Anniversary Indulgence, etc.

So it's been a few days since I've written, and boy have they been action-packed. I won't get into too much detail, 'cos most of it is work related, suffice to say I've been busy busy busy. Overall my workouts have been OK - I had two truly great jump rope days in a row (I did 475 jumps in a row yesterday! I could hardly believe it!), although today kind of sucked. My main problem as of late is that the leg exercises are almost universally making my bad knee very unhappy. Last week when there were lunges on the menu, I did them all, but the next day my knee was feeling super wonky and kept threatening to give out. It didn't, but I also didn't do my jumps that day. I'm waiting for Patrick to give me his feedback on the problem.

So, then, on to the main topic of discussion - the indulgence! I didn't really have my indulgence last time (although I did have a few "mini" indulgences - like a few spoonfuls of Tapioca pudding, etc), so this time needed to count. Or something like that. It was our 5-year wedding anniversary on Friday, but we didn't quite have it together enough to get a sitter and actually go out for dinner, so my wife had the great idea to get take out from a local Tapas place called Lolo. Now, Portland has a few Tapas joints that are supposed to be as good as any place in Spain, and consequently have a line out the door constantly. Lolo, while still really good, for some reason has not caught fire like these other places, the upshot being that you can always get a seat, or order take out! We got 5 plates:

From L to R, they were serrano ham & manchego cheese croquette w/ smoked paprika aioli; sautéed octopus w/shaved celery, farga olives & piquillo pepper confit; chorizo & marinated figs; fried almonds w/ espollette pepper, sea salt & lemon wedge and chicken skewers w/moorish spices & sherry syrup.

All the dishes were pretty great, but I will give a play by play.

I really had no idea what to expect from a "serrano ham & manchego cheese croquette w/ smoked paprika aioli", but I was not expecting the intensity of this dish! I think that if the devil were incarnated in a foodstuff, he might become one of these delicious little balls of salt and fat. They were fried crisp on the outside (but not greasy) and had an incredible creamy, cheesy soft center, with tangy, salty, spicy aioli on top. Did I mention that these were SALTY?? But oh my god they were so good. My wife couldn't eat these because the crust was breaded and thus had gluten, so I was on my own, and I think they were my downfall. I only ate one, but that was more than enough!

The octopus was amazing - tender, meaty, perfectly spiced. The shaved celery added an interesting dimension, I actually thought it was fennel. Octopus is like the kobe beef of seafood.

It's pretty hard to screw up the pairing of fresh figs and salty cured meat, and thus the figs and chorizo were total winners as well.

The fried almonds were yummy, not too salty and perfectly spicy. Perhaps a touch on the oily side, but still damn delicious.

The chicken skewers, while still quite tasty, were maybe my least favorite dish. They were basically doused in Indian/African spices and roasted. Very good, but not as good as the octopus or that devilish croquette.

It had been so long since I'd had food this mouth wateringly good, I definitely ate too much. I couldn't stop munching on the almonds. After we finished eating, I sat back and thought "well, I feel like I ate too much, but apart from that, I feel fine". UNTIL...about 1/2 hour later, after my wife had left to get some work done and I had put the kid to bed...when I was sticken with the worst gas pains I've ever had in my life! They were so bad I literally passed out for a second and ended up on the bathroom floor, somehow managing to split my bottom lip in the process! Fun and exciting! It was seriously the weirdest thing. My wife is convinced that it was actually a gall bladder attack. I have no idea, but after it passed, I felt OK for the rest of the evening (apart from my lip, that is!).

However, it's DEFNITELY not a scenario I wish to reproduce, so I shall be taking it VERY easy on the fried-salty-cheesy-hammy items from now on!