the big. THREE. OH.

No, I'm not going to tell you when exactly my birthday is, but it's around now sometime.

It's been quite the busy past few weeks. Two weddings we've attended, the Lunar Festival (a Chinese tradition), in-laws went to China (for vacation), and we visited my parents back in Jersey.

Sometime during the hecticness, I also turned 30.
My wife has been absolutely incredible in making me feel so special, and so young! It's just been such a blast.
Last week, she had a surprise dinner for me with some close friends and family at a great small tapas place in the Lower East Side. That was such a great and fun night.

As the weekend started, we also stayed over in good old New Jersey for a night at my parents' house and had dinner with them and my uncle and aunt. They gave me their birthday wishes, and it was a fun and nice night together. Mom also shared with me (and everyone), pictures of me from my birthday when we celebrated the prior two decades of my life.

The real surprise though, came on the actual day of my birthday, which my wife just made into an absolutely incredible day - starting with breakfast in bed that she served me - homemade waffles, scrambled eggs (nice and fluffy, just the way I like 'em!), sausages, juice, and coffee. Of course, I don't deserve that being the lazy ass of a husband I am... But! It didn't end there!

She told me to get dressed up (with a jacket, no tie, as she said it was "optional"), we took a cab into midtown and got out on the east side since a big latin parade ran straight down 5th and blocked traffic. So, we took a nice leisurely stroll through midtown to get to the west side. I had absolutely no idea where we were going until we got to the Shubert Theater - and that's when we were seated in the Orchestra section to see Spamalot! Yet another awesome surprise since I've been wanting to see that for quite some time, and I wasn't disappointed at all - I was laughing my ass off the whole time!

... But wait! There was more!


So, after the show, she told me we had to be up at 60th & Broadway by 5:30. I rattled my brain to try to figure out where we were going. Columbus Circle. Time Warner Center.


Then I wondered... Could we possibly be eating at one of the unbelievably fabulous dining establishments in the Time Warner Center? That would just be... too much.

Well, we did, indeed, have too much. Way Way too much.

(I'll probably get sued for using this image, but...)


If you haven't heard of Per Se, or Thomas Keller, or French Laundry, well, you do have a web browser at your disposal and I invite you to google any of those words to rectify your lack of knowledge on the topic.


Now. Let me say. This was one of the unbelievably best dining experiences - if not the best I've had in my life. We got to start with a couple of glasses of champagne, and we customized the chef's tasting menu a bit, which featured a portion sized for two of Japanese "Wagyu" Beef. Kobe's got nothing on that - the texture was absolutely amazing.

The entire experience was so absolutely relaxing, fantastic, decadent, and just wonderful. The meal kept going and going. At one point, my wife got very tired (mostly from the alcohol, she's quite the lightweight), so we asked for the check, and one of the wait staff replied, "oh, of course, but you know, you actually have a little more food coming even though it's not the menu..." Pleasantly surprised, we were presented with a chocolate cake dessert (after a guava sorbet dessert), and coffee and tea. Now this was the end. It had to be ... right?


They came by _again_, this time with a small tin that opened up to reveal chocolate truffles, caramels, assorted chocolates (that they made themselves, of course), and shortbread cookies.

The entire night was absolutely amazing.

As much of a decadent and relaxing and wonderful blur it was, I couldn't stop thinking about the food. Even now. Some of the highlights of what I can remember of the courses that linger in my mind include:

• Oysters and Pearls - fresh (cooked) oysters with caviar, somewhat of a hallmark there. Try it and you'll know why.
  
• foie gras.
  
• risotto with white truffle shavings - I never understood why truffles were so expensive and regarded to be soooooo good. Until now.
  
• the wagyu beef. oh. mm. MMMM. wow.
  

So. Like I said, my wife made my 30th birthday an absolutely beautiful and wonderful day. It was just so completely fabulous. And, I feel a lot younger than I thought I'd feel reaching this age. Somehow, I'm actually convinced that I'm not just an old fogie.