Seafood Linguini

Many of you have asked when I am going to blog about my NYC trip, and really, I barely got back and was swamped with work. But even while the mixer is on, and there is icing on my glasses, I smile as I reflect on some of the the things that happened while in New York. I will tell you one story now:

Mr. Man and I stuck to some pretty tame restaurants, as I knew we would, initially because of my allergies, but later on we realized how much money we would save by sticking to simpler, faster foods. SUBWAY became our friend. Hot grilled chicken sub with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, red onion and green peppers, and a dollop of honey garlic sauce fed me for two days. Mr. was strictly ham, cheese, and pickles. Seriously, no imagination.

One time, we found ourselves on 5th avenue, surrounded by fancy, expensive shops and where do we go in for food?

Good ol' Wendy's. Yep, their fries in NYC are just as good as in Belleville, Ontario.

Living. It. Up.

So, on our last day in the city, our tour bus took us to South St. Seaport and pointed us to this Italian Restaurant by the marina. Grilled chicken just didn't cut it anymore, so we raced over to get an outdoor table. The ambience was nice, you could smell the waterfront, and the restaurant itself was so comforting, I decided this would be where we have a real meal. Mr. ordered a ravioli, and I ordered the seafood linguini.

So there I was, smiling away, dipping my bread into the oil, and the waiter brings out our plates. My mouth dropped open. There was this towering plate of pasta complete with a lobster tail, and a circle of oysters, placed in front of me. And as I looked closer, among the expected shrimp and sliced calamari were tiny octopus tentacles. Or squid tentacles. It really didn't matter. This numb feeling appeared in the pit of my stomach, and as I looked around at the other customers "oohing" and "aahing" at my plate, I thought, "What have I done? Now I have to eat this!"

Our tour guide had warned us that some restaurants may have servings that are too large to finish, so I decided to use that get free card right away. I tackled the lobster tail, thankful for good friends who'd taken us out to a seafood buffet previously, so I didn't look like an amateur. The shrimp and calamari were no problem, but I seriously had to turn my senses off in order to eat the pasta around those tentacles. I no longer smelled the lovely waterfront, or saw the ambience around me. I smelled fish, saw octopus legs and thought about all of the people who caught food poisoning from eating oysters.

In the end, I scooped some of the oysters in with the pasta, stirred it around, and placed the empty shells on the discard plate, along with my lobster shell, as though I had tasted them all along.

So, I ate, I survived, I paid three times the price I thought I was, and I came away with a good story. Go big, or go home, right?