I see food, I eat it.

I never really considered myself much of a seafood fan. But really, how would I know, I hadn't really had any seafood. Sure I've consumed plenty of tuna salad sandwiches and tuna casseroles in my years, but never really any real seafood. Then one day, I was introduced to scallops. I can't say exactly when or where but I'm sure My brother was involved. Perhaps, an adventure to one of the restaurants he was cooking for at the time. Where ever and whenever it was, I was a goner. The scallops were buttery and had a smooth, almost creamy consistency with a nice crust on the outside. Delectable.

My next experience with seafood involved my brother yet again. We were celebrating one of his birthdays at Ichiban's in downtown Minneapolis. I order a steak to be safe, but his friend sitting next to me ordered the lobster. I've always been leery about eating lobster because I can't stand the way they're kept in their tanks just waiting to be boiled alive. Sad really. Anyway, this guy offered me a taste of his lobster and I said what the heck. It was fabulous. The consistency, again, was perfect. I haven't been able to bring myself to order lobster since but I'll never forget the flavor.

And then there was San Francisco. A trip to the Wharf would not be complete without a bowl of their famous clam chowder. Unfortunately this time, I was not impressed. It tasted like a bowl of

fish juice. You know when you're walking along a lakeside and you wander upon a nasty dead fish that had been stewing in the hot sun for who knows how long? Yeah, that smell, that's what the clam chowder tasted like. Not pleasant. You can bet you won't be seeing me within miles of a bowl of that fowl stuff again anytime soon. Ick.

And of course, I've tried muscles, shrimp and ahi Tuna. But, none of these had any sort of interesting story. Well except for the fabulous Tuna we had at a Mexican restaurant in Eau Claire. We ordered a second plate. It was THAT good.

I'll NEVER forget my introduction to Calamari. High school Biology and calamari. I never thought the two would intertwine. Somehow they did. We had entered the realm of dissection. You know, cutting into dead things and picking apart their guts one-by-one. Not my favorite experience from my formative years to say the least. Well apparently, the faculty thought they'd change up the curriculum, make things a little more interesting. Squid were brought in and each student prepared themselves their very own calamari right in the walls of the biology labs. Somehow preparing food in the same place where dead things were torn apart was not exactly appetizing. That and the fact that the halls reaked of the vile smell all day long. Sadly, the stench traveled with me throughout the years, but not so much the taste. I remember a rubbery consistency but that's about it. I've recently had other reasons to give the food another chance and the result has been much more favorable. But really, deep frying anything, makes the food taste that much better.

Dan has always mentioned to me how much he likes crab legs. I'd never tried them before mostly because they seem like way too much work to eat. So for Valentines Day last year, he decided we were going to have a homemade crab dinner. And, he'd cook it! Anybody who knows Dan knows he doesn't cook. Not that he can't, he chooses not to. So we stopped at Target and picked up some frozen King crab legs. Okay so maybe not the best place to buy seafood, but definitely the closest. He dropped them in some boiling hot water, seasoned with lemon and salt and voila, crab dinner. Of course, he had to demonstrate how the crab legs should be eaten. There's definitely a technique to getting the most meat from the legs. I also prepared some asparagus and Jacque Pepin style potatoes to go along side.