i still didn't get the tuna again.

 

the first time we went to roy's -- i don't know how many years its been, but several -- i got the seared ahi tuna. beautifully seared on one side, on top of a disc of sushi rice, some vegetables and two sauces surrounding it all. one a butter sauce, the other, i assumed wasabi. but it was SO hot. and it wasn't green. so i asked. it was an english mustard sauce. it burned through my sinuses faster than wasabi, and i really appreciated that.

 

every time we go back -- not as often as we should, probably -- i always walk in wanting to get that again. and i never do, because they always have such an interesting selection of fish, i hate to get something i've already had, particularly when its as "mundane" as tuna.

 

this time was no different. i wanted the tuna, but there was the thing i never had before: nairagi. to my phonetic abilities, that is nare-ahgee. but our waitress corrected me more than once when i said that. she was putting letters in there that just aren't there, and pronouncing it not-ah-rah-ghee. or something. anyway, it's a striped marlin. it was served with bacon and duck confit tortellini. sad that there were only three of them. nice piece of fish, though. some green beans on the side. its nice to pretend.

 

for an appetizer, i got the lobster potstickers. i think i've had these before. but i don't care. i love potstickers. i love lobster. deal.

 

pam started out with the maui-wowie salad, or some such silly name. it was especially silly when it came and it was, for all intents and purposes, a greek salad. not that there’s anything wrong with that. there was lettuce. there was feta. there were capers. there were nice shrimp. it was described as including "tomato carpaccio," and i was dying to see what that meant. carpaccio is thinly sliced raw beef. the salad was sitting on an arrangement of thinly sliced tomato. ah, cute.

 

for her entree, pam got the fish combo. a small portion of three of their most popular fish. the butterfish, the salmon and ... the tuna! i got a taste of the tuna. and that mustard sauce. every bit as crazy hot as i remember it.

 

for dessert, i got the molten chocolate cake because it was my birthday. actually, i get that almost every time i go to roys, and its hardly ever my birthday. pam got the pineapple and berry cobbler. very tasty.

 

we were really tired. we had spent the day up in marion county kayaking on the rainbow river. so we woke up at 7, drove 100 miles, were out on the water for about 5 hours, drove 100 miles back home, showered, and went back out to dinner. yeah, i don't feel sorry for me either, but it was a long day.

 

what a great weekend, though. if i had to choose between ponte and roy’s for my favorite restaurant in the area, i don't know that i could, and i went to both this weekend. a treat i will probably not indulge in too many times in the future. but glad i did it this weekend.

 

sigh.