Date Night: Sel de la Terre

Friday, Boyfriend and I went out to dinner to celebrate.  What you ask?  Something dumb and girly.... obviously.  I'll be the first to admit it, it was a pretty lame thing to do, but I really wanted a date night so I kinda created an occasion.

Laura (Friday morning, big unnatural smile): "Hey honey, guess what today is?????"

Boyfriend (still mostly asleep): "Uhm, Friday?"

Laura: "Nooooo.... " (unnatural smile getting creepy at this point)

Boyfriend: "What? What is today?"

Laura: "ITS OUR 1/2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!"

Boyfriend: "What?  Huh?  You aren't seriously excited about this are you?"

Laura: "Yayyy!  I made dinner reservations for 7:30p at Sel de la Terre to celebrate!"

Boyfriend: "Wow Laura, a new low...  a new low. I guess I still love you, even though you're dumb.  Now stop smiling like that, you're creeping me out."

Please don't judge me.

I don't have awesome pictures because it makes me uncomfortable to whip out my camera while people are eating dinner around me.  I decided that using my phone's camera would be less intrusive, however, the photos are pretty grainy.  Again, I apologize.

Starters:

To start, Boyfriend chose the Pepper Soup, and I got 2 items off the Charcuterie list, handmade Burrata and Pork Pate de Champagne.

Pepper Soup

The Pepper Soup was a hit.  The base was roasted red pepper, finished with creme fraiche, black olive tapenade and cilantro.  Boyfriend LOVED it and I might try to do a recreation at home.  It had a light but decadent flavor, and tasted like summer.

I forgot to take pictures of the burrata and pate, but they were both outstanding.  As a rule, I only trust a handmade fresh burrata.  I don't know what it is, but the creamy interior has to be fresh to taste right, and because of this, I don't get to eat it very often.  I refuse to buy it at Whole Foods because god knows how long ago it was made.  It was served with orange sections and a light citrus drizzle, which perfectly cut the richness of the creamy interior.  The pork pate was.... well, porky.  I never know what to say about pate.  Some people love it, some hate it.  I happen to LOVE it.  Rich, fatty, porky goodness.  The essence of pig with some homemade pickles and grainy mustard.  Perfection.

Entrees:

Everything looks amazing doesn't it?  We saw the burger go by and HOLY COW... seriously, it was a vision.  Boyfriend go the Rabbit Leg, which was served with a perfectly soft-boiled egg over silky grits and fava beans.  This must have been delicious because I wasn't quick enough and Boyfriend DEVOURED it before I had a chance to get my fork in there.  I'm shocked I was able to get a picture off in time.

I was pretty full from the first courses, so I chose the Razor Clam soup as my entree.  The waiter explained that they don't get to offer this regularly and its only placed on the menu when "the fisherman" calls that morning to say they got some Razor clams in the nets that day.  Lucky me.  Especially since I hadn't ever tried Razor clams before.  All of the seafood (Razors, littlenecks and squid) were cooked perfectly.  Creamy and briny, the first taste transported me directly to the beach.  The tasso ham and saffron broth were a great contrast to the clams- smoky, deep and complex.  Awesome.

We were both way too full to even think of dessert, but the menu had some great selections.  It was reminiscent of spring, which is a nice fantasy when its barely 40F outside.

All in all, it was a fantastic date night.  I ate some amazing, fresh LOCAL food with the man I love, and he didn't even make fun of me for creating a fake occasion to get my way.  Sel de la Terre provided a great meal, attentive service, and well-made cocktails.  I'd definitely go back, especially to try that burger!

Restaurant Week!

So, I realize I haven't posted anything in quite some time... but that's because 

IT'S RESTAURANT WEEK!!!!

Oh my absolute favorite time of the year.... I get to eat at super nice restaurants and not break the bank!

So, I brought my camera with me to each restaurant I've been to so far, but I can't seem to bring myself to actually whip it out in the middle of dinner to take pics of my delicious, yummy, well-presented, amazing food.  I'll try to be a little more ballsy in the future.

Dinner #1:

Union Bar & Grill

Boyfriend and I had a wonderful time at Union.  The decor reminded me of a Chicago saloon with dark walls and black pleather booths.  Our server, Jesse, was outstanding and the food... oh the food!

I started with a few sliced ripe melon wedges wrapped in prosciutto with fresh mozzarella.  Melon is the epitome of summer and I love the way salty prosciutto really complements its sweetness.  Boyfriend started with the chilled local peach and tomato gazpacho.  I took special notes on this one since my CSA box has been overflowing with peaches and tomatoes the past couple of weeks. 

For our entrees, Boyfriend got the char-grilled marinated hanger steak
with blue cheese stuffed roma tomatoes and grilled smashed potatoes.  The blue cheese stuffed tomatoes were incredible.  I really liked this presentation versus the typical blue-cheese-on-top-of-the-steak thing you normally see at steakhouses.  The steak was cooked to a perfect med-rare.  Yum!  As you can imagine, I only got one tiny bite of Boyfriend's dinner :)  

I got the oven roasted cape bluefish with spicy watermelon pickle charred sweet onions, grilled summer corn and basmati rice pilaf. Bluefish is one of those fishes that I don't get very often so I was excited to see it on the menu. It's hard to find in the stores and most of the time I'm too lazy to haul myself down to the fish pier to get anything fresh. My fish was cooked perfectly and the spicy watermelon relish gave a surprising kick!  The pilaf blew my mind!  It was soooo good.  I'm going to try to re-create it at home... stay tuned!

For dessert, Boyfriend was drooling over the strawberry ice cream soda
with house made syrup, fresh berries and cream, as he should!  It came out in a big mug and the fresh strawberry flavor and aroma just oozed out. I was quite jealous.  I ordered the raspberry spiked chocolate brownies
with pistachio ice cream....but unfortunately, I somehow got the bread & butter pudding with roasted peaches and vanilla ice cream.  I was slightly bummed because pistachio ice cream is a gift from God!  My personal opinion :)  However, the bread pudding was pretty amazing, so no serious complaints here.

To drink, we got a bottle of 2007 Valpolicello, Corte Rugolin (Veneto,Italy).  I picked this because the method used to make Valpolicello is similar to that used to make my favorite wine ever, Amarone.  It was superb!  It had a nice, relatively high acidity and moderate tannins, and I got dark berries and hints of bitter almond on the palate.  I'm sure it paired better with Boyfriend's steak than my fish, but I certainly wasn't complaining.

Looking ahead, we'll be dining at Beacon Hill Bistro, Tremont 647, and EVOO.  Have I mentioned how much I love Restaurant Week?