We went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Halloween
evening. Starting with supper at Jumpin' Jay's Fish Cafe, We started
the meal with baked oysters (with creamy romesco, sautéed savor
spinach & garlic bread crumbs), which was very good, though possibly
not quite worth the $4.33/each price. I had monkfish with walnut sage stuffing,
roasted chestnut mushrooms, potato creme and arugula. It was all very good,
though the dining room is quite dark and I can't swear that there was any
fish in the dish. Others in our party had haddock piccata or Yellowfin
tuna.
Jumpin' Jay's was so dark that my pictures from this restaurant
are not worth sharing.
Throughout the dinner, I enjoyed watching large numbers
of people passing the restaurant on their way downtown. After our meal,
we joined the throng and after a little searching found a spot with a pretty
good view of the coming 24th annual Portsmouth Halloween Parade.
It is an all walking parade, largely without formal entries,
with much of the parade a mass of people filing through the packed downtown
streets. It was a fun event, though it took less than 15 minutes for the
walkers to pass us. My favorite parts were a giant spider and a large group
of zombies dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." There were also many
nice costumes worn by some of the 8,000 to 10,000 parade watchers.
Grand Marshall - local musician Tim McCoy
Dancing to "Thriller"
