Anniversary dinner

Ah yes, the dinner. Eating a a big part of this blog and I would be doing a disservice to you all if I don't at least mention the slightly fancy meal that I had for my anniversary. After last year's extravagantly enjoyable dinner at Gary Danko and before next year's...uh... something special for a nice round 10 years, we weren't really looking for anything extra fancy. As luck would have it, the semi-annual (that's twice a year, right? I always get bi-annual and semi-annual mixed up) Dine About Town coincides with our anniversary so I looked for an interesting place to try. By pretty much random chance I went with One Market, who has a recent reputation around the city and I am a fan of it's locale...well, on One Market, across from the Ferry Building, where I always try to take a stroll if I am in the area. My sister's favorite casual meal, Foreign Cinema, will have to wait until next time....

Overall, I would say that One Market is a good reliable place for good food. It didn't blow me away with any of their offerings, but it was all well prepared, well portioned, and overall satisfying. The ambiance can be a little on the loud side as there are a lot of business folk who work near by who drops by for drinks and a bite to eat. It may seem unromantic to you, but Britt and I like the bustling crowd as we can people watch a little bit. I don't want to say we like to make fun of other people... well yeah, we do that sometimes...but when you are married with kids, getting out around other adults is part of the fun. There is always alone time every night after the kids go to bed. You know, those couple of hours where you are half asleep while the TV is on sitting next to each other? What is more romantic than that?

Oh, but back to the food. At One Market, the Dine About Town special allows a choice of two starters, two entrees, and two desserts. It's a great deal for getting a full meal at a reasonable price. Britt went with the white poppy seed encrusted skate wing (following a hilarious discussion of whether Skate was fish or fowl. Thank God for my iPhone). I scanned the menu and decided that maybe if I forgo dessert, I can get something else for about the same price, along with a side (which for me, can count as dessert. I'm a savory man). So after much deliberation, I decided on Alaskan halibut "Sous Vide" (which I learned, is like poaching, but with the food in a vacuumed sealed bag) over bamboo rice, peanuts, shitake mushroom, shrimp-coconut nage (another poaching like method). As I said before, it was solid and satisfying, if not spectacular.



The sides you see behind the fish are what are known as "Big Fries", and big they are. Britt remarked that they look like French Toast sticks and indeed they do. I wanted to try them because I had heard that fries at One Market were fried in duck fat, and who wouldn't want to try that? I can tell you now that ...I can't tell if they are fried in duck fat. It was a delicious fry, don't get me wrong. How they get just the right doneness inside and out with just a thick cut is something to be admired. I couldn't even eat them all even though there were only seven fries (to the equivalent of what seemed like 3 potatoes). Any uniqueness of duck fat frying though, I can't really say...

Finally, good thing one of us had dessert planned. The kitchen would never be able to send their congratulations if Britt didn't order the Peach Brown Butter Tart with blueberry compote as follows:



Aww what a nice touch. It was delicious too. I like good vanilla ice cream. And yes, we did try to eat the letters. The chocolate was hard to get off the plate, but it was delicious. After a brief, and intense discussion, we decided that licking the plate would just be a bad end to the meal.

So there you have it. Another year capped of (or is it kicked off? ah well, one of those) with a good meal, good atmosphere, and most of all, with my wife of 9 years.