Happy Birthday Phoebe!!

[cape chef]

Here's wishing you a great birthday,and many more
CC

[Mezzaluna]

Hope you whooped it up! Here's to a year of happiness and success.

Mezzaluna

[momoreg]

Phoebe, I hope it was a good one!!

[chrose]

Phoebes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Happy Birthday, here's to many, many happy ones more.

[phoebe]

Thank you all so much!!! This is very sweet of you.
It was a lovely day and we capped it off with a fantastic dinner at Suzanne Goin's restaurant, Lucques. She does a set menu Sunday dinner with appetizer, choice between 2 entrees, and desert for $30. We'd heard about it, but never gone. Wow.
I asked the waiter (who was great) for the menu to share with you folks:

Appetizer: jamon serrano with idiazabal (a Basque cheese), quince toasts, almonds, and dandelion.

The sweetness of the quince toasts paired beautifully with the ham and cheese and the sharp dandelion greens cut the richness.

Entree: (we had) grilled lamb sirloin with "migras canas," chorizo and black olives.

I guess the chorizo and olives could have overwhelmed the lamb, but somehow they didn't. And I could live happily on the chorizo/olive mixture on bread, on pasta, on anything (almost)

Dessert: crema catalana with blood oranges and spiced pepitas.

It was my birthday. I've been staying away from sweets for weeks. And my idea of dessert requires sugar, fat, and flour together in some form, preferably with chocolate and possibly coffee involved. OK? so the dessert description did not exactly excite me. BUT. This was fabulous. It was a kind of creme brulee with only a little torching, but loads better. And the pepitas made the dish. It was really perfect.

The menu also gave 3 wine recommendations and we had the 1999 Topanga Vineyards syrah, French Camp Vineyard, Paso Robles. Smooth, easy to drink (VERY easy).

Anyhow, it was a treat and so are you guys.