Weeks 45 & 46: Tapas and Seafood

Back to food: My husband and I tried two new restaurants for weeks 45 and 46 of 2019. The first place was a tapas 'social kitchen' concept. The first time I tried a tapas restaurant was in downtown Napa in 2006. As usual, it takes a little while for the coastal things to make their way this direction, so it's only been in the last 5 years or so that we've had anything like that here.

The idea is that you order multiple 'small plates' of food and share it with your companions. We started out with the drink specials that night, which were two kinds of house made sangria. I had the white peach and my spouse ordered the blackberry. Both were wonderful and not too sweet. Then we ordered 4 different tapas. I noticed criticism in online reviews that the dishes seemed to come out haphazardly. Yes, they all came out at separate intervals, but we liked that. Everything was hot when we were ready to eat it. Of the 4 dishes, we loved 2 and didn't care for the other 2. The not so good were the hushpuppies (too dry) and the pulled pork trio (mostly thick sliced bread and very little pork/cheese/apple slaw/kiwi bbq sauce). What we did like was their version of fish & chips: panko crusted bocourti with roasted red pepper remoulade and pommes frites sprinkled with parmesan. But our favorite:

Cherry cola slow braised short rib over goat cheese polenta with a sour cherry port redux and corn pico. I took the picture off of the internet; our plate was much more pretty than this.

Despite not loving everything we ordered, we would go back. They had a large menu and prices were reasonable for the amount of food. One minor irritation though. The place is small and they do not take reservations. However, they encourage you to get on the call ahead list. Is this a new thing? I don't understand the point. Why not just let people reserve a table, rather than have to call when you are on your way?? Stresses me out.

The following week, we attended a business dinner at a brand new seafood restaurant called Blu. I was happy that we were seated in a private room, because the main room had an open kitchen and was very loud. The food was fabulous, although the service was painfully slow. We were there for 3.5 hours, so thank goodness I enjoyed the company. The host ordered a seafood tower to share and I had the Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc. I chose the halibut shakshuka, which was described as an Israeli stew of chickpeas, diced sweet potato, eggplant and tomatoes. I opted out of the traditional poached egg on top because I won't eat anything that's not cooked all the way through. It was outstanding. My husband ordered the red snapper with vegetables roasted in wagyu beef fat. He liked it. The shared sides that I tried were a cucumber feta salad and the lobster mac n cheese. Super yummy!

I think the best moment of my two weeks was this dessert that I shared with my love. Baked chocolate (flourless chocolate cake covered in whipped cream). Incredible!

Enjoy your weekend!