The Tsunami in My Stomach

A good friend of mine from work is moving to another state to attend school, so last night a group of us went out to dinner at a posh restaurant in Midtown here in Memphis. Being as pregnant as I am and with the strange feelings and aches I have been having lately I was slightly hesitant to attend after being at work yesterday, but it was a special event so I decided we would go. Plus someone else was paying and Paul and I would NEVER pass up a free meal.

The restaurant we went to was called "Tsunami", a restaurant of fine Pacific Rim cuisine. Basically that means there is a lot of seafood. Paul and I aren't the biggest fans of seafood. In fact, in our opinion the name "seafood" says it all... just see it, don't eat it. Get it? SEE FOOD... heh heh...ahhh derp.

Don't get me wrong. I do love salmon, and halibut, and tuna, and the occassional piece of shrimp - but it has to be de-turded and smothered in cocktail sauce. So it's not like I am crazy against seafood. If I got stranded on a desert island... I would totally eat raw fish or slimey clams to survive. I would even eat bugs and tree bark because as Destiny's Child would say I'm a survivor (what), I'm not gonna give up (what), I'm not gon' stop (what), I'm gonna work harder (what)...

Before dinner, and after we put in our orders of steak (yes, Paul and I got steak and mashed potatoes and squash), they brought out a lovely array of appetizers. This was good cause now we could just test some stuff and if we didn't like it then we didn't have to have anymore. I tried some of the sea bass and it was very delectable. It sort of melted in your mouth, but I wouldn't want a LARGE piece of it.

What I REALLY loved was this curly lookin' fried stuff. It was so good. It was chewy and had a fried covering - like onion rings would have on it - and they provided this sauce called chipotle aioli that was spicy and went perfect with it. I kept asking Paul to put more on my little appetizer dish and after a while I think I had eaten half the plate... oops. But it was so good I just didn't really care. So I asked Paul what it was and he told me it was "Calamari".

So to appear hoity toity, I acted like I knew what calamari was for a few minutes... but then I just couldn't let it go and I asked Paul what calamari was.

"Calamari is also known as squid," he said.
"Whaaaaaaaat?"

Look at this thing!! I ATE SQUID... and I liked it.


So then I got sort of angry. Why don't they just call it fried squid??!! Not that it would change the deliciousness of the thing but for some reason the thought of eating squid just made me nauseous.

I recently learned through tedious research on Google that calamari is the Italian name for squid and is often put on restaurant menu's because it sounds more palatable... Those Italians are smart people. Now if we could just get them to come up with a new name for "PU PU PLATTER".

Um, yes, waitress, may I please have some of your pu pu?
Coming right up ma'am.

Our meals finally came out. I am telling you, steak and mashed potatoes are so much better looking and smelling than a large chunk of sea bass (which is what almost everyone else ordered) on some black slimey lookin' rice with a long piece of grass strategically placed over it. 10+ on presentation though... seriously.

I think I over ate cause last night, with occassional dreams of squid and all the tossing and turning I did, I threw up in my mouth TWICE. Imagine waking up to that people!! Paul was so tired last night, all of my coughing and gagging didn't disrupt his peaceful slumber one bit!

So there I sit, gagging on stomach acid, moaning in pain and irritation, Paul sleeping like a snuggle bunny on a puffy soft cloud soaring through the blue sky while Enya plays in the background.

I would totally recommend that restaurant though if you are ever in Memphis, are rich ($12 for a piece of chocolate cake??) and you like seafood. Seriously.