Scallops Gone Wild!

Male? Female? Teens on vacation? Well, I don't know much about the life of these scallops, but I know in their death, they were certainly fresh and succulent. Worthy of salacious DVDs purchaseable on late night TV. Food Network of course... As usual, we were dining at our favorite Chinese establishment, and one of the interesting highlights of the evening were these little guys (ok, not really little):

They were purchased alive that day and were wild scallops. None of the cultivated stuff this time. Indeed, they did taste different. I found them slightly briney, rather fresh tasting and very tender which contrasted with chewy bits from the XO sauce (I believe). Quite nice really. As you can see, the scallops are intact with stomach and all which apparently is the typical manner in which Chinese restaurants serve scallops. Unadultered wild scallops! Oh yeah! Now you know why they were the highlight of the evening for me. ;D

H.I. Ribs & Co.

If you haven't noticed, I've not cooked much of anything of late. For Mother's Day, there was no difference. =P It was just as well since it's easier to gather the scattered family members together at a restaurant more central to everyone. No clean up for me, plus leftovers the next day! ;D

We ended up going to H.I. Ribs & Co in Pennington since their ribs are pretty good. I wouldn't know, but I do know their seasoned fries are great and the complimentary corn muffins are decent. Those two side dishes are incredibly popular here. So what did mom stuff herself silly with? For starters, we ordered up half an onion loaf. It's huge! And loaf shaped which explained the name. =P Their BBQ sauce was included on the side for dipping. That helped cut the oily taste from the deep frying and from all the nooks and inner crannies it could hide in the interior:

The picture shows the loaf already half devoured. I was hungry at the time and started digging in before I remembered to document it. ;) The outside was nice and crunchy but the middle of the loaf was rather soggy. =( I liked that they used good onions as I didn't have the "stringy" onion ring problem. You know...when you bite into an onion ring and the onion gets pulled out and you're left with the batter in hand. =P Though it wasn't bad, I can't imagine eating an entire loaf and *then* dinner unless there were twice the number of us eating and even then, I'm not so sure. For the entree, everyone (except me) ordered up a rack of the baby back ribs. As usual, the tender meat was falling off the bones and slathered in plenty of good BBQ sauce:

So what did I eat? One of the specials that day was flounder stuffed with fresh crabmeat. The crabmeat filling was made on the premises (none of the canned crap I guess), and it wasn't bad particularly since it is a rib joint. I've had worse in meatcentric restaurants. However, the stuffing was a bit on the salty side but that comes as no surprise when my tastebuds encounter American fare. One scary item on the plate was the garnish which was a very wilted lettuce leaf. Let's assume the heat from the fish did it. Ya... See for yourself: