Happy Birthday to me!

This year, we did something a little different for my birthday. The girls gave me a fantastic scrabble board, by request.

JB got me a wine dinner at one of the tastiest restaurants I've ever been to: Ashley's in The Capital Hotel. Here's the menu with wines:

*We started in the kitchen with finger food type appetizers and a glass of rose (The vintner who threw the dinner was Australian - somewhere called Turkey Hill). The wine was fine (I don't love rose). Apps included baby octopus, marinated artichoke hearts and mussel shooters in a tasso sauce. All-good, except the octopus. They're not my fave.

*After going to the table, we had a glass of grenache (incredible) and some shaved ham with what was probably parmesan or some other hard cheese. Drizzled with olive oil, served on a little marble slab, which I scraped clean.

*3rd course: smoked duck breast with mole sauce, bananas and some duck egg roll thingy. This. Duck. Was. Incredible. Not salty, but sweet and succulent and oddly complimented by the bananas (who'da thunk). The duck skin was carmelized like a Peking duck skin - no fat at all left in the skin. The meat was beyond fork-tender. AFter the meal, the chef described the method: they salt the ducks overnight, hanging from a rack so the water is extracted. Then they soak them in a sorghum water bath, then roast them @ 500 degrees. Could've done without the egg roll deal, but it was fine. Served with a blend called G.S.M. (which i believe is grenache, shiraz and marbec, though I could be wrong). Second favorite dish and wine of the night.

4th course: veal cutlets with white bean stew and grits. Now, I don't eat veal - I guess it's the only thing i avoid on moral grounds. But we paid a pretty penny for this meal, so I was going to make my morals look the other way and eat the damn veal. After all, how much worse can those veal cows be treated than regular eating cows? This was my favorite dish of the night. The veal was pan fried with the thinnest breading, and the beans were hearty. And you can never go wrong with grits. Wine pairing: a cab that was nearly absent of tannins. My fave dish and wine of the night. Especially after that cab had breathed in the glass for about 10 minutes.

5th course: pork cheeks (which is a butt, not a face-cheek) with roasted pumpkin and kale. This was so rich, and I"m not going to lie. By this point I was so full of wine and food, it was hard to make room. But it was delish. Especially the pumpkin. I think the wine was a shiraz, though I was still drinking my cab.

Dessert: sweet potato souffle with creme anglaise. The souffle had a caramelized top with some nutty bits baked in. You poked a hole in the top and poured that yummy creme anglais in...Perfection. Sherry was served, but I was about to pass out at this point and don't like sherry anyway.

Next post: a bit about the hotel.