Birthday

To start my birthday off, I treated myself to a day at the spa. I headed for the Kura Door, which bills itself as a "hollistic Japense spa". I started out with a hot stone massage, followed by a pumpkin spice pedicure - both awesome! It was a great way to relax and enjoy turning a year older (not always the most enjoyable thing).

As anyone who knows me knows, I love love love going out to eat. But going to fancy restaurants is not exactly a hobby that meshes well with limited budget of a graduate student, so my fine dining experiences have been very limited these days. But for my birthday, Paul and I splurged and went out for dinner. I wanted to try a new place because it seems that every time we do go out, we go to the same place and order the same entrees. So I decided on Tuscany, which I have heard many positive reviews about.

Tuscany is a very unique restaurant. The building that houses it was built to resemble a cottage in the forest. When I entered, the first thing I noticed was that there were tons of business suit types around, presumably on expense accounts. We were seated at a small table next to a large business suit wearing group who was being extremely rude to their waitress (one of my ultimate pet peeves). Luckily, they were gone by the time our entrees arrived, so they didn't ruin our entire dining experience.

For the appetizers, Paul ordered a Caprese salad (his favorite), made with local heirloom tomatoes and I had a "hearthbread" (which is basically a thin crust pizza) topped with smoked salmon, dill infused creme fresh, and two types of caviar. (The caviar was basically the type that you find on sushi, so it didn't really add much and I could have done without it, but other than that it was tasty!) For the entree course, Paul had pancetta wrapped salmon with mixed vegtable couscous and I had handmade crimini mushroom ravioli in a prcini mushroom buerre blanc. Wow, this dish was amazing on so many levels! One of the best pastas I have ever had anywhere, and I am guessing one of the bext things on the menu (if not the best). For dessert, we split a Tiramisu, which I must say seemed pretty mediocre and disappointing after how mind blowing my entree was. All in all, it was a nice meal, but definitely over priced. (Which might explain all of the expense account types . . . )

I have to say that it was one of my better birthdays - we'll see if 28 continues to be a better year from here on out!