On Saturday evening, I attended a scotch pairing dinner. No, this was not a dating service for people who are from Scotland, which could also been entertaining, but instead, was an opportunity to try some serious Scotch with some serious food at a very fancy pants seafood restaurant. I am not a scotch or whiskey drinker. I prefer bourbon, but I figured, why not give it a whirl? I had been wanting to visit the Seastar restaurant for ages. 5 courses with 5 scotch pairings for $99 all inclusive? Nice.

First course was salmon poke with taro chips:



Second course: Dungeness Crab Chowder (I got two helpings of this thanks to somebody at my table being allergic to shellfish. Nice.)



Next was ahi tuna in a very elaborate plating:



And then, as if we had not had enough already, came a enormous pork chop. It was the size of my bread plate.



Now, at this point, if you are keeping score, 4 shots of scotch or, "blaaaeeeehhh" has been served. In case you are not familiar with this alternative name for scotch, it is based on the noise you make after swallowing some scotch. The scotch "ambassador" taught us the best way to drink scotch, possibly after hearing this alternate name a little too much by the 4th course. Apparently you need to let the scotch sit on your tongue for 8 seconds before swallowing. This, supposedly kills the burn and allows you to really taste the scotch, not just the alcohol. This didn't work for me, but I kept trying, which is more than I can say about other people at my table who looked like they were setting up to play "beirut" with scotch, instead of beer:



The final course was butterscotch (yes, this did make me laugh) panna cotta. Which had its own pairing, and was followed by a tasting of 25 year old scotch. I was shocked to learn that one tasting would cost $50 at a bar. I think that was the most expensive bit of alcohol I've ever had. Personally, I liked the younger ones better.