Text 22886, 80 rader
Skriven 2007-11-16 16:41:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: yesterday dinner 445
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I was getting pretty frustrated with my brother, who had
accused me of telling him he was evil (I asked him why he said
this, and he recounted a wholly imaginary conversation
involving my wanting to have him prosecuted for murdering my
father), so I called Carol and told her to get ready for an
early rescue.

But shortly the next-door neighbors reminded me that I'd
promised to go with them to dinner, as it was Barbara's
birthday. So a few frantic calls had me putting Carol off for
several hours and a reservation at McCormick and Schmick's.

We were greeted in a more oilily friendly than usual fashion
and were led to a cozy corner booth. We'd just settled in,
chatting about topics psychotic and nonpsychotic, when the
waiter came up with a dozen oysters. We questioned this, as
we had not ordered anything at all at this point, but the
waiter, after checking up with the front desk, insisted that
the oysters were for us, on the house, because we were VIPs.

Harry attributed this to their membership in the restaurant's
frequent diner program, but Barbara pointed out that that was
unlikely, as the reservations were in my name; and Jonathan
wondered if his having made a complaint last time had anything
to do with it (he'd found a small piece of some chitinous stuff
in his onion soup, or so he said: he wanted to ream out the
staff for this, only ... he'd swallowed the offending material
and had no evidence of anything, so I'd told him to put a sock
in it). There were 3 of 4 different varieties. I recognized
Malpeques and Chincoteagues, and there were two others, both long
skinny kinds, all four Atlantics. Harry and Barbara don't eat
oysters. I convinced Jonathan to try one, which he did, sawing it
up with a knife before trying it. He said it was okay but
wouldn't take another. So I got 11 free oysters all to myself!

Eventually we did order. Harry had a salmon salad for his one
and only course; he pronounced it good. Barbara and Jonathan
both had onion soup, which was way salty, and I could smell the
overabundance of beef base. I got the mussels steamed with
garlic and tomato; these were quite nice although also a bit
salty. For her main course, Barbara had ordered the striped
bass, but it turns out there are two preparations on the menu,
and they brought the wrong one: this was a smallish piece of
fish over buckwheat noodles and pepper slivers with a sesame
sauce, and after a tentative taste, she decided she could live
with it quite easily (though to my eye there was too little fish
and too many noodles). Jonathan ordered the catfish with shrimp
sauce, hold the shrimp, which he liked pretty well. My shrimp
salad wrap (about 4 big shrimp with lots of iceberg lettuce,
some bacon bits, and a ranch-type dressing) was surprisingly
satisfying. I had a Sam followed by a way overinflated glass
of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. The food was expensive but not
hideous and imperfect but certainly mostly fine, and, aside from
a squalling child a few tables off, who eventually went away,
the setting was nice. We left half an hour later than I'd planned,
well stuffed and reasonably happy.

Jonathan had agreed to take me to Hellas to rendezvous with
Carol for the delayed handoff. However, he said he wanted to take
a nap first, and I said, a bargain's a bargain, so he reluctantly
agreed to go according to plan, only he wanted to keep the windows
open so he wouldn't fall asleep. I asked him if there was anything
I could do to help him, and he said that he could probably drive
if we didn't talk during the trip - so we agreed that while we
were on the beltway I wouldn't say a word. On the long on-ramp
we decided to take 32 to Veteran's Highway, and then I shut up and
he drove. Past the right exit, and I still didn't say a word. When
we turned onto US50, I said a word, and he said, oh (translation =
I wanted to take a ride, the heck with you guys). So I made an
executive decision and changed the rendezvous point to Big Fish
in Crofton, which was pretty much on the way and would save Carol
about 5 miles of driving.

Had a Fordham and listened to the kid go manic over a cup of
coffee (ordered "with lots of sugar"), so I had another Fordham.
Carol came to the rescue after a while and had herself a gimlet.
Finally we bade goodbye to Jonathan and sneaked off home.
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