Remember the holidays? They seem like such a long time ago. We’ve even seen Valentine’s Day come and go. Times flies when you’re having fun, etc.

But one meal we enjoyed in December still sticks in my mind. We enjoyed it right after we returned from our Carmel and San Francisco getaway/food-and-wine fest/decadent dalliance.

Since we overindulged so much during those glorious nine days, the moment we returned to Seattle I knew it was time to get back to my usual, more sensible diet.

As often happens when we return from and an eat-and-drink fest, I craved The Pike Pub’s Spinach Salad with an Oven-Roasted Wild Salmon Fillet. It’s a healthy combination of the freshest baby spinach leaves, a perfectly cooked piece of wild salmon (medium-rare in the middle), slivered almonds, a sprinkling of real Parmigiano-Reggiano, and hard-boiled eggs.

It’s usually tossed with low-cal Honey-Mustard Dressing. Good girl that I was and am, I always ask for my dressing on the side so I can drizzle, dip, and dab to my heart’s content.

It’s served with a freshly baked Spent-Grain Roll, which, by meal’s end, helped me scrape up every last piece of spinach and salmon from my plate.

My better half ordered his favorite, the Pub’s perfectly battered and air-fried Halibut and Chips. As good as I was trying to be diet-wise that day, I really love it when he orders this dish cuz I can steal a good, browned corner of one of the fish fillets and a few fries, and thereby get my crunch and potato fix for the week.

During our meal, we enjoyed catching up with the Pike Pub’s effusive founders and owners–Rose Ann and Charles Finkel–one of the most fun couples we know.

We realized that, as much as we love California, it felt great to be home. . .

Which more than qualifies The Pike Pub’s Spinach Salmon Salad and Halibut and Chips as our Dishes of the Day.