Back to the pond

After Erin and I had our adventure in a suburban/small town hell, we were relieved to be back in the city. It's just nice to know where things are and to see streets with different names.

Since we had missed out on lunch, we decided to head to Downtown for some dinner. Erin wanted to check out Saans since she missed their show on Friday. The photography there is incredible!

For dinner we went to the Atlantic Cafe on 325 South Main Street. It's a great little place with an amazing vibe and an awesome patio. Our server was the blond woman who I've had before. She's good, not great. But does a decent job of waiting tables.

We sat on the patio. I had a Newcastle, which is a great beer from the UK. It's dark, smooth and only half as bitter as you'd think. But for five dollars, I limited myself to just one. I ordered the salmon dinner. In order of yumminess the meal was crostini, salad, salmon and rice.

The crostini were incredible. These nearly bite size slices of bread were oven-grilled, slathered with butter and topped with Parmesan cheese. I couldn't help, but eat them all.

The salad was just as simple mix of greens with croutons, Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. The balsamic was sweeter than what I'm used to and I was surprised to find myself eating the whole salad.

The salmon was grilled perfectly, but not quite as fresh as I would like. Plus with only one sliver of a lemon slice, I wanted more lemon and really I could've used a tartar sauce. It was served with a red sauce Atlantic puts on nearly every dish, but it just didn't quite go together.

Erin had the steak kebab and I'm pretty sure she loved it. She ate enough so she felt like she couldn't move after we finished. Not that I was going anywhere.

I ordered the chicken kebab to go for Ava. She stayed home because she wasn't feeling well. Once she had her chicken she seemed to like it. I'm pretty sure Ava's ordered this before and I think it's one of her favorite things from Atlantic's menu.

All in all, dinner came to just over $40. It was more than I expected, but I'm going to chalk that up to the additional cost of beer. Yay! Utah!

As always, Atlantic is worth the trip especially if you're every feeling nostalgic for Europe. My favorite is still the margherita pizza.

Eva

This is a great new place in Downtown. The small plate diner has been open for a couple months now. They say they serve Mediterranean food, but they seemed more strictly Italian to me.

The restaurant is fabulous! They have really cool, modern tables and chairs. Plus, some awesome artwork on the walls. I'm pretty sure it's from a local artist. The bright neon colors of the work bring in some much needed contrast with the dark wood of the tables, chairs and floor. The small space could easily be put to the test on a busy night, but there were only few tables when I was there so I had plenty of room.

Our server was a little shy, but she was great. She knew the menu really well and answered all our questions. She was helpful and made good recommendations. I wish I could remember her name.

For our appetizers we ordered calamari and french fries. The aioli was great! I'm pretty sure aioli is only code for fry sauce, but either way it was delicious. The calamari was fried perfectly nice and crispy breading surrounding a soft squid. Yummy! The fries had rosemary on them which is a stroke of genius. I must try this at home.

I ordered the octopus ravioli for my entree mostly because I'd never had octopus. It ended up being surprisingly good. Octopus is a little chewy, but the fried skin was nice and crispy. The texture paired really well with the artichoke pasta. I'm fairly certain the pasta was fresh and made by hand. It was fantastic! I would've been happy with just the ravioli and the sauce. The adventure of the octopus was just a plus.

Ava and Erin also had pasta entrees. I can't remember what they were, but I remember being impressed by the consistency of the dishes. All three were delicious! Like I said, homemade pasta.

When Ava, Erin and I were there last week they were still working on their alcohol menu so we had sodas instead.

All in all, I'm guessing our bill came under $50. I'm not sure because the fabulous Miss Ava bought us dinner. She is AMAZING! Oh yeah, and she has sexy, new hair to match.

If you're Downtown and want a quiet place for a sophisticated dinner, Eva would be a wonderful place. I hope you love it as much as I did!

Lobster Tail

Ava's sister moved and in doing so donated all her food to us. Yay! It was very generous, plus it gave me some cool new ingredients to work with. I believe it's a universal law that college kids cannot afford lobster tail. So this is the recipe I tried out it also involves making your own broiler so if you have one just ignore that part of the instructions.

Soft Ware:
(makes two servings)
Two thawed or fresh lobster tail (3-4 oz. each)
1 C. White Cooking Wine
1 tsp. Dried Parsley
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
salt
pepper

Hard Ware:
A cooking rack
A shallow pan
A spatula

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Fill the shallow pan with the wine, parsley and butter. Place the rack over the pan. Put the lobster, shell up, on the rack. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

The sauce came out way too thin. I think next time I will try making a soup out of the lobster tail. This is the first time I ever had lobster and it was a little fishy, but my ingenious wine at the bottom of the pan prevented the lobster from drying out.

Any suggestions you have for lobster soup, or better lobster sauce would be lovely.

Happy Cooking!

Market Street Grill

Seafood, anyone? Market Street Grill offers a variety of seafood with a menu that is updated daily. Judging from the prices I would say they fly the fish in fresh from California. Judging from the flavor they don't fly it in on Fridays.

Market Street has gone to the effort making the interior of their restaurant as sea-friendly as possible. The white paneling coupled with the dark wood accents makes me think of Boston. They've also put up fake fish with neon back lighting, it's a little different, but fits the place.

I should also note the soft background music wasn't total crap. It wasn't my favorite music, but I remember hearing three songs in a row I actually liked. Pretty amazing for a chain restaurant.

Our waiter was competent. Although, she was friendly I was surprised by the bantering between her and the other wait staff on the floor. I felt like she forgot we were there whenever she commented about how much she had in tips and what a slow day it was to other waiters. Maybe, it's slow because people know they will be treated like they don't exist there. On another note, for some inexplicable reason they had six or so waiters for Friday lunch on a cold snowy day.

The menu is expensive. I would even say more expensive than their quality of food merits. I ordered the crab and artichoke dip as an appetizer for about $10. The dip was very yummy. If you like crab and artichoke it's delicious. It was creamy and hot with a nice bread crumble across the top. If you don't like crab or artichoke you probably won't like it.

They also serve a complimentary loaf of sour dough bread. The bread was nice and crusty. It was sourdough without being too sour. I'm not usually a big fan of sourdough, but this was fantastic! I loved the bread. As did Ava, I think it's safe to say that if we ever go back we will most anticipate the bread.

For our entrees Ava ordered Cajun Seafood Pasta for about $23 and I ordered the Fisherman's Platter for about $20. Both entrees were served with a side salad. The salad essentially ended up being greens, three tomatoes and three slices of onion. Umm...I know it's a side salad, but are the tomatoes supposed to be the side to the salad?

Our entrees soon came looking delicious. The Cajun pasta was supposed to be served with a fettucine pasta, but came with spaghetti pasta instead. The fisherman's platter came with everything deep-fried (how could I resist?) scallops, calamari, halibut and shrimp along with a side of cheesy potatoes. At this point both Ava and I were stuffed.

So I ended up sampling my dish. In the end, calamari is chewy, but good. Scallops are better when they aren't deep-fried, I could deep fry my own shrimp and they would be just as good and the halibut was not the level I expected it to be. But the potatoes were delicious. Not just because I love potatoes either. They were nicely seasoned, covered with cheese and had plenty of parsley to contrast with the cheddar. Seriously, good.

Ava's pasta was a little spicier than she had bargained for, but it looked great. And from her efforts to eat it I'm going to say it was good. Of course, she can let you know in the comments. It had andouille sausage along with the usual scallops and shrimp seafood.

So in all lunch was about $60. Way, way too much for what it was. Even though we ate a ton of food I don't think lunch should ever be that expensive. Luckily, I had a $50 gift card so it only cost me $10. It was definitely worth the ten bucks.

Here's the bottom line. If you go to Market Street Grill, pray for a decent waiter, skip the appetizer and only order entrees. And to save money, ask the nice people you know hook you up with a gift card.

Shrimp Tacos

These tacos are the perfect dish for summer. I created this recipe in an effort to highlight the natural flavors of the ocean in shrimp. Remember the fresher your shrimp the better the tacos will taste. I used frozen store bought shrimp and it worked out surprisingly well.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. 51-60 shrimp, thawed
2 Tbs. no salt, butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 C. onion, diced
2 Tbs. fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 fresh lime
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1 Tbs. fresh, ground black pepper
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
6 fresh corn tortillas
1 C. Canola oil

Hardware:
2 skillets
1 wooden spoon
Tongs
1 serrated knife
1 Chef's knife
1 cutting board
1 bowl
Cup measure
Tablespoon measure
Teaspoon measure
1 spoon or fork

First, de-vein and un-tail all the shrimp. The shells should come right off if you pull from the tail upwards. Next, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. While the butter is melting, mince the garlic. And begin heating the canola oil in a separate skillet over medium-high heat.

Add 2 cloves of the garlic to the butter and let saute for a few minutes until golden brown. Now, add the shrimp. Let the shrimp cook, stirring occasionally, until pink and white for about 15 minutes.

When the canola oil is hot enough to fry the tortillas begin frying them. Place a tortilla in the oil for about 30 seconds then flip over using tongs. Let cook for another 30 seconds and drain on a paper towel lined plate.

As the shrimp cook, dice your tomatoes and onion. Place the tomato and onion in a small mixing bowl. Add the remaining garlic. Chop the cilantro, add to the salsa. Squeeze in the juice from 1/2 a fresh lime. Add the salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne and paprika. Stir with fork or spoon until thoroughly mixed.

Place a five or six cooked shrimp in the taco shell. Top with salsa and garnish with fresh mozzarella. Happy summer!

*This is a great recipe to make with a couple of friends. My sous chef for the night, Mrs. Wesley Wyndham-Price, deserves a giant thank you for all her awesome help and patience. I love you!