I had the best birthday of my life this year! My husband went out of his way to make it special. He spent the entire weekend cooking different seafood dishes he had never cooked before. It was a lot of fun watching him learn how to cook my favorite seafood for the first time!

We started my birthday morning at a local Filipino seafood market in National City. It was my first time there, so I thoroughly explored their vast collection of fresh and live seafood. There were copious amounts of fish. Everything from blue fin tuna to parrot fish were represented. They had razor clams and even a grab-and-go live shrimp tank! We left with lobsters, octopus, squid, baby squids, and shrimp, as well as some fresh veggies and new-to-us spices. Unfortunately, we searched everywhere trying to find freshwater eel, but we could not locate it. We found it at a San Diego harbor fish market last week. Guess who is making me sushi again this weekend!

Back at home, Ty spread out the delicious feast over the weekend. Saturday’s lunch included lobster tacos with fresh fried calamari. For dinner, we had shrimp and baby calamari skewers with sweet potato fries. Sunday’s lunch was chargrilled octopus with baby gold potatoes and grapes. Dinner was sushi with eel sauce. We could not find anyone selling eel sauce, but our local Sprouts was kind enough to give us a few ounces of theirs. They use it for their fresh sushi rolls, but they do not sell it. Interesting. Ty found some later at a Chinese seafood market in Clairemont, a few days after my birthday. It will be perfect with the eel sushi he is making this weekend!

This birthday was so special to me because I got to watch Ty cook my favorite fresh seafood as well as be a part of the fun adventure my husband went through to make it all happen for me! It is a beautiful love story. I watched him get frustrated with cleaning the big squid, but he researched how to overcome the issue he was having and he figured it out. It was delicious! He delivered four outstanding meals that were truly delicious and above and beyond. I appreciate my husband so much for the beautiful cooking journey he undertook to make my birthday weekend so very special!