my awesome birthday week!

let's face it. people who have birthdays around
christmas/channukah time always feel that they
sort of get the shaft. I, on the other hand,
feel that it dramatically enhances the celebrations,
not to mention the gifts! As a kid, I'd always get a
combined gift, that would turn an ordinary channukah
present (bouncy balls, bath and body works lotions, or a new pair of shoes)
into something entirely more wonderful (I can recall a ukelele,
a new keyboard, I even think that back in the day
I might've gotten those Reebok double-tongue
shoes during the last week in December...). Okay. So *this* year (25)
it just so happened that just as many people were
coming into town as were out of town, so all week
gave me the opportunities to have dinner here,
a hannukah party there, it couldn't have been lovlier.
As we all know how much I love an excuse to eat.

Saturday nght we went out to my favorite restaurant (Nook)
and then Borat with friends. Sunday P was in town from
Israel so we all went to sushi and then ice skating in
Pershing Square (props to me for finding out about the outdoor rink).
Nevermind that after 20 minutes we were cold and our ankles hurt
so we went home and made hot chocolate. And never mind that
Aaron maintains that one should use milk chocolate when making cocoa. Inane.

Monday night some friends from my teaching job and I
all went out for Ethiopian and then to Pinkberry.
Can it get any better?! You'd think not, and then it does!

Tuesday nght it was off to Candace and Diana's
for a lovely Hannukah party, complete with homemade
latkes (try creme fresh along with your sour cream, it's the bomb) AND
homemade Morrocan doughnuts (oh the wonders of a deep
fryer...those ladies have THE coolest kitchen gadgets).

Wednesday night (last night) we went to Patina. Oh. My. God.
I know I always eat good food and sa it was the best meal
I ever had. So I won't do that here. But what I
WILL do is say that out of the fantastic five course
tasting menu, one dish stood out as possibly the
best single dish I have ever eaten. EVER...
what, you ask, could possibly make me say that?
Well it was listed on the menu as:
"Uovo in raviolo with shaved alba white truffles
filled with quail egg yolk, buffala ricotta-fine herb
parmagiano and buerre noisete".
Okay, the genious? ...was that the outside
was this thin membrane of a noodle with gorgeously-crispy
fried cheese and browned butter, and when you cut
into it was more cheese. In the middle was a totally
and completely runny (not at all cooked) quail egg yolk.
I know! How could it be fried in the outside and have the yolk
so beautifully runny? I was in awe. Never mind that.
I didn't even think about it until after I'd finished it,
I was too taken with the truffles and the yum. Real,
serious, yum. Plus, I'd never had real live white
truffles that hadn't merely been infused into olive oil.

Tonight was awesome Greek family night. Awesome
and raucus and belly dancing, lamb chops, wine-tasting fun.
And today during the day it was everthing I wanted to do!
Lunch at Fisherman's Outlet downtown, consisting of the best,
freshest frigging sea bass I've ever eaten (along with Mariscos
Mazatlan in Cabo San Lucas).
We went to Little Tokyo and went to the Japanese
supermarket, where I found fresh yuzu (!!!!) and many weird flavors of Pocky I've never tried . We perused two great import shops for coffee
tables (no luck, but great stuff I salivated at).

So, all in all it was a great week. Yes. Happy birthday to me.