Monday, October 25, 2010

Date Night Chronicle

Last week I wrote about going out for date night with my husband but I didn't want to say where just in case I didn't like it. However, since it was a good night, I thought I'd share now.

We decided on the wood fire grill this time. A nice change of pace from our usual sushi and sake routine. If you live in the area, I would recommend Moxie's Woodfire Grill for a special occasion treat or celebration. Because it was a bit expensive, I wouldn't go there on a regular basis but it was worth the splurge. And the best part is that one of my good friends works there as a waitress! Ask for Hannah if you go!

If you're like me, you'll want to know what we ate. So here it goes:
For appetizers we had sesame encrusted Ahi tuna which was served with seaweed salad, ginger and wasabi as well as dipping sauce. We also split an order of brie baked on a cedar plank and topped with mixed berries and sliced almonds. Both were absolutely delicious. Honestly, we could have had a salad and then stopped there!

For dinner I order their citrus glazed wild caught salmon which is also grilled on a cedar plank and served with baby stuffed pumpkins (different :) ) and spinach. This was cooked perfectly and had a wonderful flavor. My husband had a steak (I don't remember which cut right now, but it was very tender and cooked just to his liking) with a roasted garlic Gorgonzola sauce. Now, I gotta be honest with you here. We like grilled meats but the grill here is super "charry." Probably that's not a word but you get the point. The charred flavor and the pungent taste of the Gorgonzola kind of overwhelmed the flavor of the meat. Personally we both enjoy the taste of steak that is cooked properly and so this was a little disappointing because it took away from that flavor. The sauce was really good on bland old mashed potatoes though! If you REALLY like chargrilled meat, you'll like this. I don't know if you can ask for less charring but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

And for the martini aficionados out there, I had a "Dirty Englishman." It's a dirty gin martini with blue cheese olives. It was great and it was HUGE! One drink was more than plenty! I'd say this was a good runner up to my favorite dirty gin martini at Number 5. They put asiago stuffed olives in their martini's if you ask and it is DIVINE!

Ok, so afterward we checked out Tranquil bar and bistro. They have live music and Tuesday once a month is French night. And since neither of us understands French, we of course ended up at Tranquil on French night! Oh well. All was not lost. It was still good music. The guitarist was excellent and my Thin Mint Cookie martini made up for the fact that I couldn't sing along with the music. Next time I will wear a beret and a striped shirt perhaps and get more in the mood! I'd like to check this place out again on another night. A note to the claustrophobic: this place is tiny, especially the bar area. If you don't like tight quarters or don't want others to hear you talking to your date/friend/etc., this might not be your first pick. But if you're friendly and don't mind other people joining your conversation, I'd go for it!

I like it when date night is an adventure! Sometimes it's easy to get stuck in a rut. I always enjoy getting outside of my "box" and seeing what else is going on in Binghamton. Thankfully, I am usually pleasantly surprised!

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