The restaurant is in an old train station. The ambiance was rich and it felt you needed to have blue blood to eat there. Everyone was decked out in one of their nicest. Except for my friend Reggie and I, we were in our nice work clothes and totting our computer bags.
The waitress asked if we wanted bread. Okay. Why not just bring it? It came with regular butter and salmon butter...damn delicious.
Reggie and I talked only about work and personal life. Nothing about dinner.
My dinner was ciopinno. When my dish came the presentation was beautiful: half a dungeness crab, scallops, mussels and huge pieces of fish swimming in bright orange base. My appetite was tripled.
Tasted the base with vegetables...delicious. A little heavy on the salt but still 9.5 out of 10. Next, the mussels...tender and sweet. Then the fish...delicious and flaky. Then to the piece de resistance: dungeness crab...major disappointment! It had been frozen. And yet the menu said their fish is the freshest!!! The crab meat was dry and fishy.
I am snobby when it comes to dungeness crabs since I am a marine biologist by trainning. I use to dive for those buggers between classes and would camp out on the beach to have crab bakes on weekends. Or I walk in waist deep eel grass beds and catch them by hand.
The sad thing about all these famous chefs and cooking crabs and lobsters is they cook the crustaceans in fresh water or under salted water. I cook mine in sea water as is what mother nature intended for us. Next time try cooking your crab or lobsters in sea water. Please do not over cook them or they become hard and chewy. Cook until the shells turn red and a maybe two minutes more. The meat will be soft and sweet.