Birthday Dinner

Birthday week has begun. Dinner last night at the #1 restaurant in SF - Gary Danko's - was fantastic. An evening to remember. Here is the web site:  http://www.garydanko.com/  If you are ever going to be in the SF, make your reservations early and enjoy this lovely, special place.
 

The drama began when Michael left work early but couldn't get home. There had been an accident on the pass and he sat and sat and sat in traffic as the time was clicking away on the clock. We were deciding whether I should pack up his clothing and shaving equipment, meet at his friend Ricky's house on the other side, leave a car there then rush to the city. As we were talking, the traffic suddenly began to move. It took over an hour for him to arrive home. By that time, I had his clothes laid out, lights on, the 840 BMW ready so when he hit the door, it took only a few minutes before he was clean, dressed and in the car heading north. At that moment, we took a deep breath and tried to relax.

Blini with Caviar

Soup

But the drama continued as we fought rush hour traffic. We plotted a course through the Mission, down to Market Street, up Van Ness to North Point near the bay. (The drive home was marvelous and very fast without any traffic.) We arrived an hour early. Perfect. Michael thought he would sit at the bar...turns out they now serve dinner to people at the bar. Suddenly, a chair by the door was empty so I sat while Michael stood next to me. I had a cocktail. It was a rare event. Holy cow, it was strong or it could be that I am not used to any alcohol so it really hit me! A Cosmo. A nice safe drink. WOW! It also matched my dress...We chatted with the hostess while we waited. She was from the town just north of us where we lived when we first married. She was a Virgo like Michael and her mother's birthday was also the same as mine. A Scorpio. She and Michael bonded over that!

Sweetbreads

Crab salad

We were seated 20-minutes early. The first taste was a soup with truffle oil. I tiny bit of soup but a nice way to begin. It was followed by a small buckwheat blini with creme fraiche, salmon and caviar. Delightful.

Michael ordered veal sweetbreads with chanterelle mushrooms and fava beans for his appetizer while I went with the Dungeness crab salad with melons, cucumbers, eggplant and Thai Mango dressing.

Bison

Thai Seafood

For dinner, I had the coconut Thai curry with shrimp, calamari, lobster, scallops, scallions and shitake mushrooms while he had roast loin of bison with king trumpet mushrooms, cipollini onions and herb spatzle.

Cheese

Chocolate parfait

Lemon Mousse

Then, we were offered a selection of cheeses from all over the world. We chose four which Michael had with a Madeira wine.

That was followed by dessert! We shared a chocolate praline parfait with bourbon sauce and salted carmel ice cream.

Then came my birthday surprise: A light lemon mousse. Yikes! Along with the mousse came a platter of small chocolates and cookies. We threw in the towel and just couldn't eat anymore. Oh, did I mention that they sent home a breakfast pumpkin coffee cake? It was a spectacular dinner.

Goodies!