Birthday celebration

So we went to Oriole (as you do) to celebrate Phil's birthday - his actual birthday is a day later than we celebrated because of a scheduling conflict LOL... but we still got it in.

we met up with friends Lee & Nick and Todd & Evelyn at the restaurant - the food was fabulous and for the wines we had an excellent 2014 Chassagne Montrachet La Romanee from Vincent Dancer and a 1996 Corton Renardes from Delarche and a 1989? Château d'Yquem with dessert (those were the best in my opinion) the 2002 St Innocent Freedom Hill showed very well and a magnum of J. Richard champagne did too- although it deteriorated over time (it was from the mid 1990s) and a Chablis that was just OK - I would have called it flawed - bottle variation but not corked- somehow just some funky thing going on... who knows?????

anyway let's start the celebration-

the menu begins-

the night before we had Chinese at a nearby favorite - as opposed to the ones further away LOL

kung pao beef, salt & pepper scallop, dry chili chicken, scallion pancake, combo fried rice and house special hot & sour soup- what's not to like on a chilly fall evening?

as always more to come with Kiki's and Oceanique and Bien me Sabe on the horizon --- along with packing and prepping for heading south- stay tuned....

not Kansas City

but everything will be up to date as of this post-

our Saturday night at George Trois and Sunday night at the home of friends followed on the heels of our Friday night Marbella dinner...

I am going to start with the latest meal first- we went to Kevin and Shari's last night and met John & Stephanie there-

We all were brought things from the book Samarkand written by Caroline Eden, the woman I traveled with in Uzbekistan last year... the bulk of the work was done by Kevin with the appetizer of samsas from me and the dessert from John & Stephanie...

Here is what we had- the samsa

a carrot Koryosam salad

suzma (a fermented cheese) with dill

Shari's challah bread (not in the book but an excellent fit!)

a tomato and cucumber salad with a seasoned flat bread

rice pilaf and beef and chickpea stew (which had a more complex name in the book) which was fabulous!

a special omelet from the Bukharan Mountain Jews-

Pomegranate and vodka sorbet

and the amazing Ruins of a Russian Count's Castle for dessert!

a wonderful send off to our months in the south with excellent people who also double as great chefs!

the night before we had another fabulous meal at George Trois -

here is the menu and the photos follow along course by course---

a terrific meal of very high end ingredients and opulent preparations!

and the night before that was at Cafe Marbella- where we have been many times and love the food- not  too many photos form that meal (falling down on the job I guess LOL)

bacon avocado salad - the the shrimp ala p[lancha and then the albondigas- we had a couple of other things too that never made it to photos- the grilled octopus and fried calamari and ??? this is why we take photos! LOL

so now we are up to today and can move along to tonight's meal and a few more for this week - which include Phil's birthday dinner at Oriole with Lee & Nick and Todd & Evelyn and also the 30th anniversary of my former employing company OMSNIC... (and yes that would be me in the list of "honored guests" LOL- I have gotten THAT OLD!!!!!) I do take some consolation in being both the only female and the only non DDS/DMD/MD

and we are lucky to be welcoming Duke & Cathie (friends of more than twenty-five years) for the weekend... so we have Kiki's and Oceanique planned when they are visiting- as always - we won't go hungry LOL