Eating Down In the Depths of Dirty...From Vietnamese Restaurants To ShopRite Clams

First it was eating at the Vietnamese restaurant I love to hate, next it was clams from Shoprite. Is there no end to the sacrifices I must make for my friends?

Vietnamese

Izzy and I have always been partial to one of the two Vietnamese restaurants here in downtown JC, Saigon Cafe. My husband has a fondness for the other restaurant, Nha Trang Place, that I just don't share but my friend T. may have managed to change my mind a bit. She insisted we try it with her, as she knows just what to order, having been a regular for years. She treated Izzy and me to a delightful meal, full of new tastes. There was shrimp with sugar cane and a porky dish too. Plus spring rolls and a salmon dish with greens. Too much food for four of us (2 of whom were young'uns) but it gave me a chance to sample a bunch of things I wouldn't have tried on my own. I am not sure that Izzy was as taken with the meal as I was but I think that may be more a result of my previous indoctrination that anything else. Now that I know what to order I will definitely go back with A. and give it another try.

Shoprite Clams

We were supposed to have an easy pizza night at my house but before I knew it, it turned it a clam extravaganza. Once again, my friend T. took me to the dirty side. Truthfully I steer clear of any seafood, meat or poultry from Shoprite. I don't want to see it or touch it. If you prepared it for me at home and I was blissfully unaware, that would be a different story.

Remember, it was pizza night at my house but according to T., there was a clam sale and she and her husband hatched a plan that they would be great to share with us. I agreed and she went off to Shoprite and returned with a giant stinky bag of seashells. I tried to avoid observing the cleansing of the creatures (I have had enough of them after many hours in restaurant kitchens cleaning shellfish in my past). Izzy, though, was tickled pink as he is a huge clam lover.

T. cooked them up with garlic, olive oil and clam juice. She brought out the whole mess of them and we all partook.. Some of us more than others. Thankfully T. cleaned up the pots and most of the mess before she left. Here's to more culinary dirt in the future!