Happy Hanukkah!

A happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate it. :-)

Last night's dinner

I should post about last night's meal since people asked.

The restaurant was open to an inside courtyard all along one side, so the heat wasn't bad at all.

The set menu wasn't wonderful; almost everything but dessert had ham or seafood somewhere in it, and too many ingredients I didn't think went together. There were three choices for each course. The entrees (starters, for Americans) were a ham plate, Caesar salad, and squid with chorizo. I couldn't eat any of those so I asked for breads instead, since we hadn't been given any, expecting a small selection with dips. I got a tiny bread roll and a little ramekin of olive oil on a huge rectangular glass dish. WTH? The woman next to me also didn't want any entrees and ordered soup of the day which was gazpacho, served in a tiny bowl with a huge flat rim about four times the surface area of the centre. It was still better than my measly bread roll. The mains were lamb--but with ham risotto, fish with shrimps and prawn butter, and eye fillet with "sticky oxtail". Ugh. All of the main items were fine, but why over-egg the pudding with other types of protein? I ordered the eye fillet without the oxtail, and it was actually very nice, served with fresh asparagus, broccoli cream, and mashed potato. Desserts were yummy: a chocolate tasting plate (crème brulee, mousse and other yumminess); a selection of ice creams and sorbets; and lemon meringue. I went, of course, for the chocolate, though ice creams would have been a good second choice,

The place was very noisy, having the usual concrete floors and painted walls you get in fashionable places like that, so I had to yell at the people next to me and came home with a migraine. On one side I had a Polish couple whose English was difficult to decipher with so much background noise, and a guy from Christchurch on the other who bellowed at me about his career and his lifestyle block (hobby farm) and often touched me to make a point--and was a sprayer. I had to move my wine and water glasses out of range. :-P

Anyway. They handed out hampers from Nosh, the gourmet supermarket today, which is always good. :-)