorable sauce… sounded fine, but I was far from convinced. So we went for dinner. (After my nap – my most heavenly day yet.) Both my Mom and Dad ordered the fish, so I couldn’t really, could I? I mean honestly, we can’t all have the same thing. So I ordered the special – a torn bread and roast chicken salad with pine nuts, Parmesan and goji berries, a smattering of baby spinach, champagne vinaigrette and an inky balsamic reduction. Fantastic would be an understatement.
When it was long gone they brought my appetizer – a shrimp and crab cake shaped sort of like a burger, and about the size of one, with slices of avocado and whole rock shrimp and piles of crab meat. It was good, but paled in comparison to the halibut. Honestly, this dinner was perfection on a plate; crispy-edged just-caught halibut over perfectly mashed potatoes, with roasted asparagus, red, purple and orange carrots and beets and wilted greens. But the sauce. I cannot adequately express the sauce, a deep, intense, burnt orange sauce that was at once familiar and elusive; when I asked what it was again, I was told it was fresh carrot juice and orange (not much, mind you), cooked down and then enriched with butter and cream. It was neither creamy nor buttery, but rich, complex and brilliantly intense. Just look at the colour of it! An orange-carrot sauce would never ever sell me, but this was pure genius. And it went perfectly with everything, from the fish to the greens.
For dessert, I had to have another butter tart. But I asked if I could photograph their strawberry-rhubarb pie; it was just too beautiful.
One Year Ago: Curried Shrimp Fried Rice
April 30 2009 | eating out | 21 Comments »
