Dinner and a Movie

Last night was date night, a "no cookin’ in the kitchen" night. Capitalism by Michael Moore was our movie pick. We started out with the intent of eating at a local restaurant we hadn’t been to before, but as our leisure time was ebbing away, we settled on McGrath's Fish House within blocks of the theater, which offers Celiacs gluten-free lunch and dinner menus.

I ordered the Halibut Parmesan served with a Petite Shrimp Louis with gluten-free dressing, Rice Pilaf and a glass of Pinot Blanc. Hold the tartar sauce. As we were engaged in deep conversation, my meal seemed tasty enough, but as I was finishing the last few bites, I realized that the halibut was “different”. I had ordered Halibut Parmesan before and this wasn't that. Right about then, my digestive tract confirmed my discovery - it was not Halibut Parmesan and it was not a gluten-free meal.

I called the waitress over, who conferred with the waiter who took our order, who conferred with the chef and restaurant manager, who in turn, conferred with us. The six of us unraveled what happened between the ordering and serving of my dinner. The waiter heard me wrong and wrote down the wrong entrée, the waiter nor the chef wrote “gluten-free” across the ticket, the waitress that took over our table, didn’t have a clue, was only doing her job, I wasn’t paying attention until it was too late to do anything about it… and the movie was about to start. No doubt, the manager will be holding a staff meeting to go over this scenario to avoid future, dangerous, costly mistakes, even a lawsuit. The manager was gracious, very apologetic, and our entire dinner was compt.  He of course hopes to avoid bad press and keep us as as happy, satisfied patrons of their establishment. None the less, it was very kind of them, considering I was partly to blame for the condition I found myself in.  The waiters were embarrassed and most apologetic. We left them a tip and headed for the theater.

We were fortunate to find a couple of good seats together. There has been so much press about Moore’s new film Capitalism: A Love Story that the showings have nearly been sold out. Ever heard of the term “dead peasants”? Neither had we. This was one of the bugged-eyed eye-openers of the movie. For more information, go to Dead Peasant Insurance. I’m not going to review the film here, but let me suffice it to say that the audience broke out in applause and cheers, all but gave a standing ovation.  Moore is garnering support for the notion that democracy and capitalism don't go together, and that the lies and scare tactics about the evils of becoming a socialist nation must stop. See for yourself. Make up your own mind. I’ll be adding Capitalism to our DVD library.

Bonus Feature  - How I make Halibut Parmesan in my kitchen.

Ingredients:

4 – 6 oz halibut fillets

½ cup of pine nuts, coarsely chopped

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

sea salt to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450-degrees. Combine all the ingredients except the sea salt. Rinse and pat dry the halibut fillets and lay them on a baking sheet. Season both sides with salt. Pat the pine nut and Parmesan mixture onto the halibut, lightly pressing to make it stick. Turn the fillets and repeat on the other side. Bake the pine nut and Parmesan encrusted fillets in the middle of the oven for 10- 15 minutes, until you see that the halibut is opaque all the way through.

From "Halibut – The Cookbook", edited by Karen Barnaby. Published by Whitecap Books.