August 5, 2016 Lunch East Ocean. Dinner. Old Town Pizza Parlor

August 5, 2016 Lunch   East Ocean. Dinner. Old Town Pizza Parlor

I discover something today.  Pepto Bismal cures diarrhea.  I bought a bottle of maximum strength Pepto Bismal at 10:30.  Took two doses, one every hour and when Max Aragon called at 11:30, telling me he was in town, I suggested we go to lunch at East Ocean for my favorite Chines lunch, Scallops in Lobster Sauce.  I chose the dish because it is a simple combination of thickened chicken stock, egg, a bit of ground pork and scallops.  The magic is that somehow the egg clouds are suspended in the thickened chicken stock to make a thick sauce that one mixes with rice to made congealed clumps of sauced rice.  Sort of a chicken and rice and scallop stew. The closest thing to chicken soup I could get that was interesting.

Max ordered Almond chicken and enjoyed the sautéed fresh vegetables.

When I was in Walgreen’s buying my Pepto Bismal, I ran into Eason Eige, who gave me an invitation to an art opening of his paintings this evening, so at 6:45 we drove to 1114 Central and behind a nondescript Adobe building found a lovely old turn of the century brick two story house where Ralph Greene lives where the front three rooms had been cleared and converted into a gallery.  We are so full of art, we could hardly think of buying a piece, but enjoyed seeing both Eason and Ralph’s paintings. 

After the opening we decided to go out to eat.  I still had concerns about my stomach and generally was not enthusiastic about eating anything elaborate, so when Suzette suggested a pizza at Old Town Pizza Parlor, I easily agreed.  We drove the eight short blocks to Old Town and parked near the corner of Rio Grande and Central, where the restaurant is located.  When we walked in, we discovered that Old Town is under new ownership, because Suzette could not order a beer with her dinner.  We also discovered an interesting pizza special, fresh fig and ham pizza with a white sauce topping, which we ordered.  We also split a small spinach salad garnished with fresh feta cheese made in Tucumcari.  

FfWe took seats in the lovely patio.  Soon the salad nod then the pizza arrived.  The salad was fresh spinach, very crisp with dried cranberries, almond slivers and the feta.  We drizzled balsamic vinaigrette over the salad.  The pizza was lovely also, garnished with ham slices and fresh halved small figs.  It reminded me of Good Italian cuisine, in which the freshest ingredients are combined into simple straight forward offerings. 

We each ate two small pieces of pizza and the waitress boxed the remainder to take home.

Q

We arrived home by 8:00 in time to watch Charlie Rose, Washington Week and the Olympic opening ceremony.

Then I got bolder and decided to eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream with another shot of Pepto Bismal because it appeared that the diarrhea had stopped.

Bon Appetit