lots and lots of birthday eats - mmm... mmm... good!

so it's been an absolutely AMAZING two weeks of birthday eats -- all thanks to some great friends who've taken me out for my 30th birthday. (i seriously love you guys!!)

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first off, kelly and i decided to fine dine at jiraffe -- one of my FAVORITE restaurants in santa monica. the dining room has these amazingly high ceilings and the chandeliers always emit this perfectly warm glow. it's one of those rooms that makes you feel loved. and what better way to feel loved than to have the chef meeting and greeting the whole night! it was quite fabulous, especially since i've spotted him on food network before. though at some point i did wonder whether he was in the dining room more than the kitchen!

for this meal, we weren't just celebrating my birthday, but also kel's great big job offer! now, i know i'm not her mom or anything, but i'm totally SO proud of her. what an amazing feat to score a job with deutsche, especially during this completely wrecked economy. i'm THRILLED. and i suppose i owe tremendous thanks to kel's deutsche signing bonus for my lovely meal. three cheers for deutsche!

while kel went for the bistro menu (jiraffe's prix-fixe concept), i decided to pick all 3 appetizer specials. the combination of dishes gave us a fabulous spread of all different flavors. kel's lobster bisque was QUITE amazing (especially considering that i'm not the biggest fan of lobster). the bisque was creamy, but not uber heavy, and there were large chunks of lobster and other yummy things in it. i went w/the vegan squash soup and i was delighted w/the little bits of crunchy garnish on top. (i'm totally in love with vegetable puree soups -- there's something so hearty and healthy about them.)

for the main entree, kel went w/the short rib (which was moist and delicious), and i went w/the asparagus salad and the rabbit medallions. while the asparagus salad wasn't anything to write home about, the rabbit was good. however, the medallions were quite miniature and not really medallion-ey, and the dish was uber salty. (ok, so maybe we need to redefine the word "good" here.) the waitress attributed the saltiness to the olives, which surprised me since i hadn't even realized they were in there! (btw, i'm generally anti-olive.) i suppose some rice or bread probably would've done the trick, but salty is as salty does. (i have no idea why that phrase came to mind, but heck, it's my blog, so i'm gonna leave it.)

we ended off this yummy meal w/kel's banana cream pie and my lemon meyer souffle. i'm not the biggest fan of bananas in general, and especially not in desserts, so i only took a few bites of the pie. but recently, i've been really getting into lemon desserts! there's something about the kick and bite of the citrus that seems to delight my palate. that being said, the souffle was really yummy, w/the sweetness of the blackberry providing the perfect contrast to the acidity of the lemon. it was all quite heavenly. ("quite" being my word of the blog.)

jiraffe
http://www.jirafferestaurant.com/index.html

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on a lovely day off from school (hugs to all the veteran spirits out there!), i decided to trek out to the grove a little early. and i'm so glad i did b/c the place is ALREADY decked out in christmas lights! the ginormous inflated gingerbread house and the super tall christmas tree are both up. and the place is brimming w/holiday cheer. i suppose this is what southern california christmases are like, though there's no substitution for rockefeller center and central park during the holidays. *sigh* *double sigh*

after i did a bit of window shopping (and survived a walk through anthropologie w/o spending any money -- a miracle in and of itself), i trekked over to AOC to meet dani for my birthday dinner! now dani has absolutely been raving about this place for AGES, so i'm really glad i finally got to experience it for myself! she was already waiting, which was perfect, since we were both quite famished and ready to dive into the menus. YUM!

since this was my first time to AOC, i had no idea what to expect. i'd been to celadon down the street, which i LOVED. (and i must to being extremely depressed now that i just googled it to find out that it's CLOSED. *sniff*) in contrast to celadon's dramatic decor, AOC was much warmer, and similar to jiraffe, exhibited a nice warm glow. dani mentioned how she loved it for being so unpretentious and laidback. and i totally agree. even the waitress was totally relaxed and super helpful. (unlike comme ca, where the servers were pretentious assholes who did absolutely ZERO work -- is this what bitterness sounds like? YES.)

as AOC is a restaurant of shared plates, we ordered about 4-5 dishes, as suggested by the waitress. per dani, we absolutely HAD to order the stuffed dates wrapped in prosciutto. i swear i don't see it anywhere on the online menu now that i'm checking for correct names, but i suppose it could've been on the printed menu. at any rate, they were PHENOMENAL. the perfect combination of salty and sweet in a perfect bite.

in addition to the dates, we ordered the chicken liver crostini w/pancetta and the warm ham hock salad w/sweet potato and dandelion -- since pratically everything's yummier w/pork, right? both were quite good, but i must admit to loving the sweetbreads the most. the dish came w/sunchokes and truffle butter, and you could most DEFINITELY smell the truffles. the sweetbreads were perfectly cooked and quite irresistable. mmm.... i can still taste them.... i'm almost positive we ordered one more thing, but... oh wait! yes yes, we ordered the kabocha squash gratin w/poblanos & queso fresco. a perfect marriage of mushy squash w/crunchy gratin, and sweetness w/saltiness.

we ended the meal w/a nice pear & huckleberry crisp. it wasn't particularly memorable, but ending w/fruit generally makes me feel a little bit better after lavish meals. :)

AOC
http://www.aocwinebar.com/

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to finish off the week's FDE's, the foodie gang (jenny, justin, dorothy, & i) splurged on a meal at catch. now i admit that this was a choice based on random reviews & DMP's suggestion, but i was thoroughly surprised when we looked around and realized that we were the youngest party in the ENTIRE restaurant. it was as if the whole room had turned 40 or 50+ and we'd stopped aging! (granted, 3 of us were asian, so of course, that upped the ante just a bit.) at any rate, the food experience was still quite good, though the overall ambiance was a little bit *too* reserved for my tastes. hey, at least we were close to the water, right?

to start, we picked out a couple of appetizers. now, with this group, it's always hard to know when folks want to share or not. however, i always go in thinking, the goal is to share, but i'm definitely picking out what *i* want to eat. that being said, jenny picked out the albacore crudo, while dorothy decided on 2 orders of scallops for the table along w/the butternut squash tortelli, and i picked out the bresaola so we'd have something green. i suppose i could've done w/o the scallops seeing as how i'm not the biggest fan of them. (however, the group seemed to like that dish most, so what do i know?) while the tortelli was quite good, the bresaola was a bit of a throwaway (though i did appreciate having some greens on my plate). the albacore had a nice bite and chew (though of course i've decided recently that raw fish isn't really my thing).

for the mains, three of us got fish: justin (the tai snapper), dorothy (the monkfish), and me (the branzino). jenny (who'd just come out of a major bout of food poisoning - poor thing!) went w/the gulf prawns that came w/bucatini pasta and wild broccoli. out of the mains, i liked mine best! : ) i'm a HUGE fan of branzino, and even though i couldn't describe it until it got to my mouth, i realized that i love it b/c the texture is just like trout (which is my absolute all-time favorite fish!!!)! there's just something about a fish that flakes apart on your plate. (i swear i can't wait to go fishing!)

it's always so fascinating how fish have such different consistencies and textures. justin's snapper, for example, was more flaky than i preferred. it reminded me of the cod and haddock that's used for fish and chips, and which i don't like very much at all. on the other hand, dorothy's monkfish tasted exactly as she said it would -- like lobster and shrimp. and as most of you know, i'm not the biggest fan of lobster or shrimp (or scallops) or any seafood that has a high chew factor. i mean, anything i have to gnaw at (unless it's steak) is simply not worth the effort. one exception, however, would be jenny's bucatini pasta, which was quite al dente, and which i surprisingly enjoyed chewing, despite my lack of interest in pasta generally. (dang! i guess i AM picky.)

to close out the evening, we ordered several desserts, for which jenny asked the waitress to bring candles. we went w/the dessert special (the walnut meringue -- which the waitress suggested and which we'd seen delivered to a nearby table), the chocolate souffle (a staple), and the fried brioche (a personal pick). while the souffle and brioche (glorified donut holes, which were actually way better at craft) were good, the highlight was definitely the meringue. layers of airy walnut meringue alternating w/layers of luscious walnut cream (at least i *think* they were all walnut!) -- the combination was fabulous. the souffle also came w/some espresso meringue, which was quite scrumptious, and which makes it seems like meringue may be a house specialty!
all in all, this was a lovely meal, though i'm not sure if it was worth being surrounded by 40somethings all night. am i being a princess? umm, YES.

catch
http://www.catchsantamonica.com/

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in addition to the aforementioned FDE's, i also got to catch up (finally!!!) w/marina at literati cafe, where i got to feast on an absolutely DIVINE lemon cake. (emphasis on lemon!) i swear this place has THE yummiest food and desserts on the west side. and all of it is super fresh! mmm....

literati cafe
http://www.literaticafe.com/

and after months and months of waiting, we finally got doug to guelaguetza! while i was (unfortunately -- and yes i should've known better) stuffed on an iso sushi roll, i managed to pick through a cheap veggie tamale. AND (drumroll, please) i even managed to choke down some grasshoppers stuffed into an overly cheesy, super greasy empanada. YES, you read correctly, GRASSHOPPERS. we were all so excited at first, but after the order took forever, our enthusiasm slowly dwindled. de'sha & giselle could barely get more than a few bites down (especially after seeing grasshopper bodies peeking out of the empanadas), and doug didn't even make the attempt. but i pushed forward. at least until i realized how stuffed i was. after that, it was all downhill.

guelaguetza
http://losangeles.citysearch.com/profile/11312859/