Tag Archives: scallops

My Birthday Dinner- Home Cooked by Mike

29 Oct

I’m still catching up on posts from far too long ago.  I cannot believe that it has already been more than 2 months since this meal.  So today I wanted to show off the incredible dinner that Mike made me for my birthday.

He started with a duo of scallops.  One was wrapped in bacon and the other was with avocado.

And the bacon was CRISPY.  Just the way I like it. 🙂  Both were great.

For the main course, Mike made pork with a mushroom wine sauce and our new classic brussels sprouts with pancetta.

The pork was delicious.

And the brussels sprouts were as delicious as ever.

I thought he had already outdone himself, and then he uncovered this beauty!

Graham cracker crust, whipped cream, strawberries, and graham cracker crumbs.

DELICIOUS!!!

Thanks again, Mike.  You are a fantastic boyfriend and a fantastic chef!

Market Cafe- Bumped Up

14 Oct

I wrote about Market Cafe previously, however, I have to update the review because I found a dish that is SO good that it makes me need to bump up the Nom Nom points.

To start, however, I must mention that while they say they open at noon, we literally stood outside the empty restaurant staring at them until about 5 after when they finally seated us.

So onto the food… The Seared Sea Scallops are SO. DAMN. GOOD. that I could make a whole meal out of it.  Unfortunately, I have now sung their praises so much when I’m there with others that I always wind up splitting it. 

The scallops are cooked so well to begin with… but then they’re on a bed of potato puree with brown butter that is TO. DIE. FOR.  Holy potatoes batman!  I am salivating just looking at that picture.  Just because it’s so good… here is another picture.

The rest of the items on the menu are just pretty much average.  Good but not great.

On this adventure, Lori and I got both the pork loin sandwich.  It comes with smoke mozzarella, arugula, and butter pickles on homemade bread.  I couldn’t have the pickles due to my allergy, and Lori thought they were way too sweet (since I love sweet with pork… I probably would have liked it).  I also noticed that Lori could not handle the fat on the meat, however, in my humble opinion, that’s the best part!  To each their own.

We were there with my Aunt Linda and she got the omelet of the day.

It was something along the lines of swiss and mushrooms (I think) and she said she enjoyed it.

HOWEVER… there was a salad problem.  The lettuce was VERY old, brown, wilted, and tasted funny.  It should never have left the kitchen.

To be fare, the waiter was very apologetic about it and brought us french fries.  Unfortunately, they didn’t make it to the table before I had to leave for a meeting.  Though I remember them being tasty.

So while the 6.5 stands on most of the food… and the service was lacking… the scallops get a solid 8!  I’m therefore changing my ranking…

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

Nomming thru Maine: Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor- Part 2

14 Jul

After planning so well for our restaurant stops in Portland, I really didn’t have many foodie plans for Bar Harbor.  We mostly stumbled upon places through the week.

One night we were looking for an early bite, however, most places didn’t open up until after 5:30.  One place we did find that was open was Rupununi

We started with the “empanadas” which were unlike any we had ever had before.  It was described as “Traditional Argentinian style, hand made empanadas stuffed with lobster, roast corn & cheese.”  It was like an empanada went to France and mated with a croissant.  But it was delish.

Mike ordered the Fisherman’s Fried Sampler with scallops, haddock, and Maine shrimp.  I think Mike maxed out on the fried food, however, the scallops were heavenly.  The rest was ehhhh. 

I went with the Lobster Scampi which came with fresh Maine lobster, artichokes, capers, cherry tomatoes, and spinach over linguini.  This was AMAZING!  You don’t see chunks of lobster like this outside of Maine.

Later that evening we were strolling through town and ducked into an ice cream store to buy some fudge.  I was so blown away by the following sign that I just had to try some of this ice cream flavor. (It was actually not half bad, though nothing I’d ever want as more than a taste)

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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Unfortunately, our stay was very rainy, however, we made it over the Jordan Pond House one rainy afternoon for tea.  The location was a beautiful, old building right on the lake.

Here was the menu:


I went with the tea and popovers.


These were OUTRAGEOUSLY good popovers.

Mike went with the lobstah chowdah.

It looked kinda oily, so I was concerned, however, there were solid chunks of lobster meat that were as big as the bowl’s circumference.  And the taste was just sensational.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10 (for the afternoon tea anyway)

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On one of our last evenings in Bar Harbor, Mike and I went to Reel Pizza Cinerama, which is a movie theater that serves pizza (that smelled AMAZING) and had couches and little tables in front of seats to eat from.  We just had the beer.  It was a fun experience!

For dinner, we took a TripAdvisor recommendation and tried out Cafe This Way.  

I appreciated the design aesthetic on the ceiling.

The bread came out and smelled delicious. (It was fair)

We ordered the smoked duck wrapped scallops for an appetizer.  They were pretty good, but it wasn’t quite as ducky or scallopy as I would have hoped for.

We ordered a Pinot Noir while we were there that we enjoyed so much that I took a picture.  Look out for Angeline!

I guess I was on a duck kick and I ordered the roasted duck with spiced pears and blueberry jus.  This dish was dissapointing.  First, there were only 2 little slivers of spiced pear on the plate (with that heaping portion of duck!) and the blueberry jus wasn’t very interesting and the duck just wasn’t as flavorful as I’m used to (perhaps it was the type of duck this restaurant uses?)

Mike chose the grilled lamb sirloin that was served on a goat cheese, cheddar, onion, and jalapeno quesadilla with cilantro mint chimichurri.  I’m pretty sure he declared this just average.  Nothing like the lamb from Fore Street a few nights before.  

Overall, we were pretty disappointed by this place.  Nothing was bad, just underwhelming.

Total Nom Points: 5.5 out of 10