dinner for three

dude. this month is all about excess. and paying attention. and getting much more than i was expecting. and learning how to process it all. and last night was another amazing chapter in this month-long journey.
ready for this?

jesse and becky wanted to take me out for birthday dinner so we went to this place called purple downtown and had the most amazing 3 hour long dinner ever.

we started with cocktails.
a french 75 for becky, an old-fashioned for jess, a sidecar for me

then small plates.
gorgonzola stuffed dates with pine nuts and saba, celery root and gruyere custard with pear, bitter greens and port reduction, ahi tuna tartare with lupini beans and charred scallion vinaigrette, porcini brown butter cake with mascarpone mousse and
pistachio gremolata, duck confit with le puy lentils and pickled red onion, wild mushroom strudel puff pastry and roasted pepper coulis.

we took our time with these. each had such a beautiful flavor, my god it was awesome. the small plates were quite small, but the taste was so huge, it felt like
you were eating a whole lot more.

then, cheeses with wine pairings, and for extra measure to add flavor sensations:
sliced apple, quince paste, marcona almonds, marinated olives, and a honeycomb.

half a glass of wine for each pairing, one for each of us, but we all tasted each of them with the cheeses as we picked at all of them. the cheese board came with thin dry cracker bread, and the extras were delish.

then dessert with wine pairings.
syrah brownie (as in the wine), pumpkin creme brulee with prieuré d’arche, chai bread pudding and brown butter chestnuts with a moscato, molasses stout cake, candied ginger and butterscotch sauce with a madeira, and carrot cardamom gelato and carrot cake.

yes, five desserts. again, they were small, but packed a punch. and three half glasses of wine to go with. the bread pudding and its wine and the molasses stout
cake and its wine were super amazing...and the brownie didnt need the wine with it, cuz it was already there as a sauce. that was perfect.

and then, after dinner drinks:
becky had tea and fernet branca, jess had averna amaro, and i had pastis

then we were giddy and satisfied and ready to go home.

and, get this: they paid for it. i told them i would only be willing to not pay if they promised that we could do this same thing for each of their birthdays
too. they agreed. we will now do an amazing dinner for each of our birthdays every year we live together. woot!

but yeah, that was kinda draining and energizing at the same time. i felt so good afterwards, but was really ready for bed. we got there around 7:30 and left at around 11:30. so, wow, thats 4 hours.

while we were there we had a conversation around luxury and privilege and taking things for granted and money and what we use it for. i have a very strong desire to have a really nice meal once in a while and am happy when i have enough money to do so but tho i hope to always have money for that, i will never be the kind of person that takes that sort of luxury for granted. i think partially this has to do with my catholic upbringing. i have very strong associations around eating with other people. thats the center of the catholic mass--breaking bread together. for me, to be able to make food for other people or to take them out to a nice meal and sit and enjoy it together is a really necessary and important, dare i say spiritual, need in me. and because of that im always going to be very present to the meal. both the people and the food. and last night we were very intentional with each bite and sip and it felt really good to be paying that close attention to everything, including each other. not forgetting the atmosphere too, which was kinda weird and felt like it was full of people who were not paying attention to much. ugh.