Text 8131, 67 rader
Skriven 2008-05-31 21:16:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: fancy meal in Tacoma 396
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We were all set to scavenge (read: leftover chili) for dinner,
but Anne, who had had a long day, wanted to go out. After some
dithering, we chose the Primo Grill, one of those trendy
open-wood-fired-oven places, but one that serves quite good
food at fair prices. It's near the Asada restaurant that they'd
shown me to before (quite nice) and the Engine House pub (decent
beer, but they took the fried gizzards off the menu, so the appeal
is no longer so great) and an interesting-looking newer place
called Masa. A hip sort of vibe, for Tacoma anyhow.

A cute and bright waitress who somehow managed to forget a few
essentials (appears endemic to the town - I can't figure it out,
because this one was demonstrably not an idiot, whereas the other
one demonstrably was). On the whole, good service and a nice
experience.

Pretty standard but good crusty bread and excellent butter.

A veggie lasagne was one of these freeform things, not cut out
of a bigger casserole but built individually with layers of
veggie, pasta, sauce, and goat cheese. I didn't bother to try
any, but Annie pronounced it good. Hap's shellfish risotto was
nicely done, with a very restrained hand with the saffron but
a fairly generous one with the shellfish. I had a bite of
scallop, which was perfectly cooked. My pork "osso buco" was
a skinless (boo!) pig knuckle with cherry sauce, garlic mash,
and green beans with pancetta; quite good.

We ordered the Pavin & Riley Riesling 03 (Columbia), a most
complex and interesting wine, with tropical (pineapple) and
stone (apple, peach, pear) fruit and an overlay of hydrocarbon
- Hap thought it plasticky, I said Jet A. A little thin, good
as an aperitif (and as it turned out also with the nonmeat
dishes), with a shortish finish. Pretty well balanced, though,
between sweet and tart. On its last legs; next year this
vintage should certainly be dead or dying.

I had a glass of Niepoort ruby to go with the pork; it was
your average cheap Port and went quite well, especially
given the cherry part.

=

Innstadt neues helles lager: a very mild beer, not
substantially better than OM Ice, but it came in a
Grolsch-style bottle, which was many points in its favor.

After plenty of food and booze, hitting the sack was a top
priority, and I actually got some sleep.

=

A luxurious breakfast: Johnson hot links and eggs. The
links (not to be confused with Johnsonville) came from
the place in the Olympia farmers' market and were properly
coarse-ground, properly fatty, and not quite properly hot
- a touch of burn at the back of the throat being about it.
Pretty nice.

Lolling around playing with the dog and chatting with the
parrot before going back northward before going back southward
before going back eastward.


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