A Very Yummy Birthday

20 years ago today I was born. On Thanksgiving which coincidentally (or maybe this is why?) is not a favorite holiday of mine! I love food so it must be that I dislike having my birthday compete with this holiday.

But today is not Thanksgiving though I did give thanks!

Thanks that Alskling wanted to take me to lunch and that he put up with me trying to decide between 5 different places.  I suppose he didn’t mind too much knowing that he’d have a great meal no matter what!

I went with Cha Ya Vegetarian Japanese Resteraunt. I wanted to be unpredictable and not choose veggie burger or falafel or pizza.

I loved that they had this printed at the bottom of the menu:

I chose a lunch plate of crunchy fried TEMPURA vegetables (eggplant, yam, asparagaus, carrots, kabocha mushrooms, green beans, broccoli). It came with a great miso soup of spring onion, tofu and seaweed and perfectly fluffy white rice.

A lot of food for a little girl!

That’s why I keep this guy around!

He devoured his food and also mine after I made reasonable dents in each dish!

He had TONCHI NASU (Stuffed eggplant): Eggplant stuffed with Satsuma potato, corn, hijiki, carrots, and soybeans. Lightly battered and dee-fried, Tempura style. Served with a special ginger sauce.

Afterwards because of course I still had room for something sweet, we walked back to one of the places I had considered earlier.

The reason I didn’t really want lunch here at Cafe Gratitude was because I was freezing and wanted something hot (miso soup warmed me up!). But I know we will definitely be back because it looks really cool and more inviting than I realized. Can you believe they are serving (raw vegan organic!!!) Thanksgiving lunch here 1- 3pm for FREE?! I wouldn’t have found a ride home for Thanksgiving had I known! (Just kidding! Maybe.)

We got the I AM BLISS ~ CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT MOUSSE PIE  (Rich cacao & hazelnut mousse topped with coconut meringue in a hazelnut-macadamia date crust)

I absolutely love hazelnut and I thought this was amazing! I’m not the biggest fan of coconut though. Luckily Alskling is and he enjoyed this dessert a lot! That meant I got most of the Special Chocolate Offering of the Day: Macadamia Butter Truffle. It was sooooooo spectacular. The dark chocolate outside was intense and smooth. The inside was INCREDIBLE! The texture was like butter with small crunchy bits of macademia nut inside. It tasted sweet, so rich and slightly nutty.

And now I’m going to nerd out to a present Alskling got me.

Yup, that’s the CD of an album that came out more than a few years ago. The Fray is my absolute favorite band (last year I saw them on my birthday!) but I’ve always been too frugal to buy this for myself!

Hope everyone else’s day was as yummy!

About these ads