Tuesday: Conference Day 2!

Another day at the conference.  Today was pretty full with science sessions I wanted to attend.  That means I spent very little time at the booth.  I'll probably be making that up tomorrow, as I didn't see much that looked that interesting.

It started raining today, which means that I really would have preferred to have found a cab to take me to dinner.  Unfortunately, no cabs were available, so I just walked. In the rain. It sounds so sad until you realize I only had to walk like seven and a half blocks.  Anyway, dinner was at Simon and Seafort's

Their sign. I probably could have fixed the perspective if I wanted to.

Since this is Alaska, and they also have access to fresh fish (like Hawaii), I planned on that being the focus of my dinner.  It also helped a bit that I'd only eaten a hot dog again today, making me super hungry.

Starter: Clam Chowder.

 The soup was very well done, with lots of chunks, most of which were clams.  Nice hints of garlic in the creamy base, and I'm pretty sure there was a bit of sherry in there as well.

Main: Halibut, two ways.

My original plan was to order the halibut cheeks (pan-seared, asiago-parmesan cheese, cedar asparagus, butter sauce, fresh chives), and the waitress asked if I wanted to do a half-and-half with the other halibut preparation (halibut crab-macadamia nuts; oven roasted, king crab, tarragon, swiss, parmesan, lemon butter sauce).  If I'm only ever going to eat here once, I might as well try as much as I can.  The cheek is on the left in the picture, and was wonderful.  Perfectly cooked, with a nicely firm texture.  The cheese had toasted on the outside, and all the cheese-oils soaked into the fish.  This is probably one of the best fish preparations I've ever had.

The stuffed halibut was good, but cramming crab into something is always a good move.  This was a touch overcooked, as one end was a bit dry and a bit past "firm."  Still, om nom crab = om nom.  The potatoes basically were just there to soak up sauces.  This is an important and often overlooked job at dinner.

Side: Crab cakes.

It turns out that they have a "add some crab to your entree" option. This is, of course, the greatest idea in the history of menu design.  I added some dungeness and rock crab cakes.  The pink sushi ginger was a bit disappointing, but the citrus-y sauces (lemon and orange?) added the right flavor balance to make sure these didn't just taste like the halibut.

The service here was much better than yesterday, and combined with the better selection of food, I'd rank this as far superior than Crush.  I still haven't decided what to do for dinner tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be this good.  I should probably make sure it's not this expensive while I'm at it.

I also bought a book today, because I'm a big math nerd.

Oh come on, bees. I thought you were more talented than this.