A savvy scallop entree

Just finished cooking this unbelievably delicious dish. I call this my 'Hot Dill Scallop Salad'. I love scallops for a number of reasons: they're easy to cut, marinade, cook, are good for you, and have such a wonderful texture. Not to mention how tasty they are. This is all I did:

• I mixed several garlic cloves, half an onion, multicolored peppers, and one bunch of roughly cut dill in olive oil, and garlic salt. I then roasted this mixture in an oven at 380 F for 20 minutes.

• I mixed olive oil, grated garlic, dried red chillies, grated ginger and hot sauce (to taste) in a bowl, and marinaded about 1.5 lbs scallops in it for 10 minutes.

• I cooked the scallop mixture in a hot pan for about 3 minutes, mixing and turning carefully.

• I added the other half of an onion and one bunch of green onions, and cooked the mixture for another 3 minutes.

• I added the roasted vegetables to this mix, turned the heat off, mixed everything and ...voila!

Try it and see if you like it. It is wonderful! I look forward to creating some more savvy scallop recipes in the future...

Lime restaurant in San Francisco

Hidden among bookstores with outrageous shopfronts, quirky delis and ethnic restaurants on Market Street in Castro is the cute Austin Powers-esque restaurant 'Lime'. A hit with the locals, this late night (well for SF standards anyway) serves tapas sized portions of delectable goodies. Try the amazingly popular deviled eggs, or the shitake mushrooms dripping in melted parmesan.
The halibut fish tacos are amazing too. The menu allows you to order $5 - $11 plates, so giving you an idea of the portion size. It's pretty cleverly done, because the plates usually have an odd number of bites, so you do end up ordering two plates if you want to have an equal amount of food shared within your group. Portions are tasty but tiny, so you will end up ordering more than you thought you would. But it tastes and looks good, so who cares?

Low lighting, pumping house music, and cozy booths set the scene here. Given it's in Castro, you have to be comfortable with the pretty boy, and slightly overtly gay crowd. But everyone is friendly and just out to have a good time. I was once here in 2006, and back last week for the second time, and glad to see that it was still pretty rocking in two years. Lime do a Sunday brunch with all 'All you Can Drink' mimosas for $6. Their mojitos are great by the way. Drop me a line if you've tried their brunch. Oh, and they have bar seating as well.

All in all, a cool local SF nightspot, whether you want to just grab a drink or a bite, well hidden from the tourists.

Lime