Yesterday was Heather's birthday, and we went to dinner at local seafood powerhouse, Sea Rocket Bistro. They're big on sustainably grown and local ingredients.

They had Stone Pale Ale on cask, which is delightfully creamy and smooth. The candle holders at the tables were Stone beer bottles with the tops cut off.



I gave Heather her birthday present, and she squealed when she saw the box.



Fellas, if you don't know what this little blue box is, go ask the nearest woman. I had no idea how big a deal this is to a girl until a few weeks ago. She didn't open it until after dinner, savoring the anticipation of seeing what was inside.

For appetizers, we ordered a couple tapas. I had the whole grilled sardine. It was tasty, but when they get to be this big you can't just eat the whole thing, so I had to do some surgery to remove the spine. The little sprats you get in the can are the perfect bite size and 100% edible. I'm always happy to make a can and a couple slices of rye bread my lunch or dinner at home. We normally try each other's meals, but she made an icky face at my sardine so it was all mine.



Heather had some gouda on bread, drizzled with honey. Not sure how this is worth $2, but to each her own.



I was really looking forward to our appetizers, and suggested this restaurant just so I could try the Sea Urchin Bisque, served in the shell.



It's a gorgeous presentation, and turned more heads in the restaurant than sizzling fajitas would at Chili's. It was creamy and predominantly uni flavored, but lacking in seasoning and thus very one-dimensional.

Heather had the all-local garden salad with an avocado-honey-lime dressing.



This was dressed perfectly, not so much that the greens are drowned in dressing, but you could still taste the three main players. Curiously, the menu advertises apples in the salad, but it came with radishes instead.

For the main course, I had the Fisherman's stew, with mussels, clams, squid, and fish chunks.



Delightfully spicy yet light, this was the prefect amount of seafood, tomatoes, onions, and carrots. The broth was well-seasoned, but since it wasn't thickened with anything, it didn't make for very good bread sop. I would have liked a few mussels pureed into the broth to thicken it up and make for a more stew-like consistency.

Heather's main course was the pan-seared scallops with smokey mashed potatoes and collared greens.



The scallops had a good sear on them, but it's hard to inject any real flavor into them, so they tasted like every other scallop I've had. The potatoes had a nice smokey flavor, when combined with the greens, they cry out to be paired with a BBQ meat.



On the way home, we stopped at Extraordinary Desserts for a sweet ending to the evening. There was a long line out the door, so I entertained myself by shooting her cute toes.



She had her heart set on the strawberry shortcake, and found them in the case. The girl in front of us heard her talking about how delicious they are, and pulled a total bitch-move and ordered the last two. The clerk was nice enough to go in back and find another one for Heather.



I oredered a french apple berry tart, but when we opened the box at home, they gave me a whipped cream banana tart instead. I hate whipped cream, and I'm not a huge fan of bananas either. But, it was still pretty good.



We only ate half of our desserts, the rest is going to perk up the indian chicken leftovers I made a couple days ago. Oh, and what was in the little blue box?