Monday, October 12, 2009

Foodie is the new...

Well, if my blog title is right, I am officially a foodie as of today.

As one might expect, my birthday certainly saw its share of eating. I have a birthday twin at work, Linda, and she and I chose Yanagi (which is near our office) for our joint birthday meal. (My [previously-written] Yelp review of Yanagi is here). They did not disappoint; fresh sushi and friendly service for a boisterous group of eleven, all at very reasonable prices.


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Sushi combo lunch special with crunchy roll - $14.95 for all this, plus miso soup!

They heard it was our birthdays, so they gave us each a lovely mochi dessert, too. Despite the fact that we had cake waiting at the office, we couldn't possibly turn this down (although we did share). It was wonderful - I never thought to drizzle honey on my mochi, but it added a nice depth to the flavor, particularly on the mango version (there was also a green tea version, which I didn't photograph).

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Did I mention that we had cake waiting at the office? Oops.

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I had to run an errand after work and got a couple of birthday phone calls, so didn't get around to dinner until nearly 9:00. I was starting to get tired and a little chilly from our gray, cooler weather, and developed a craving for Thai food - specifically, good pad thai, the way I make it. Unfortunately, I was too tired to make it myself, and Austin has a sad dearth of good pad thai, so I made do with the pad thai at Titaya's. It was WAY too saucy, but at least satisfied my spicy noodle craving. I think I may downgrade my Titaya's review to three stars, though; the last couple of times I've been there, I haven't been all that enthusiastic about my food.

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Saucy...not in the good way.

I did, however, enjoy my banana roll dessert (mangoes with sticky rice are out of season, now. Boo.).

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Apparently, it was unauthentic-Thai-food day.

Lest you think I'm going to end my birthday blog on such an uninspired note, I also must share the unbelievably decadent gift that my dear friend Peter (one of the few people I know whose passion for food may very well exceed my own) sent me last Friday in honor of my 40th. A gigantic basket from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, overflowing with duck leg confit, smoked magret duck breasts, a HUGE raw duck breast, Italian fig syrup, petit toasts, and, the crowning glory, a massive tub of foie gras mousse. I squealed aloud when I opened this.

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If it tastes like a duck...

Despite a fully booked food weekend, I at least managed to break out one of those smoked duck breasts for lunch on Sunday. Just LOOK at this gorgeousness.

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If you can distract yourself from this stunning breast for a moment, you'll notice that I also got a new light box as an early birthday gift. Yay!

I piled the breast slices on a toasted ciabatta roll, added some lovely melted comté, arugula, and a spread I made by mixing mayo with some cherry jam my friend Mia had recently brought me from The Cherry Hut in Beulah, Michigan. Absolutely fantastic.

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It's an embarassment of riches around here. Really. Thank you all for a delicious forty years.

5 comments:

  1. You deserve every single bite!! Enjoy your birthday week. I just hope you're hungry when we get there Friday :)

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  2. Is there going to be a blog about how you stay so skinny after eating all this amazing food? Wait. Now that I think about it, skip it. It wouldn't be near as fun as this.

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  3. Happy Birthday! I think I was out of the country for it, but one can never have too many good wishes, whenever they come!

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  4. Hey - I saw my name! : ) Glad the cherry jam came in handy!

    And happy birthday!

    Mia

    ReplyDelete

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