Birthday dinner time. Had to throw these bad boys on:
I only bring them out on the rare occasion that I forget how much they really hurt or plan to get drunk enough to numb the pain.
When Nick and I were first dating, we would fantasize about Lakers season tickets and nights at the new Ritz downtown. Now we’re done pretending we’ll be filthy rich any minute (at least for now), but we’re not done celebrating like we are.
I have so much to write about but let’s start with my awesome birthday lunch with my Mom and my Man.
I woke up thinking about The Ivy’s grilled veggie salad, maybe because my family had a bad habit of celebrating all birthdays there until our we grew too large to fit in any room they had to offer.
Here she is, with shrimp, in all her glory:
Day Two, first order of business was to accidentally walk into a tourist trap and eat something that I’m allergic to according to some herbalist in Reseda.
Cafe du Monde.
and to kick off my surrender back into the world of non-vegans:
NOLA restaurants. I tried to maintain for my first meal there, at Cochon. I really did.:
If you missed the Saban Free Clinic’s 13th Annual “Extravaganza For the Senses” Food & Wine Event, here’s the recap:
If New York had an embarrassing past of being in a weird 90s white rap-ish group, do you think it would have been called New Yorky York back in the day but would totally get pissed if you called it that now?
I have no idea what I’m talking about.
On a related note, here’s more food from over there.
A salad with falafel, tahini and hummous from Tahini in the East Village:
when I go to Urth, and my boyfriend, who is not vegan, gets this:
and I get this, the only vegan cake, I know, deep down inside, his is better.
Last night was a very special somebody’s birthday and so, in celebration, I met the usual cast of characters at our favorite gaudy 80s Persian living room resturant, XIV.
Remember on Friends when Monica wanted to date Paul, “the wine guy”?
Well Sarah is dating Ben, the wine guy. Except her wine guy is less ’90s and more awesome.
Case in point:
First bottle of bubbly was on him. Cute surprise considering he wasn’t even at dinner with us.
About 4 months ago, our dear friend Caroline moved to Seattle. Joanna and I said our goodbyes and wished her good luck, promising to visit soon. And pretty much the second she arrived we started making travel plans. Here’s us the night we said goodbye. Note that my “I’m sick” outfit is the same as my “I’m travelling to Seattle” outfit.
By the time Joanna and I arrived, we were starving, and so the 3 of us stopped into a tequila bar for some Mexican food and an early afternoon drink. Clearly, we were super pumped to be back together again, because it wasn’t until we were basically unpacking our stuff that we realized we had all 3 left our credit cards there. Smart.
Here’s us at the restaurant, looking suspiciously like 3 people that would forget their cards in the middle of the day.
Have you ever waited a really long time to eat at Umami and then been so hungry that you want to order every side possible? And then you’re like, yeah, I definitely want pickles on my burger–gimme the works. But you kind of have the sneaking suspicion that your definition of a side of pickles is different than Umami’s definition?
What am I supposed to do with this? Huh?
Answer me!