Anniversary Trip

No official Sunday dinner entry this week--it was our anniversary, so we farmed the kids out to friends and spent the weekend in Salt Lake. I'll give a few restaurant recommendations instead. First I have to brag a little bit: Mark had submitted two documentaries to the UBEE (Utah Broadcasters) annual competetion. Each year they arrange for judges from a different state to judge the entries. The judges this year were from New Hampshire. Anyway, one of his documentaries, "Who Goes There," about transportation issues in Utah, won the Gold award (first place). So that award dinner was Friday night.

Saturday morning we had sushi for breakfast (not the raw stuff, but excellent california roll prepared just moments before. We obtained the sushi in the Wild Oats supermarket on 4th south in Salt Lake. If you don't know what a california roll is, in the center is finely chopped crabmeat, cucumber, carrot and avocado. Rolled around it is rice, seaweed and sesame seeds. You garnish it with a little Japanese pickled ginger and wasabe mustard. Very tasty.

We had lunch at a little chinese restaurant in Salt Lake called the Hong Kong Tea House. It's on about 5th south in-between 500 and 600 west. We ate Dim Sum. (We have had absolutely amazingly delicious Dim Sum in San Francisco, and mystifying Dim Sum in Los Angeles, but this is the first Dim Sum we have tried in Salt Lake.) If you don't know what dim sum is, it is "little bites." Lots of different dumplings and bite-sized offerings, usually just served for breakfast and/or brunch. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, the servers parade around past the diners with the various items on a little trolley cart. If something looks interesting, you point to the one you want and they give it to you, marking on a little ticket what they served you. Here in Salt Lake, they had a ticket which they gave out at the beginning and you make your choices and they bring them out from the kitchen as they are prepared. Anyway, we had some steamed pork buns--a sweet dough filled with barbeque pork and steamed. Then we tried a shrimp and chive dumpling. After that, stuffed eggplant and a delicious beef roll: mushroom, carrot, onion wrapped in thinly sliced beef and rolled up about like a taquito, then served in a delicious sauce. We had stuffed mushrooms and an amazingly good scallop and garlic filled dumpling. It was so good that we are going to go back soon and try the evening menu. I would encourage you to try it out if you are looking for something different but tasty. The whole meal, including tip, came to about $25 and we were stuffed.

Later Saturday evening after a concert, we went to the Market Street Grill for seafood, since it is a place we would not normally take the kids to. We had clam chowder and their delicious sourdough bread. Then I had crab-stuffed shrimp with hollandaise sauce. Mark had halibut Oscar, topped with crab, asparagus and hollandaise. Maybe it was too late in the kitchen, but Mark's fish was overcooked and dry. I only give it a 5 out of 10. My shrimp was the best, 9 out of 10. It would have been a 10 if they were a little more careful with the sauce--there was way too much of it. The vegetables were delicious, steamed potatoes and broccoli, both perfectly cooked.

So that's it for this weekend. More next week!