New Years Eve

You may ask yourself how the parents of a 1 1/2 year old spend New Years Eve. Well I can tell you what we did... Thanks to Jon's work we went to a ridiculously expensive restaurant and had a little bit of a night out on the town together. You may be asking what I think a ridiculously expensive dinner is... Well we both choked a little when we saw the bill. It would have been double the cost if we were drinkers. (Another time when I am so grateful that we are mormon!) The only reason it was kind of sad that we don't drink is because they had specific wine pairings for each dish. It is the only time I have ever thought it would be cool to drink just for the experience. Instead we had some nice glasses of sparkling cider. mmmm.

It was a 5 course dinner with 4 desserts. It took three hours to eat and was quite the experience! The waiters timed everything to a T. It was like watching an intricate dance the way they served. First they would place the silverware you would need in front of you for that course, then simultaneously 2 other waiters would place our plates in front of us at the exact same time.

Our first course was an oyster with rutabaga choucroute. It was served on a bed of sea salt. In the lighting it looked a little bit like rice and Jon may have tried a little bit... you didn't hear it from me....

Then we had an Arpege egg. It is an egg that has been lightly poached in it's shell and the top of the shell is cut off in a perfect circle. Then they add a few more layers to it and you eat the whole thing very, very carefully and delicately.

The second course was Ceviche of lobster and sea bream. It was good but the first time I've eaten raw fish. (Well kind of raw. Cooked in Lemon juice) then it had grape fruit and fennel with it. The waiter noticed that I didn't eat my grapefruit and so they substituted it for orange in another course that had grapefruit. They were very observant and very happy to help in anyway they could. We felt like fish out of water! Oh it was so out of our element! but a fun once in a lifetime opportunity.

Our third course was Atlantic stone bass roasted with sesame and hickory nuts
dungeness crab, a bouillon of dried tuna and black tea.
It was probably one of my favorite courses. It was amazingly delicious. And this comes from a girl who really doesn't like sea food!

Our fourth course was Abalone in brown butter, salad leaves from the garden. served with a light puree of smoked lentils. In case you are wondering what abalone is, snail. A large sea snail to be exact. It's about the size of a thick pork chop. I didn't know what it was when I ate it, which may be a good thing since I think I would have been freaked out by the thought of snail. It was pretty good though. One of Jon's favorite's.

Our fifth course was Roast sirloin of wagyu beef served with a potato and truffle croquette and vegetable hash. The croquette was probably the tastiest thing I have ever tasted in my life. When I ate it I think I died and went to heaven. This was both of our favorite meals.

Our first desert was a Champagne jello, raspberries, rose sorbet and lychee. I can honestly say I tasted champagne. It really wasn't that good. After that I didn't feel like I had missed out on anything with the whole wine thing

Then we were served a frozen orange parfait with black sesame ice cream, topped with meyer lemon croutons and honey peanut crumble with citrus supremes
This was a really odd desert. Not my favorite but very fancy and very unique.


Then they served us home made truffles and Petits fours. It was so amazing and I was stuffed by the end of the meal. It was such a great experience.

We got home at about 11, Jon took the babysitter home and we went to bed early. Suddenly when you are the parent of a toddler staying up until midnight jsut doesn't seem that cool. Sorry there aren't any pictures but we didn't want to stick out too much as people who had never been to a place like that. It was fun getting dressed up and going out on the town with my love though!