My Valentine
James made me the coolest Valentine's e-book ever. Click at the bottom corner of the book and drag to turn the page. He's so adorable! The part where I say "What a coordinated fellow!" is a bit embellished, because I don't generally react that way when I see James walking and reading at the same time.
We also went out for a fabulous meal at Underground Inc. The way it works is that reservations are made on the website and you don't find out the location until the day before. Ours was a 7 course meal with a wine pairing for each, made with local ingredients. The strawberry soup had fruit caviar in it. It lasted 4 hours and was such a unique and fun experience, sitting at a long table with 20-odd strangers. I would love to do it again, but I think we'll have to wait for another special occasion, as it was a bit pricey. I would love to be able to justify spending that much on dinner more often, but I can't think of a good way to do so.
Here's what was on our menu (with a wine with each course):
Oysters three ways
Topped with sage and white chocolate crème fraiche
Topped with champagne-leek mousse and osetra caviar
Topped with avocado, apple, and ginger relish
Soup
Roasted butternut squash and saffron bisque finished with rosemary
crème fraiche
Salad
Warm arugala tossed in sweet potato vinaigrette finished with goat
cheese snow and toasted pine nuts
Langoustine
Curry crusted served on a salad of roasted red bell pepper and galangal
tossed in vanilla and white truffle oil
Intermezzo
Ginger lemon sorbet
Lamb
Almond and black mustard crusted rack of lamb served with grilled
asparagus and a pomegranate lamb demi-glace
Dessert 3 ways
Ravioli of pineapple filled with mint mascarpone
Brulee of black mission fig served with Cabrales blue cheese ice cream
and aguave nectar
Chilled strawberry soup topped with orange blossom foam
Aztec hot chocolate
Spiced hot chocolate with almond biscotti
We also went out for a fabulous meal at Underground Inc. The way it works is that reservations are made on the website and you don't find out the location until the day before. Ours was a 7 course meal with a wine pairing for each, made with local ingredients. The strawberry soup had fruit caviar in it. It lasted 4 hours and was such a unique and fun experience, sitting at a long table with 20-odd strangers. I would love to do it again, but I think we'll have to wait for another special occasion, as it was a bit pricey. I would love to be able to justify spending that much on dinner more often, but I can't think of a good way to do so.
Here's what was on our menu (with a wine with each course):
Oysters three ways
Topped with sage and white chocolate crème fraiche
Topped with champagne-leek mousse and osetra caviar
Topped with avocado, apple, and ginger relish
Soup
Roasted butternut squash and saffron bisque finished with rosemary
crème fraiche
Salad
Warm arugala tossed in sweet potato vinaigrette finished with goat
cheese snow and toasted pine nuts
Langoustine
Curry crusted served on a salad of roasted red bell pepper and galangal
tossed in vanilla and white truffle oil
Intermezzo
Ginger lemon sorbet
Lamb
Almond and black mustard crusted rack of lamb served with grilled
asparagus and a pomegranate lamb demi-glace
Dessert 3 ways
Ravioli of pineapple filled with mint mascarpone
Brulee of black mission fig served with Cabrales blue cheese ice cream
and aguave nectar
Chilled strawberry soup topped with orange blossom foam
Aztec hot chocolate
Spiced hot chocolate with almond biscotti