Fishes from the Sea, Cheeses from the Goat

From a boy fed on chicken wings and pizza growing up in Buffalo, a man who "did not really care for fish", our Adams has turned into a raging fish-o-philic madman. First scallops, salt cod, and now whole fish fillets and wings. His menu this week:

- Pan Fried Skate Wing Fingers, with Lemon Aioli

- Tomato, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

- Salmon Roulade (crab meat stuffing) with Dill-Mustard Sauce

We actually started with the goat cheese tart, which was, ahem...tart, sweet with baked red onion and lusciously juicy with baby tomatoes. Even the pastry was good, although I believe our boy had enlisted the help of a certain Mr Pillsbury. It was a great starter, perhaps too great - I was virtually full by the time the last forkful went in. Thank God the next course was a personal favourite, and I don't mean Martini Pie.

Skate is absolutely the sweetest flesh in the ocean. Those long strips of silky sweet flesh bound and harnessed by thin spindles of cartilage have me in raptute every time. And to Adam's credit, he made an excellent lemon aioli to dredge the strips in. Personally, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to tasting the fish, but I couldn't resist a couple of cheeky dunks. We washed this down with a lovely Chardonnay, and then cracked the red open for a rest before the big push.

Our nemesis came in the form of a steroid-enhanced piece of salmon. It was the biggest fillet I have ever seen, no shit. A salmon 'duvet' would have been smaller. Into this, he placed about 3 lbs of crab meat each. And then attempted to roll it. After a few attempts, he gave up. I think physics prevented it's shaping. When I heard roulade, I thought of dainty parcels of pink salmon encapsulating a smidgen of sweet crab meat. What we got was a tombstone of salmon smothered in the entire crabmeat quota for Alaska. It was baked anyway, with some delicious balsamic onions on the side. Just looking at the mountain of pink on my plate, I felt done for. I did have to take it home to finish - on a stretcher I might add.