January 30-31, 2021 - Birthday Feasts

It's my birthday right now, but I already did most of my celebrating yesterday. Starting with this Sister Breakfast with Claire

We went to Ceremony because it was too cold to go anywhere else. I got a candy cane forest (peppermint mocha), Claire got a regular latte, and we shared a lemon curd danish and a kouign amann. The kouign amann was so good. The person working described it as a croissant in muffin form, with marzipan inside. Everything was so good, actually. I liked my cutie drink.

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For pre-birthday dinner yesterday, Janty took me to a surprise location. It turned out it was the Charleston, which, even if he had told me the name, I had never heard of it because it is sooo fancy. They gave us a menu and then you could pick as many dishes as you wanted up to 6 courses. They gave advice about like "do soup, then salad, then pasta..." and we mostly followed it but we skipped salad because we thought we'd be too full and good thing because I was too full even without it! We got 5 courses with wine pairings, plus dessert. Also, this wasn't counted towards the courses, but we were delivered little shot glasses of parsnip soup and a mascarpone pastry thing when we first arrived. And we both ordered cocktails. I got a raz-putin martini and Janty got St. Cloud. I don't know what was in either one but you could look up the menu if you are curious. Mine was raspberry etc. and very delicious.

Course 1 (after parsnip soup shot): Rockfish Tartare

Looks like science, right? The little bubbles on the outside are red onion...? Tasted really good and I liked that it felt like we were on a space cruise.

Course 2: Rich Lobster Soup with Curry

They weren't kidding this really was rich. Tasty, though. And felt appropriate to eat lobster in such a fancy setting.

Course 3: Sweet Jesus Oysters

We, big dodos, thought the oyster course would be like a little break where we could recover and not feel so full. We were wrong, though. At this point I was already like "uh oh" very full. My oysters were like little butter bombs. So yummy but so so so rich. I only ate 2 and gave the other 2 to Janty. I would've given him 3 if he would've taken it but he said no. His oysters were good, too. I don't remember what they were called but they were breaded.

Course 4: Grilled Octopus

I know octopi are so smart and we should not eat them but I hardly ever do! This was delicious. Served on a bed of arugula and idk something that maybe was pine nuts? This might've been my top favorite course.

Course 5: Grilled Squab

I learned just last week that squab is pigeon and it is considered primo very good meat. I learned that watching Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef, a show I love. This was really good, and served with like chestnut mash? I took a pic of the menu to help me with this post but the font is pretty small and the picture is dark so sorry but if you're interested, you can either just go to the Charleston's website or I can send you my pic if you want. The waiter said to pick this up to finish eating it because it's too hard to get it off with a fork, and I'm glad she told me that because I was really having a hard time. Very delicious and flavorful. Janty got the lamb and I think his was even better, but I'm happy I know what squab tastes like now.

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse Cake

I was hoping they would have chocolate mousse, and I was not disappointed! This was delish. With like, dehydrated raspberry dust on top I think? They also gave us little baby bon bons and espresso mini macarons. And we had coffee. I love having a little coffee with dessert at a restaurant. What a fun night. We will probably not do this again for a million years because it was very expensive, but it was fun while it lasted.

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Actual Birthday Dinner: Broccoli and Mini Dumplings

I'm having a very low-key birthday. Janty worked late and is at improv now so I finished my book and made myself an easy dinner. Delish and minimal dishes. I wanted to use my steamer basket but I haven't used it since I moved in with Janty and got rid of my old pot, and it didn't really fit nicely in our new pots so I rigged up this little situation:

Maybe 27 will be my Year of Innovation.

Now I'm pretty full but I might have a little bowl of berries and cream after I take a shower.

*editor's note: this post originally said dinner was served with turnip soup. It has been corrected to reflect that it was, in fact, parsnip soup.