AQ: A dinner date

The Kids 4th grade class announced an end of the year camping trip earlier this spring.

As soon as the dates were set, I went about making reservations. I decided we would go "occasion" style dining. Something special, slightly fancier and adventurous than our usual bistro-faire (which is my favorite).

I wanted to go someplace the Manfriend had not yet been. (He doesn't get out as much as me.)

We managed a reservation at AQ and it was dreamy...

ARTICHOKES in the GARDEN, warm pancetta, green olives, raw & roasted roots

SUNFLOWER SEEDS, duck rillette, apricot & lemon thyme, with burnt toast

EARLY SPRING ASPARAGUS, “risotto” of faro verde, sake lees & hazelnuts

SPRING LAMB TARTARE, fava beans, avocado leaf, smoked feta & cress

HALIBUT, sorrel & crème fraiche, celeriac, new potatoes & bottarga

SOFT SHELL CRAB, coastal seaweeds & ramps, cucumber, “cacio e pepe”

BUTTERMILK, lemon verbena, green strawberry, poppyseed
later in the evening a "quick" flash was required.

As you can see, we went big. We ordered thoroughly over the top and that was fun. We loved the artichokes and I could eat that asparagus "risotto" every day.  My halibut was perfectly cooked. The soft shell crab was a little salty, but not as to stop the enjoyment of eating it. The weakest point was the dessert, but I'm not a huge dessert person anyways, and I loved how the presentation reminded me of a terrarium. Presentation was lovely, I could not help but be "that" girl in the restaurant, snapping iPhone photos.

The service as I remembered with HM, was absolutely lovely. One of the servers recognized The Manfriend from his restaurant and recommended a really lovely Chenin Blanc for our meal. So nice of him to come by and say hello (I always worry, they are going to tell us they had a horrible time there, ha! I can't handle rejection!) . The entire staff we interacted with was so lovely and kind.

Since the restaurant is close enough, to ease our digestion, we walked home, hand in hand. A dreamy dinner date, indeed.

smellicinations and fantasians

So I'm back at the salt mines and fighting for focus again. It was the hardest in my entire working career (old lady) to return to work. I was really enjoying the life of leisure.

Have to get The Man Friend on my early retirement plan i.e. lotto or second husband ;)

Today MiniMadness aka Shing and I realize we speak fluent Tangent and it is one of our good things we bond on. We don't hold back and try hard to be concise and get to the point. We dwaddle with the description and relate random points along the way. Sometimes she'll encourage me to get there, or I'll tell her she doesn't have to hurry and we just laugh. "I get it," and "It's Okay" are commonly interjected in our conversations.

I watched the rest of the work knitting circle try to track us today. And it was rough for them I felt bad. But not too bad, b/c secret languages are COOL. And when someone else speaks it, you don't feel like such a freak.

I've been hungry today, I brought hodge podge of leftovers for lunch, and you know, I just wasn't satisfied. I have ignored my yogurt and have just settled for water, since I know all other food ingesting would be purely academic, nothing would satisfy me like say:

cheesesteaks and crispy waffle cut french fries

tunafish with minced dill pickles on japanese rice crackers

popcorn with butter, nutritional yeast and either kosher salt or soy sauce.

a courtney's bacon tomato sammy

I swear I could smell bacon in the office at like 2pm today. And then I think someone was eating some kind of barbeque sauce that wasn't too sweet at 1pm. i know it wasn't too sweet.

nachos with carnitas or carne asada with guacamole no sour cream from pancho villa with a big ass lemon lime agua fresca

crispy romaine lettuce with blue cheese dressing and bacon bits and no i don't care if they are fake right now.

omg. feed me. i might pass out.