The Running Man

Thursday, July 12, 2007

My Birthday

On Wednesday, it was my birthday (thank you for all your well wishes my friends). Another birthday right?! NO! it was the most memorable and fantastic birthdays I have ever had :)!!! No exaggeration. Have never felt so spoilt and loved before...all orchestrated by my dear Lil :). My birthday actually started a day earlier, where on Tues I had an unexpected surprise @ work... And inside this box... Cupcakes!!! all freshly made (I shared it around with my office colleagues and could proudly tell them who gave them to me!) and very light and fresh...each of the 'symbols' or decorations at the top of the cupcakes symbolises what sort of cupcake it is...eg. the carrot = carrot cupcake, green = choc mint cupcake, etc. Delicious! Thinking that was enough surprises for a day that wasn't even my birthday...when I got home...
A Chinese feast! (Oysters, Peeled Prawns, Roast Pork, Peking Duck, Veges...and Marissa even bought Sharks Fin Soup home!!!)
There was so much food! and it was the type of food you would eat at a 5 star hotel or resturant. My dear Lil and Maz both organised this one, and we all (including Ant, Marissa and JB) had a good times just relaxing and feasting on the feast prepared!
The chefs and the assitant :P
JY even made an appearance at my place :). Thinking that that was it and that tomorrow (Wed) when its my actual birthday there would be nothing much on except for dinner with Lil...I was wrong....
Yup...my dear also delivered birthday baloons to my work, now everyone knew it was my birthday (which was her idea :P haha)
New decorations for my office :)
Surrounded by balloons!
Us :).
Such a (very) unexpected surprise :P...it really made me very happy and was looking forward to dinner just with Lil that night. Thinking we were going to someplace simple....I was again very wrong. We went to Astral @ Star City (menu: http://www.astralrestaurant.com.au/menus/Tasting.pdf) where we had a very very (I mean very expensive degestation menu...ie tasting menu where you could try the best of everything). Here is what we had (with description) according to the menu...
THE CHEF’S CANAPE
CAULIFLOWER velouté with QLD scallop
FLIGHT OF SEAFOOD oyster with yuzu & hazelnut emulsion, Petrossian caviar, tuna tartare
SCAMPI tartare, grain mustard, macadamia nut, cherry
CRAB tortellini, vichy carrots, carrot air
DUCK confit duck cigar, roast autumn fruits & vegetables
ROCK LOBSTER tartine, white onion purée
WAGYU BEEF watercress & potato purée, garlic & pernod butter, bone marrow custard,’Jerez’ jus
CHEESE Brillat Savarin
APPLE 3 WAYS smoking pre dessert
PEANUT BUTTER & jelly ice cream sandwich
Tea, coffee & handmade petits fours
A truely gastronomical experience (was so full after all that) with my taste buds being assaulted by the myraid of flavours, textures and taste. My favourite was the Wagyu beef (which is the best best and most expensive forms of beef money can buy...as the cows are treated like kings so as they can produce the best meat...no rib eyes here!) accompanied with the bone marrow (bet you have never tasted a well cooked bone marrow dish right...well this was really divine..can really tell that its bone marrow, but it was just so delicious! :). Another memorable experience was that I actually got to taste real caviar! I don't know much about the types of caviar and whether 'Petrossian' caviar was the best...but it didn't matter...it was my first time and the taste was well not what I would have thought of mere 'fish eggs' (sturgeon to be precise). It was served with a quail egg and a mother of pearl spoon (something other than metal or silver because that would react with the caviar and hence ruin the taste..as we were informed by the waitress)..the spoon is at the bottom left of the picture. The taste..well it was like a super fish ball...just explodes with fish flavour once in your mouth...but is not overpowering and make ur mouth smell of fish. Its hard to describe..but its definitely something I can get use to hhaaha...
Me and my caviar! Lil and her lobster and truffle (which is one of the rarest fungus available...hence like caviar..very expensive!). Now it was also interesting eating the truffle...couldn't really say much about it except that it had a unique taste (its cut into very thin slices because of its rarity and costs :P).
The pictures above do not do justice to the food we had (apologies, but I didn't bring my camera with me...see how much of a surprise it was!..and had to resort to using my hp camera :P). The view (of Darling Harbour and Sydney City skyline)was also very picturesque and really did set the mood. It was a fantastic birthday celebrations (and Lil also had a couple of presents for me too :) and I feel so spoilt :P and it was unforgetable, especially for the company :).
Thank you Lil!!! You have really made my special day...truely special and showered with attention and affection. Looking forward to next year (and your birthday!) haha...

1 comment(s):

DD, happy birthday~~~ =)

By Blogger j*deee, at 1:11 PM  

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