Day 323: Liquid & Solid Experimentation

I want to love oysters.  People who like oysters are cool and living here in Northern California, loving oysters seems like the right thing to do.  I've had little experience eating them, though, and I have a mental barrier that says "oysters are snot-like".  So, I've decided to try them when the time and place is right and when I'm feeling adventurous.  Tonight was one of those nights.

After an exceedingly lazy day during which we hardly left the house, we ventured out of our neighborhood for dinner to try a new restaurant, Bacar.  I ordered the field green salad and one of each of the two oysters they were offering tonight:  Beausoleil (from New Brunswick, Canada) and Point Reyes (from California).  Surprisingly, I preferred the oysters over the salad, which I found quite bitter.  I squeezed some lemon juice over the oysters and spooned a bit of cocktail sauce on top and even chewed the flesh rather than just swallowing them whole.  Both were good but the Point Reyes, with a fresh flavor that I really enjoyed, was the better of the two.

For my entree, I chose a lamb dish with middle eastern component:  preserved lemon, harissa, and olives.  It was only after ordering that I found out that the dish feature lamb "three ways":  the loin, a lamb sausage, and braised lamb belly.  I was a little worried about that last one, but all of them were really good.

After our entrees we shared a cheese plate and my husband ordered a flight of Scotch.  Brown liquor (scotch, bourbon, whiskey) goes in the same category as oysters - things I currently do not enjoy but which I desperately want to want to learn to love.  My husband quite likes his brown liquor, though, so I always take the opportunity to sip his.  Two out of three were okay, but I still have a ways to go before I love them.

Still, it was a successful night overall.  It was fun to get out of the neighborhood and try a new restaurant and lots of new things, both liquid and solid!