Floundering Fishwife

Anytime I've mentioned that we've been to Asilomar, someone always asks if we ate at the Fishwife, which is right across the street. "It's so good!" they exclaim.

Well, almost everyone. Our friend Al said ominously when we told him we would be spending a few days there this week: "You don't want to eat there. There are a lot of better restaurants in the area."

Did we listen? No. We wanted to walk to our dinner, so we threw caution to the winds and walked in.

I now understand the appeal. It's close. And the fish is good, at least my sole piccata was. And if you've spent several days eating the cafeteria food at Asilomar (most conferences include the meal plan to save time), the Fishwife must indeed be a treat.

But after the fish and the fresh sprig of broccoli, well, the rest of the meal tasted blah. The Belize Shrimp tasted surprisingly bland and looked amazingly like the ones out of the bag from Costco. "When I see Belize, I think Marie Sharps," said my dinner companion, referring to the popular habanero-carrot sauce from that Central American country. "This wasn't spicy at all." The black beans were creamy, but the rice? Converted.

As we were leaving, we think we saw what the problem was. See photo below. If you can't buy fresh in the Pacific Grove area, you really aren't trying.