food makes the world go round
last week was E's birthday and every birthday deserves cake. just by looking at it, you can already tell, it's really good chocolate cake. "it's so pretty" -- that's what he said. :p
we went to his best friend's wedding first. San Agustin is breathtaking.
and then we went home just before midnight, and i made him try a tiny slice. he loved it so much he even closed his eyes. i'm not kidding. he loves food that much. :) i normally do not like sans rival but this one is made of almonds and valrhona chocolate, it's top one on my list of unforgettable cakes.
took him to Yabu for his birthday dinner, were we got to try Kurobuta (Berkshire Black pig, it's like the kobe beef of pork), but I think it's the oysters i'd go back for. it's extra large, Hiroshima Japanese oysters -- i told him to take a bite and he got the whole thing, i had to order another.
so the eating didn't end there. last Saturday, we took a private class at Pino Kitchen Studio. Between us, he's the better cook, because I only really cook what I like to eat. It was my surprise for him: I wanted to recreate our favorites.
This is Roka Salata, PKS Style. I made him taste this salad at Cyma and it became his favorite since; we've gone back at least thrice for it. At PKS, we learned how to make the thick sweet-sour dressing that makes this simple mix of greens such a success. :)
Cyma also serves grilled octopus which he loved that first time. I was looking for octopus all week, I event sent a chef friend to reserve for me at Guadalupe market, but it didn't turn out to be as fresh as we wanted so we passed and had to improvise.
Really simple seared cuttlefish with some spinach tossed with garlic and shallots.
And then our last dish was something special.
This is the making of truffle butter.
I learned that when breading, one hand should only touch wet ingredients and the other hand should only touch dry ingredients.
We had some aglio olio (my favorite kind of pasta) with our stuffed chicken. It was so good and I'm glad we had a lot to share. It was a busy kitchen that afternoon, with a food tasting happening on the other side. They were making different flavored chili wings for a new restaurant.
We were both quite happy and our bellies were, too. :) I'm going to try to make the salad dressing for our New Year dinner. :)
