Dinner at the SturgeUrge Compound

My friend KirkVallus is in town for the weekend. His Facebook post alerted me that he was in town, and hangin' at the SturgeUrge Compound. I rang him up and invited myself to dinner. They were in Oakland having a beer and a fried chicken sandwich at Bakesale Betty's.

About 4:30, KirkVallus called back and our plan was hatched. "I'll be over in half an hour, and we'll make a road trip out to the asian grocery and grab some live dungeness crabs and all the fixins."

We hit the grocery store and headed right back to the fish market. The tank was brimming full of live dungees in the 1 1/2-2 pound range. There was a problem however...they were $10.99/lb!

I was in the same spot two weeks ago, admiring the crab when it was $5.99/lb...Plan B was indicated...off to the Mexican Market!

They've been upgrading the Mexican produce/fish market this summer, and in the hustle and flow of the sprucing up, they drained and moved their live crab tank...it was still empty when we walked in. Fortunately the fish market had a beautiful Ahi loin on ice, and on sale for $8.99/lb. The loin looked to be from a 60-80lb fish...I had the fishmonger slice off three 1 1/4" thick steaks. Holy moly, they weighed a pound each! We grabbed some patty pan squash in yellow and green and were off.

SturgeUrge was playing plumber when we returned to the Compound, so we had a beer and tuned in the Giants vs Rockies game.

In no time (if you don't count three trips to as many hardware stores), Urge wrapped up his plumbing project and set about making dinner...his jaw dropped when he saw the ahi steaks!

A quick Pow Wow and the menu was set, and magically as always dinner hit the table in no time. Cajun Seared Ahi served Sashimi Style as the appetizer, followed by Seared Ahi Sashimi Style with grilled patty pan squash on the side. Add a decent California Cabernet and we had dinner and a game!

Both were excellent! The Giants won to pace the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Giants' third baseman Pablo Sandoval hit for the cycle...the tenth Giant to accomplish the feat since 1883.

It was a good night all around.