Sensory Overload

Some of you may wonder how I met Danny, a chef who works 80 hour work weeks. Right out of college, I kind of got thrown into the restaurant business as a server.  I was looking for a way to make money while I searched for jobs in my profession and a new restaurant, Mitchell's Fish Market, was being built close to my house.  I applied to be a hostess, not wanting too much responsibility, and the manager convinced me to be a server.  I went through an extensive 3 day training (not unlike brain-washing!) where I learned about every type of fish, tasted bites from the entire menu, and learned how to be a server and use the computer.  I feel sorry for the people I waited on the first month because I was so terrible, but towards the end I was really knowledgeable about all the food on the menu and they were sorry to see me go.  Within the first month of working there, I met Danny, asked him out, and we've been hanging out ever since! 

(The above picture of the lobster sends chills up my spine.  We used to have "Lobster Mondays" where a lobster dinner was deeply discounted. Needless to say, there were people who were not regulars who just came in for the discount and created tons of problems!)

Last night we were in the area and I decided it would be fun to revisit Mitchell's Fish Market. We hadn't stepped foot in there in 2 years, not even to eat.  It was fun to see everything again, and two original servers that we worked with were still there and remembered us.  We just sat at the bar and ordered two of our favorite appetizers, BBQ shrimp wrapped in bacon and seared Hawaiian Ahi Tuna with an apricot ale sauce.  They were both amazing and brought back tons of memories.  The bread service was the same too, a warm sourdough bread brushed with butter.  

Then, Danny ran into a chef that he had worked with who was done with work and heading next door to Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar. 

Anywhere with rum in the title and I'm there!

I had a Horchata-Tini, which was made with house prepared Horchata, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Dark Rum Float. Horchata is a Latin rice milk with cinnamon that I used to love to get at a local Mexican restaurant that recently closed. It was a little different drinking an alcoholic Horchata spiked with rum though!  I enjoyed it immensely.  I'll definitely be back at Paladar to try their Latin infusion food and a different specialty drink!