A very nice seafood dinner

Tags

dinner, dogs, Jack, pets, postaday2013, Restaurant

My hubby took me, his colleague and his wife out to dinner at a lovely restaurant in Andover called Joe’s Fish. We had been at my hubby’s colleague’s house and his wife was giving us the tour of their beautiful home, it is quite the house, but my favorite part was playing with their 115 lb Newfoundland puppy named Vader. She was a fluffy ball of pure love, Jack is going to be jealous when we get home on Friday when he gives us the once over sniff. Jack will be put out with us cheating on him, but I couldn’t help giving Vader all of my attention, she is a love magnet. I had visions of Jack playing with her like he used to play with Rex. Boy do I miss Rex, he was a huge love muffin just like her. All Rex ever wanted was to show you as much affection as he could with his huge 140 lb. body and Jack knew how to play his big brother like a fiddle.

After the love fest was over because it was time for us to go out to eat, Vader walked us to the door and her big beautiful face was in the window, we set out for Joe’s Fish restaurant. The place was low key and full of people, surprisingly the noise level was manageable considering all of the cars in the parking lot. We started with fresh oysters on the half shell, lobster bisque, clam chowder and myself, I had the Portuguese chowder, a nice spicy clam chowder with chorizo sausage, no cream. It was yummy for my tummy, hit the spot too.

Afterwards I had 2 lbs of steamers and there was also grilled scallops, crazy baked oysters as well as oysters Rockefeller. What I really liked about the restaurant was that the portions were just right and the seafood was of the best quality, the high turnover of clientele is very good for seafood restaurants, it guarantees that the turnover in seafood is high as well. You never want the seafood to remain in the icebox for too long, you want to go to a highly popular restaurant because the seafood never sticks around long enough to go bad.

I really enjoy going out with this couple, they are so very nice, funny and just great to talk to, the conversation never dies down to those awkward silences, you dread. The words just flow, as does the laughter. I know that we will get together again soon.

On the road again

If you could pause real life and spend some time living with a family anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would be hard pressed in my decision; do I choose Greece, Portugal, Spain or Italy? I have such fond memories of the homemade food I ate both times that I had spent time in Greece. I also remember the amazing tapas that I indulged in when my cousin and I were in Spain as well as the delicious paella that my hubby and I had in Barcelona. The trip that my family and I took in Italy was an eyeopener when it came to the genius of Italian cuisine in its very simplicity and elegance.

The only place that I haven't been to is Portugal so that answers the dilemma, where would I want to be with another family. But I would only go if my hubby and Jack could come as well. I'm sure that Portugal is a dog friendly country, perhaps not as dog friendly as France, they are nuts over dogs, those French people are :), perhaps the babies would like to come along for the culinary visit. I know that there is much more to Portugal than just food, I would be very interested in visiting all of their national treasures, all of them and their countryside, both the interior and the coastline.

I won't pack my bags just yet but hopefully sometime in our future, the hubby and I can go have a proper visit to the country of Portugal. Perhaps we'll be able to do it after we retire to our little house in France, another dream of mine. France is a lot closer to Portugal than the state of Massachusetts is, so instead of a plane ride, perhaps we would have a driving adventure, that would be fun. Isn't it a beautiful thing to have dreams and plans for a potential future?