Special Dinner

Wednesday, September 2: Jaleo. To celebrate a wonderful summer and the start of my new job (and to keep our minds off Sarah's impending departure), we decided to have a nice dinner out. We don't eat out very often, and when we do it's often falafel, or with other friends. So going out just the two of us felt special. We headed to Jaleo, a tapas restaurant that my parents and I discovered when we lived in DC. It's one of those places where you eat slowly and deliberately, savoring each surprising flavor. We had grilled onions with picon cheese and pinenuts, pickled mussels, the traditional shrimp and garlic tapa (is one a tapa or a tapas?), and a small salad with beets, grapefruit, pistachios and picon cheese. The onions came as thick slices, glistening with a sweet vinegar and olive oil marinade, and paired with the really strong blue cheese and toasted pine nuts, made Sarah smile with every bite. The mussels were presented pre-shelled in a sardine tin, and were wooey and refreshing. While the shrimp in the Gambas al ajillo were quite tasty, the draw for me of that dish is the cruet full of garlic-and-shrimp-infused olive oil that sits under them. I gleefully ate most of that, using the accompanying bread as a sponge of deliciousness. And the salad was the perfect dessert, drizzled properly with a sherry dressing that contrasted perfectly with the nuts and fruit, and had enough salt. By now you're probably either drooling or nauseous. I myself am mopping the saliva off my keyboard to type this. Luckily Im is on her way to visit me, so hopefully we can eat some delicious things to take my mind off of meals past.

Since there is no photographic record of this lovely meal, I have provided you with something even lovlier.