Lip-Smacking Lumps

Just to clarify, the Larabars were not from Asian Food Grocer! I have personally never gotten a shipment from them that has been of poor quality.

I took your advice and contacted Larabar. They are kindly sending me an “adjustment for my purchase”, and gave me the following tips to make sure your Larabar doesn’t grow mold like mine. Here’s a refresher…

“Mold is usually the result of temperature and humidity fluctuations during shipping and storage.  Although we don′t have complete control over distributors′ storage facilities, we do believe food distributors and retailers are equally conscientious in protecting the product.”

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Anyway, not to ruin your appetite…let’s get on with fresh food – The lip-smacking lumpy food in the form of crab and tuna!

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a sucker for seafood, so when Devon Seafood Grill popped up as an idea for a dinner date, (pronounced De-vin) I totally jumped on the opportunity! Nick and I had a $25 Off birthday gift certificate (if you sign up online) to spend, so essentially a free entrée!

We started off with Devon’s own home-baked Sweet Biscuits that were served to us from a metal tray freshly cooled from the oven.

These are sweet, moist biscuits with a crumbly crust that falls apart in your mouth, but don’t expect the flaky kind you get from Pillsbury Doughboy. The butter flavor was present, but still light so the whipped butter on the table wasn’t necessary.

For my appetizer, I ordered VIETNAMESE STYLE CRAB SPRING ROLLS

Daikon, avocado, shiro miso, pea greens, sweet and sour carrots,lump crab meat, sweet-sour spicy dipping sauce

Definitely a great deal for spring rolls STUFFED silly with large lumps of crab meat. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much crab there was compared to my previous experience with crab rolls at Big Bowl (fail). Here’s a close up!

For the same price, Devon’s rolls are a much better bang for your buck, larger in girth, filled with crab, and flavor-blessed! The wonderful sweet and sour vegetables paired so well with the cool avocado and flaky crab I couldn’t stop crooning about it all night. Beware not to dip you roll in too much sauce though – it was spiiiicy.

As long as crab cakes are on the menu, Nick will order them.

JUMBO LUMP CRAB CAKE S – Creole remoulade, mango tartar sauce

These were wonderful crab cakes that were TRULY made out of jumbo lump crab. Devon did a great job of not making them too greasy both on the inside and the outside. Nick actually ate the tartar sauce with his biscuit instead of the crab cake. THAT was how flavorful the cake was by itself!

SEARED WALU “BUTTERFISH”

Nick’s entrée came with 2 sides of your choice – he got Devon’s “famous” lobster mac and cheese plus grilled asparagus.

The butterfish was lightly seared, flaky, fresh, and perfectly seasoned. I can see now why this is called butterfish! It did taste a little buttery! Nick says the mac was delicious and rich, however we had trouble finding any lobster apart from the flake or two sprinkled over the top.

Seared Rare Char Crusted Hawaiian Tuna – roasted yukon potatoes, asparagus, foyot sauce

This is tuna the way I like it. The crust was a combination of salt, pepper, garlic, and onion and seared till the outside was just done and the inside still rare. Instead of potatoes, I asked for a dual side of asparagus, though I could have eaten quadruple servings. I also asked for the foyot sauce on the side because restaurants tend to like to flood their dishes with sauce. Little did I know that this was a GREAT call. The sauce was so overwhelming in flavor and so heavy that it would have completely swamped the fresh and light tuna. The sauce ended up being the bad child sent to the corner that evening.

When the dessert tray rolled around, Nick and I had to say no. I mean, I can definitely bake my own cheesecakes and chocolate cakes. Instead, we headed home for a homemade treat – mint chocolate chip ice-cream. 4 simple ingredients, 20 minutes of churn-time, and out comes a yummy dessert. (No pics, sorry!)

• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips and/or Andes mint chocolates (shmashed up)

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Restaurant RATINGS:

Flavor: 4/5 (Loved everything I ordered personally. Lucky I had sauce on the side though)

Plating: 4/5 (I’m a sucker for those appetizers)

Originality: 3/5 (Standard American seafood restaurant selection, but they DO have a seasonal 4-course menu worth looking into)

Value: 3.5/5 (It wasn’t cheap, but with the gift certificate AND considering the amount of seafood they give you, Devon beats out many other downtown restaurants!)

Overall: 4/5

We would definitely come back! Especially if Devon mails gift certificates monthly if you join their list… AND since they switch up their menu every couple of months to keep things exciting.

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Happy Friday guys!!! Tell me what your exciting plans are!!

Mine are simple – New library book (Woohoo!!!) and…Celebrations of the Chinese Mid-autumn festival are in store!!!

*think* MOONCAKES!

Blast from the past, check out this post. 🙂

Just for Fun!

American Seafood, Biscuits, Chicago, Crab Cakes, Devon Seafood Grill, Frozen Yogurt, Lychee, Restaurants, Review

October 2, 2009

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