a special shrimp cocktail

East of us in the mountains is a village known as Idyllwild. It is a marvelous mountain community with a variety of shops and restaurants. One of those restaurants was Cafe Aroma. They closed recently. They were heading in the direction of selling or closing, but a devastating fire on the hill spared Idyllwild (thanks to those magnificent firefighters) but hastened a decision that was coming anyway.

Terry and I had lunch there with my brother, his family, and my dad a number of years ago – well before we moved down here in 2015. They had a marvelous shrimp cocktail with layers of cocktail sauce, horseradish and pesto.

Terry replicated that recipe a number of times, both up in Gilroy and down here. Eventually she made sections rather than layers, allowing us to more easily scoop all three flavor sets onto a single piece of shrimp.

Terry made the dish for us recently in conscious homage to Cafe Aroma.

We only ate there once, but we mourn its loss nonetheless.