Text 18474, 149 rader
Skriven 2007-08-03 00:12:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: monday 921
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Monday:
What better place to take Glen than Corridor Wine, a couple
miles past Ft. Meade. We spent an inordinate amount of time
there - Glen and I wandering up and down all the aisles while
Carol went off to buy a stuffed dinosaur at Kohl's. We bought
a few things to taste.

On the way back, Rita's in Crofton. Rita's is a local chain
of frozen treats stores. Some of the echo picnickers had gone
to another Rita's closer to Dale and Gail's and had reported
the sad lack of any blue food. We came here with high hopes
that this branch might - but the friendly girl at the window
said that they usually had some, but not today. Crestfallen,
I just had a sugar-free root beer ice (very bland). Carol got
coconut cream ice (the last they had) topped with chocolate
ice cream; this was quite nice. Glen, who had also wanted the
coconut cream, had to content himself with a mango-passionfruit
sorbet called Island Breeze or something. Partway through,
Carol and I switched, and then later Glen and I switched, so
Carol ended up with the sugar-free root beer, Glen with the
coconut-chocolate thing, and I with the fruit stuff.

Back at the house we had a rum tasting not unlike that the
same personnel had performed in Adelaide last year, but with
less exotic (to me) liquids.

Bacardi Select (PR) - seems artificially sweetened; heavy
molassesy taste; Carol didn't like it. I thought it okay.
Glen sort of liked it.

Bacardi 8 y-o (PR) - clear golden aspect; smooth, vanillary,
brown sugar, fairly dry. Quite different from the Bahamas
Bacardi that we used to get at duty-free on the airplane.
Everyone liked it pretty well.

Cruzan Dark (2 y-o) (USVI) - not as harsh as one would
expect. Lots of cane flavor. Pleasant. Glen thought it had
a lot of character.

Pitu Cachaca (Brazil) - old shoes and lots of cane flavor
in a crystal clear package. Carol uses this in mixed drinks;
I'd favor drinking it straight.

Cruzan Coconut (USVI) - sweetish, kind of weak. Coconut
candy in a bottle.

The Shipps were supposed to be at the house at 3:30. At
3:33, I asked Carol where the telephone was. She made some
snide remark about me being too anal. I replied that
"mathematicians aren't late." At 3:34 a call came in -
lots of traffic caused by a severe thunderstorm; ETA was
5 minutes. They were in before 3:40.

From home we all went in the Shippmobile to Big Fish,
which has become, owing to its half-price appetizer happy
hour (2-6 on weekends, 4-7 on weekdays), Carol's and my
hangout (her company also has gatherings here on occasion).
It gets relatively nasty reviews on chowhound.com - but the
chowhounds are wrong or order the wrong things.

The appies run $8 (hog wings) to $14 (crab-stuffed mushrooms)
and halve that, and most of them are enough for a light main
course - two certainly make enough to eat, especially if you
have a beer (bringing the tab to $14 or so). The prices have
increased a buck or so each since we've started going, but
who can complain.

What we had:

clams - steamed in white wine with garlic butter and
tomatoes - we've talked about this before - a very generous
portion, great broth, this time some of the clams a bit
toughened by overcooking;

mussels - a somewhat different white wine and garlic butter
preparation, slightly gamier; wild mussels; a good dish;

Thai spring rolls - not very Thai, more Chinese, but with
Thai-style sweet-hot sauce and a funny mustard-mayoish thing;
nicely fried, but the shrimp that bump the price way up don't
add much to the dish; I'd rather have just the nice cabbage
and carrot filling and not the shrimp and pay a couple bucks less;

coconut shrimp - Carol had had these once before and had been
disappointed. This time both orders (we got one at a time)
were nicely done, four jumbos butterflied in a coconut and
vanilla coating, fried just a hair more than perfectly (but
then the tails become extra crispy and delicious); same sauces
as for the spring rolls;

white crab pizza - a decent amount of crabmeat on a white
pizza. Certainly not my kind of thing, but then I didn't
order it. I thought what I tasted was undergarlicked and
kind of bland - and a quite small serving at that;

Jamaican jerk satay - four sizable skewers, two beef and two
chicken, the meat brined and then covered with a herby rub; two
sauces, one like the Thai-style sweet-hot, the other a mild
peanut and/or coconut sauce (that's how mild it was);

spicy tuna roll - the usual, with lots of gari and seaweed
salad (Carol's favorites);

hog wings - two pork foreshanks, trimmed to make "lollipops";
this time the serving was a bit smaller than previous times,
but I hadn't ordered the thing in a while as I find the sauce
too sweet;

fried calamari - usually a giant serving, but this time a
slightly subnormal serving; same two sauces; we hypothesized
that with the last two dishes they figured that we were kind
of full anyway and wouldn't mind a smaller serving, and I
reckon they were right.

Beers: Newcastle Brown Ale; Fordham Copperhead Ale; Sam
Adams Summer Ale; Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. At refill time,
the waitress put the Cherry Wheat in front of Glen, who had
wanted a Copperhead. We found out when he made a horrid face
and ugly noise on taking the first sip of the refill. Sure
enough, the waitress had switched his and Carol's orders.
The Cherry Wheat, though light and potentially refreshing,
has a nasty maraschino cherry aroma.

As we were leaving, Carol's boss came in (Carol had taken
the day off from work). Intros and hugs all round, and
Carol and she repaired to the back to talk business while
we four recapped the weekend.

Back home.

Mattie's Perch Shiraz nv (SE Australia) was something that
had jumped off the shelf and accosted us as we walked through
Corridor that morning. First I made fun of the label (a
stylized, metallic koala) and the name (a made-up concoction,
a knave's contrivance, if you will) and the fact that the
outfit that bottles it is in Adelaide. Then I picked up a
bottle (at least I got the Shiraz, rather than the white
Shiraz, which was what I first made fun of). Turns out to be
a below average but drinkable wine, comparable to the worse
box wines we get, at a price that is only 25% more than that
of a bad box wine. I'd take it over Two Buck Chuck.

Bed at a decent hour, as our flights out were at 9 and 10.
I suggested we plan to leave the house at 7:30; this was
negotiated back to 7.

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