Sunday, January 22, 2012.
Not The Saints @ Zea.
The Saints are finished for the year, but momentum made Mary Ann want to go to a restaurant to watch whatever game is on. She said that I could pick the place, as long as there were screens. I cut to the chase and suggested Zea. Sold.
Mary Ann says she can go there and not eat very much. What she gets is the grilled vegetable plate. With the exception of the pile of hummus on one end of the long rectangle, nothing on this thing has the slightest appeal to me. But Mary Ann loves grilled vegetables, and in fact grills them at almost every meal. She can have all of mine.
I can't remember the last time I had Zea's twice-cooked duck. I do remember how good it was. It was that good once again today. A half-duck gets cooked most of the way by some slow method (rotisserie would be my guess, since they have that equipment). Then they throw it into hot oil to flash-crisp the skin. The sauce is a sweet-heat Asian-tinged concoction. Since the seasoning on the duck has a sort of Thai flavor to begin with, it works nicely. The only thing I dislike about the plate is the fried noodles, a plague that also gets in the way of the otherwise-magnificent seared tuna salad. But those are easily ignored. The duck itself is moist and crisp as appropriate. It's probably the best dish on the menu.
We stayed for the first half of the game, a playoff between the Whoozits and the Didn't Catch Its. Mary Ann kept giving analyses of the plays throughout, but it was lost on me.
At home I repaired a flat tire on MA's bicycle. While I was at it, I pumped up my car's tires. The tire guys say I've been underinflating. I'm sick enough about all the new tires I've had to buy lately that I will take their advice. I used to be conscientious about that, but stopped when gas stations started charging for air. I never have coins in my pocket anymore. But now that I have an air pump that you just plug into the cigarette lighter socket, I'll try to repent.
