It was my birthday this past Sunday, so instead of posting a recipe I’m going to tell you all about my epic birthday adventures. Lucky you! 🙂
On Saturday (birthday eve day), Andrew and I went for a long run and then had lunch at Yun Nan Flavor Garden, our favorite noodle place in the world. I had my usual order of cucumber salad and hot and sour dumplings and rice noodles. Yum!
Next, since the weather was beautiful and sunny, we walked all around to run errands and do grocery shopping. Walking near Industry City in Brooklyn, we discovered that one of the buildings matched my outfit!
Between going to lunch and running errands, we walked over 20,000 steps! Back at home, I started cooking Rigatoni with Lamb Ragu and Whipped Ricotta from my new favorite cookbook, Wine Food. I LOVE this book. As the book’s authors suggested, we paired the meal with a barolo, and it was amazing! I might be sharing the recipe in a future post . . . we will see.
On Sunday, my actual birthday, we started with delicious breakfast sandwiches from Shelksy’s Brooklyn Bagels and then went out into the rainy gloom to take on the day. Our first stop was the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), for their exhibition on Chinese food in America.
It was really interesting, and ended with fortune cookies and a tasting!
Next was another museum—the Theodore Roosevelt birthplace, which is right in Manhattan on 20th street. I didn’t get any great photos, but I had a great time and learned a lot.
We stopped at City Bakery for some deliciously rich hot chocolate:
Fortified, we walked over to Chelsea Market for window shopping and tasting a few samples. From there we took another LONG walk to Tribeca to have an early dinner at Frenchette. It was our first time there, and it was (pricy but) delicious! We sat a the bar and got the duck frites + white asparagus and marinated leeks and I tried a natural garnacha blend.
For my birthday cake, we ordered the Paris brest, which was completely life changing. A ring of light cream puff shell filled with salted pistachio buttercream . . . . Wow! Our bartender brought us little glasses of Bigallet China-China, an orange-based French amaro, which paired perfectly with the dessert. All in all it was a fantastic experience and a wonderful way to cap off my weekend of celebration!
