Birthday and Food

As much as I would have liked to overlook the coming and going of my 30th birthday, Evan did such an awesome job planning a great weekend, I must take a break from kid-land and include it here.  We had so many things going on at the end of the summer, but Evan and I decided to get away for the night and celebrate my birthday in Chicago, and it was awesome!  We drove up on Saturday morning (sans Barney Sing-A-Long, a welcome treat) and headed to Wrigleyville.  We ate lunch and headed into Wrigley Field.  The weather was perfect, up through the 7th inning, when it started pouring, and we decided to make our exit.  We did a little shopping and then got ready for our evening...which is where the "Food" portion of this blog comes into play.

Evan and I don't get the opportunity to watch much tv these days, and when we do, we have found that we both really enjoy watching the Food Network.  I have no idea when this started, but we have a couple of shows that we love, including Chopped, The Next Food Network Star, and Iron Chef.  We have learned so much about herbs, spices, techniques, flavors, etc. and we are starting to semi-become "foodies" if you will.  Naturally, for someone who loves to eat, this fits into my life very nicely.  I have a desire to be a better cook, and Evan and I love talking about different meals, so we have found a wonderful way to hang out with each other! 

Since Rochester's culinary offerings rank slightly lower than that of Chicago, we sought the help of a few friends to point us in the right direction for a wonderful meal, and we hit a home run!  More on our dinner below, but after dinner, we ended our evening with the comedic entertainment of Colin Quinn, of SNL fame.  He performed an hour long show and we laughed so hard!  It was an awesome weekend and I'm so thankful to Evan for treating me to a great and memorable 30th birthday!

Our seats were unbelievable - second row, right behind 1st base.  This was literally our view, with no zoom or anything!

Look how nice it was the whole day!  Can you believe an absolute downpour occurred about an hour after this picture was taken?!

Ok, now - for dinner.  Wow.  I have been so excited to blog about this.  At the recommendation from few Chicago gals I work with, we decided to go to Graham Eliot, a restaurant that has only been around for about 3 years.  This place offered a small traditional menu, but was known for it's tasting menu.  Restaurants like this exist all over, but for those of you not familiar, tasting menu offers a set menu on small, medium, or large scale.  We decided to each order the medium size tasting menu (10 items from appetizer to dessert) that provide smaller "bite size" food.  Don't be fooled, however, by the term "bite sized".  Some portions were completed in one bite, others were like a mini-meal.  We had no idea what we were in for.  They also have the option to do wine pairings where they bring 2oz of the wine they would pair with each dish.  Utilizing my fabulous math skills, I quickly calculated that was close to a bottle of wine per person, and since I'm averaging about 1 glass of wine every 3 months, I chose to forgo that option.  However, my dining partner, never turning down a good experience AND good wine, eagerly accepted. 

I won't bore everyone here with all details of each dish (because you know I really want to - have I mentioned I love sharing?), but I did want to provide a listing of some of the awesome things we got to eat.  Without further adieu....here we go....

- Snack: popcorn with truffle butter, black pepper, and parmesan fluff
- A watermelon, mint leaf, and jalepeno oil consomme (yes, we knew what a consomme was from FN!)
- Steak Tartare (wagyu) with asparagus salad, pommes frites and a bearnaise yolk
- Caesar with gem lettuce, brioche twinkie (unbelievably good) and white anchovy (not my fave)
- Corn chowder with spiny lobster, toasted coquito and vanilla marshmallow
- Sweetbread ($10 to anyone who knows what this is - no googling!) with pickled turnip and chanterelle ragout
- Canape (palate cleanser to prepare us for seafood portion) jamon iberico, toasted hazelnut, and riesling jelly
- Salmon with blis roe, garlic scape and shaved fennel
- Halibut with leek brandade, house bacon, and haricot vert (Hands down the best thing I've ever eaten)
- Chicken with dirty rice, country pate (I almost spit it out) and fried okra
- Bison with baked bean, texas onion and pepper salsa
- Intermezzo to prepare us for dessert - it was a shot of grape juice, purple essence, and soda spritzer
- Strawberry with coriander arlette, fromage blanc, and basil emulsion
- Chocolate with root beer, port cherry, and birch caramel.

Ok, so I lied, I did basically bore everyone with the details of every dish, but I couldn't resist.  It was SOO much fun and so delicious.  Also, of note, this meal took us almost 3 hours to eat and that was with us rushing them along at the end.  You might be curious how I am able to provide such wonderful details.  While I do pride myself on my steel-trap memory, the restaurant provided us with personalized menu cards when we left, of which mine said "Happy 30th Birthday"!  We also received champagne with our popcorn to celebrate the big day.  And here is one last picture to cap off the world's longest blog...

My last dessert.  How awesome is this?!