To Market, to Market, to buy a fine pig

For our second restaurant week dinner, Thatboy and I decided to stay closer to home. San Diego gets a bad rap for restaurants, and North County bears the brunt of most of this untruth. While I can definitely say I've eaten at my fair share of terrible North County "hot spots," I can also attest to the fact that there are more than a few gems.

I've been dying to go to Market for a very long time. Since it's so close, we pass it on a fairly regular basis, and each time, I point to it and say "I want to eat there." Thatboy knows this routine by heart.

So as soon as restaurant week was announced, I made us reservations.

The inside of Market is dark, draped in heavy red curtains, with beaded light fixtures, making us feel like we were eating inside a gypsy's tent. When we first sat down, the curtains and doors were open, because the woman at the table next to us was claustrophobic and the heavy draping was bothering her.

Shortly after we were seated, a basket of bread and corn muffins was brought over. The bread was perfectly sweet, which Thatboy loves, and I could swear the sweetness had a tinge of anise to it.

Then came the amuse bouche - salmon with capers and creme on a homemade lemon soaked potato chip. There are definitely some perks to dining with me, which Thatboy appreciated since he got to eat both of them.

We both had a really hard time choosing an appetizer, since they all looked amazingly good. Thatboy began with a sweet corn soup with a carnitas taco. We discussed the fact that neither of us usually likes hard tacos, but this one was fantastic. The shell seemed to melt right into the meat - not too oily, not too dry.

I had the blue cheese souffle with a fugi apple salad. I loved going back and forth between the rich, cheesy souffle and the fresh and light salad. Crisp-tender-sweet-tangy. Thatboy isn't always a fan of blue cheeses, they're sometimes too flavorful for him, but he really liked this souffle - although between the two of us, we still couldn't finish it. And this would be a good time to point out the HUGE portion sizes we were given, which isn't always the case with restaurant week menus.

As is indicated by the title of this post, I had pork for dinner. Well, to be more exact I had pork weinerschnitzel. I knew I was going to have it as soon as I saw it was an option. I haven't had a fantastic schnitzel since Austria. This was as far from traditional Austrian fare as you could get. And phenomenal in its own right. Served with heirloom tomatoes, and an "up" egg. Which Thatboy figured out probably meant sunny side up. I thought it meant served in a martini glass, with no ice.

Thatboy had the salmon with lobster tortellini. He thought both the lobster and tortellini were fabulous, but after our bread, appetizers, and his potato chips neither of us could finish our meals. Plus, there was dessert to think about.

Thatboy had the lemon pudding cake - remember when he told me he didn't like lemon desserts? Yeah, he forgot too. He forgets that a lot. He thought it was really sweet - and did a little sugar shake after eating it. And then didn't sleep for 14 days.

I had the strawberry cheesecake creamsicle - which was strawberry sorbet atop cheesecake ice cream. It reminds me of Thatmom and my favorite summer dessert - raspberry sorbet with vanilla ice cream. Mine also came with a "cardamon" doughnut, which was delicious, but didn't taste cardmon-y at all. Instead, it tasted like a churro. Yummy, fried dough goodness.

I was so glad we finally got to try Market, and that it lived up to all my expectations. Thatboy also appreciated the fact that we were "home again, home again, jiggidy jig", which means we'll be going "to market, to market" again.