Text 1631, 106 rader
Skriven 2006-05-21 18:31:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Bottom of the Bay 708
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As she'd read some mention of fried seafood platters, Carol
informed me that she had a yen for one, so off we went to a
local joint that we hadn't tried before, the Bottom of the
Bay restaurant and bar, in the median of rte 1 in Laurel.
We called the Shipps to see if they were free, but they had
a prior engagement, so we promised to give a report.

It's a kind of bombed-out looking building, housing (left
to right) a dining room, a bar, a takeout place, and a beer
store. Inside isn't any better, a plain, not-too-clean room
with no windows and a bunch of cheapest-possible chairs and
tables covered with brown paper. By appearance, it should
have been called the Bottom of the Barrel, but reports on
the Internet were generally positive, and the smells coming
out were of fresh seafood, so we stayed on. The menu is a mix
of your crabhouse fare (steamed crabs, fried seafood, various
crab soups, clam chowder, oyster stew) and roadhouse food
(1/3 lb burgers, a 1-lb T-bone for $11, 1/2 lb of ham on a
roll for $6). We were the first in there at 11:45 (place
opens at 10 something and stays open until midnight, but you
can't get steamed crabs until after noon). It's a tough test
for a restaurant, opening up an empty place with a big dinner
order, but the anonymous cook and the friendly but slightly
down-and-out-looking waitress passed with, I'd say, a B (for
barmaid and bar food, I guess).

Carol saw fit to order an appetizer; I refrained, even after
strong pressure to conform. Her oyster stew was of the thin
variety and pristine - just milk and oysters. Needed a bit
of salt and pepper, but the oysters were good.

We decided to split a fried seafood combo: asked the waitress
if it was going to be enough, and she said, oh, it's BIG, and
it was indeed big. A crabcake (you have your choice of 6 oz
jumbo lump or 4 oz backfin, the former coming at a $2 premium),
two each butterflied shrimp and orange roughy fillets, four
each oysters and scallops, on a bed of clam strips. Two sides
come - we had onion rings and cole slaw, both excellent. The
crabcake was pretty good, of pasteurized crabmeat with not
too much binder (egg, lots of Worcestershire, a few crumbs);
the shrimp quite good although I found them salty. The fish
fillets were gigantic, close to 1/2 a pound each; they were
nicely fried although somewhat bony. Oysters were excellent
despite their having been fried much darker than the rest of
the food; the scallops average for the area, that's to say
below average on a worldwide scale. A very impressive note:
the fry was dry, not greasy at all. On the whole, I say we'd
probably go back. I'd have said "definitely" if they had any
decent draft beer, but the choices are Budweiser or Miller
Lite - $7 something for a 60 oz pitcher. We didn't find out
about the pitcher until we'd ordered a couple glasses. We
had a pitcher, too. Lot of cheap beer, but that went pretty
well with salty fried seafood.

=

It was a nice day, so after a stop at Rita's, a local soft
ice cream chain (I had vanilla; Carol had vanilla and chocolate
swirled), we went off to Trader Joe's, which although it's
embarrassingly corporate, still has some good stuff, plus
there are always samples out. Today's samples were their
sparkling lemonade (nasty: too bitter and sweet both, no
acid to speak of, and very fizzy) and premixed Caesar salad
(I didn't bother). Found some interesting things to make
dinner out of.

=
Carol had some 93% lean ground beef left over from a previous
trip, and that got thawed out and combined with sliced baby
bellas (surprisingly clean, but the slices were, shall we
say, more irregular than if I'd sliced them by hand - a side
effect of machines taking over the world), some onions, and
the FAGE brand Greek strained fat-free yogurt that is by far
the most expensive yogurt I've encountered and that has become
Carol's favorite: I called this mess "stroganoff" with a nod
and a wink to the purists among us. The beef was very gamy
and gave a good flavor, but as it undoubtedly came from the
shin or some other less savory place I had to cook the aitch
out of it, and it was still rather textureful.

Our veg was a pint of fiddleheads, a little pricy at $4, but
they only come in once a year. Sauteed in a teaspoon of butter
and two of oil, they came out quite nicely.

We'd found Monsoon Valley Malaga Blanc 2001 (Chao Phraya
Delta) at Corridor and decided to give it a whirl; it's a
fairly decent wine, with a promising and rather sophisticated
floral-apricotty nose, but the taste was a slight letdown,
reminding me of cucumbers or watermelon depending on whether
I was favorably disposed to it at the moment. Actually, we
drank half a bottle with a chilpotle-lime rubbed pork roast,
and it went well (watermelon), and the second half the next
night with this "stroganoff" (cucumbers). Fair acid balance,
a little bitter on the finish. The Malaga Blanc is supposed
to be a relation of the Semillon.

For afters: TJ's Bites o' Brownie, decadently chocolaty but
a bit sweet, and Daelmans Caramel Bites (Mini-Stroopwaffel),
softish 25c-piece-size waffle cookies sandwiched around
caramel goo, surprisingly not oversweet. I discovered to my
chagrin that the brownie things have milk in them.


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