Back from OBX

Trust everybody had a good week while we were off sunning and funning on OBX. Weather was pretty good (rain one day, clouds and windy a couple others) and I finally got the chance to sit down, relax, read some books, mags and zines and just recharge the batteries.

We made several great meals at the house, including Grilled Tuna Steaks and Roasted Corn with Lime Butter and Beer Steamed Shrimp Appetizer and an easy, spicy tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil that we served with some linguine one night and linguine with sauteed fresh shrimp the next. Another night we grilled steaks and ate them with more Beer Steamed Shrimp.

Meals out were a bit more hit and miss. Diamond Shoals was well above average with great service and excellent seafood platters with perfectly cooked shrimp, crabcakes, scallops and fish fillets. Austin Creek Grill, a fave from last year was top-notch as well, though maybe a tad off from last year. Still, it's probably the best eatery on Hatteras Island and the Roasted Corn and Crab Soup was extraordinary and we actually found the recipe in a local paper while we were there. (I'll post it here soon) Dolphin Den was on par with last year, though nothing memorable.

Worst outing -- topping (bottoming?) last year's dreadful Fish House experience (also OBX) and this summer's trip to the Boat House (on LBI in NJ) -- was easily a last night on OBX trek to The Pilot House. A very good (but lukewarm) Seafood Bisque barely offset Crab and Cheese Ravioli appetizers that were cold and soggy midway through and atrocious (and I don't use that word lightly) entrees. My Sea Trout tasted like it had been cooked an hour or so before I came in and then warmed up, kinda, once I got there. Chris's stuffed flounder was equally poorly executed, a so-so, lukewarm fillet atop what tasted like a Mrs. Paul's Deviled Crab Cake. Really, really horrendous. As Chris said, "Fish House made me angry. This place just makes me sad."