Repeats with a Twist...El Palomino, Stillwater, OK

The night before my parents left I was getting suite tickets ready to ship out the next day.  The previous night I had been at work until almost midnight, but I really didn't want to do that again, especially since I still needed to pack for my trip to Chicago.  So my parents came to the office about 6 to help me package everything. We had a great assembly line going, and finished in less than 3 hours.  We decided to grab some dinner at El Palomino.  We had tried to go there on Sunday, but didn't realize that it closed early.

The hardest part with Palomino--and really any Mexican place--is the chips.  They're so addictive, and they appear at the table within seconds of sitting down.  Palomino has this awesome hot salsa, but they must have put in double the peppers because it was scorching.  Our server then brought us a couple others to try.  I can't remember what the first one was...it was okay, but not really my thing.  The other was a green tomatillo salsa that's served warm, and was absolutely fabulous.  My mom was really good and hardly ate any of the chips.  My dad and I tore through the rest of the basket.

I don't normally eat seafood at a Mexican restaurant, but it was late so I figured why not.  So I went with the salmon veracruz

Grilled Salmon topped with Shrimp and Crab Meat in a White Wine and Cilantro Garlic Butter Sauce, served with grilled Vegetables and Palomino Red Rice.

Wow, it was really delicious!  It was a huge piece of salmon, much more than I expected.  The crab meat wasn't very good, but I had pretty much prepared myself for that.  Next time I would just skip the crab.  Usually with a dish like this the shrimp would be small, but they were very big.  The butter sauce was very good, and not overpowering or heavy.  The grilled zucchini was tender-crisp awesome.  The rice was good and had a very interesting flavor.  I can't find the ingredients anywhere, but it reminded me kind of like a casserole, with rice, red beans, corn, and some other stuff. 

I wish I hadn't eaten so many chips, because I could barely finish my meal.  I had to take a couple of breaks to be able to eat all the salmon and shrimp.  I tried, but eventually had to give up on the zucchini and rice.  Note to self...next time I'm ordering this dish, don't eat so many chips!