2003-08-02 - 9:55 a.m. Let the celebrating begin... I've long made it a habit to celebrate my birthday for at least a good week -- and sometimes for a week before and after my special day. This typically means much good food, wine, and conversation with my favorite friends (I really prefer the one on one or small group approach to a big blowout -- it means a lot more to me.) I kicked off this year's festivities last night with my gay boyfriend. First of all, let me clarify. He's a boy with whom I share aesthetic issues and preferences, and who likes to spend his time and money in the same ways as I do. We've known each other for 10 or 11 years, and go out on fabulous dates every few weeks or so. Anyway, I called him up after my three and a half hour wait at DMV to renew my ID, and he whisked me back to his place, so I could do some decompressing over velvety glasses of Van der Heyden late harvest zinfandel zinfandel. Properly relaxed, we strolled over to Jade, a new(er) tiny little bar on Gough. The upstairs bar was packed, so we ventured downstairs, past the reflecting pool and the pretty green mosaic tiles, and grabbed a bench seat and a table for cocktails, people watching, and some tasty spring rolls and satay appetizers. I especially liked the metal drink stands that sprouted from the reflecting pool's wall seats. If I lived in this 'hood, I'd probably make this a regular pit stop/meet-up place before going out with friends. By now, it was 9:00 and we were starving (and hankering for French food) despite the nibbly bits at Jade, so we hopped in the car and zoomed over to Chez Spencer on 14th to see if they could squeeze us in. Oddly enough, though they had three outside tables free (and it wasn't that cold) and numerous empty tables inside, they were sticking to their reservation book and said they wouldn't have anything until 9:45. It was entirely possible I could've expired from hunger before then, so they were out of the running. (We'll have to plan ahead and make a reservation next time). Our plan B, Woodward's Garden, happily gave us their last table. We ordered a surprisingly fruity and light 2000 Davis Bynum pinot noir, and dug in to our starters: sweet white corn soup with poblano chilies, and avocado salsa for him, and a duck pate for me. Duck is something I never cook for myself, so I have a tendency tooverdo it when eating out... thus, I had to have the braised duck leg with roasted shiitake mushrooms, glazed county line baby turnips, orecchiette cooked in red wine, and melted baby spinach. My dining companion had a perfect grilled niman ranch pork chop with santa rosa plum-shallot sauce, garlic-mashed yellow finn potatoes. Pork chops, when cooked properly, are so tasty that I wonder why I don't eat them more often... Since this dinner was a celebration of my birthday, we had to find room to cram in some dessert. After much deliberation, I decided we'd share the valrhona chocolate mousse and vanilla creme brule with pecan-citrus biscotti. The surprise in this dessert is the mousse comes layered on top of the creme brule. Very tasty, and nearly knocked me into a food coma. I crawled into bed around 11:30, sleeping in 'till 7:00 without waking up even once in the middle of the night. It is no surprise, given last night's amazing dinner, that I have yet to get up and do anything more productive with my day thus far than to brew up the last of my Dean & Deluca house blend coffee... Unfortunately, this means the weekend's food will not be farmers' market fresh... any comments? (2 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09