Last night, I officially broke my seafood cherry. Ok wait, that sounded a little gross, but it was the first thing that came to mind. For the first time in my life, I ordered two, not one, but TWO seafood dishes while dining out at a restaurant. For those of you who may not know me very well, this is a VERY BIG DEAL! For years, well more like my entire life previous to now, my family and friends have known me to abstain from all things ocean-related, simply because it was not my thing. I hated the smell, and it all honesty, who would want to eat something that could smell so horrid?!
However, lately with my increasing interest in trying new restaurants and cuisines, I have gradually started to taste a bite or two here and there from my fellow diner’s (usually my Dad’s) plate. He was actually the first to start really encouraging me to try, so with a lot of trust, I popped that mussel in my mouth or tasted a mere sliver of Chilean sea bass. And although some of it still tasted rather “fishy” to me, I started to think about maybe eventually coming to appreciate them some day.
A mussel or two, a clam pizza and a couple bites of seared tuna later, I have officially graduated and I am moving on from avoiding seafood on restaurant menus. I mean, I’m not about to order the fish at a gross hole in the wall tomorrow, but if I am at a nice establishment, I am past my days of simply skipping over the seafood.
The restaurant where I achieved this great milestone last night was ironically called…Extra Virgin. Yes, I have lost my seafood ordering virginity at Extra Virgin. How poetic, right? And boy was it yummy. While I sat at the bar for a bit waiting for my friend to join me, I looked on as a guy at the other end of the bar ordered the mussels appetizer. Ever since I tried one of my Dad’s a couple months ago, I have been meaning to try them again, and boy did these look good. I could smell the aroma of the white wine broth from across the bar! Right then I decided I would order them. One course down. Then I got to reading the rest of the menu. As I perused, I wondered which of the three non-seafood options looked best to me, as usual. None of them stuck out to me, so I thought to myself, I am already planning on ordering the mussels…maybe it wouldn’t hurt to at least look at the seafood entrees too…
A couple glasses of wine later, I decided just to go for it. After a quick question for the waitress, I ordered the lemon-crusted sea bass as my entree. It was very empowering! For some reason, I was feeling ridiculously proud over making a silly dinner order 
In the end, I devoured and loved every bite. All I could think about was how proud my parents would be of their only non-seafood eating daughter.
Hopefully this is just the beginning of my new experiences with oceanic creatures. I can’t wait to see what I will try next. Somehow, though, I think oysters will be far off my list. It’s going to take a lot more pride for me to sucker up the cojones to slide that little sucker down my throat.
