Thursday, September 3, 2015

Jimmy & Vickie's Excellent Adventure Part 2

 

When I left off a couple weeks ago, it was almost time to go downstairs to dinner. We had made a reservation for 7pm and when we arrived, the host took our name then asked if we'd like to be seated inside or on the terrace. Since the temperature wasn't over-powering and there happened to be a nice breeze blowing, I asked for the terrace. Almost immediately after being seated and the menus placed in front of us, we were served ice water and sour dough bread with butter and pink  sea salt.  Our waitress came, introduced herself and took our drink order. I'm a sucker for sangria so decided I'd try the red. It wasn't anything special and in actuality I've had better at Hard Rock Cafe in Myrtle Beach and Smokey Bones here in Fayetteville.

We mulled the menu for a few minutes and asked for additional time more than once. Our waitress was on top of things and did her very best to assure our experience was one to be remembered. We finally decided to share the She Crab soup for our appetizer. I was expecting one bowl with two spoons, which is the norm for quite a few of the places we've eaten before. Imagine my surprise when Katherine (our waitress) brought out two crocks and set them in front of each of us. I love crab soup of any kind with my all time favorite being the Cream of Crab at Annie's on Kent Island in Maryland. BUT!! This She Crab soup came in a very close second to anything I've had before. It was almost like a crab chowder, thick and creamy with large chunks of crab meat, corn, and potatoes. Rich and buttery with a single sourdough crouton to garnish. I decided half way through my appetizer that I should probably take some pictures because I knew I'd want to blog about our experience. Hence my almost empty bowl in this picture, LOL!

Once the appetizer was finished, we relaxed while waiting for the main course. The reason it took us a while to decide what we wanted to eat is because there were some items on the menu we'd never thought about eating. Also, it was a limited menu, meaning fewer choices than we were used to as well. Jimmy finally decide on the pork tenderloin, even though according to the menu, there were some things he'd be not eating. You see, he's a meat and potato kind of guy and most any vegetable is just not something he's interested in having. Each of the entrees had at least one thing we were either unfamiliar with or didn't like.  So, even though he loves pork, those collard greens were going to be a challenge, LOL! I told him if he found he couldn't eat them, I'd take them off his hands. This was agreeable so Pork Tenderloin was his choice.

I would normally choose the sea scallops, but we had seen a different waitress serve that to a different table and I was a bit taken aback with the serving size. Four scallops is in my mind considered a small serving. And even though I love cauliflower I'm not too big a fan of asparagus in any way, shape or form. So, I opted for the Scottish Salmon with roasted celery root quinoa. We place our order and once again sit back to relax and enjoy the ambiance and the time we had together. It's been over two years since we've been able to coordinate schedules in order to have more than one day off together. Yes, I know I don't work, so why is sit so difficult? Because, he is a driver trainer for his employer and in most cases only has 34 hours home time before he goes back out for the next run. And, trying to divide his home time between the Witchling and everyone else who may or may not want his attention is a challenge on any given day.

Once our entrees were served, I'm more than impressed by the presentation and portion size. Jimmy had joked that we'd probably need to order a pizza delivery. Neither one of us is paying much attention to what is actually on our plates, we just took it for granted that what was set before us was in fact what we ordered. Jimmy digs into his pork tenderloin and says "wow, that's tender". We have no idea what the accompanying side dishes are, but he digs in and thoroughly enjoys everything ...except those things that look like frog legs to me.

Those things that look like frog legs turn out to be in-house pickled beech mushrooms that hadn't been sauteed long enough to cook some of the vinegar out of them, and the pickling was overpowering. Those were pushed off to the side while he enjoys the rest of his meal, even the pearl barley in parsnip puree. It turns out Katherine (our waitress) thought Jimmy had ordered the swordfish, not the pork tenderloin. A big oops on her part, and it turns out Jimmy had NEVER eaten swordfish before but has now decided he likes it well enough to order again, LOL!

I'm looking at my plate and decide, yes, this is what I've ordered so I begin tasting everything. Remember, some of the things on the menu were unfamiliar to us. But, I've got a nice, thick salmon filet nesting on red quinoa and the flavor combination is almost orgasmic. There are Brussel sprout chips nestled on a pickled chili and carrot puree, giving the sweet just a hint of tangy. I didn't much like the kale and Greek yogurt puree so that pretty much was undisturbed.

Yes, the portions did turn out to be filling and very satisfying. But you know we did have to try one of their desserts too. We had a choice of three, and while I'd normally opt for the safe chocolate cake rather than the carrot cake, we figured we'd been wild and crazy up to now with the choices of our appetizer and entrees, we'd go for broke and try the Goat Cheese Cheesecake.  This has a homemade walnut crust with vanilla bean sour cream topping and pears poached in Rosemary vanilla port. I love cheesecake and I love goat cheese, I would have never thought to use the goat cheese to make a cheesecake.  And the Rosemary vanilla port reduction gave it just a tiny bit of zing to go with the sweetness. It was to die for.

Once dinner is over we decide to go back up to the room. Our balcony was facing west so we were able to get a few pictures of the moon that night. Even though we weren't actually "on the water" we could hear the waves and feel the breeze, which made the entire experience one of the most enjoyable we've had in a very long time. I highly recommend the Boardwalk Inn at the Dunes Resort in Folly Beach, South Carolina. It's our new favorite place and we've already booked our next stay.