Kenny's 29 Years and 13 Months Old!

June 19, 2006

FRIDAY

Hooray! Friday brought the weekend, the first since Kenny arrived back in the country, and coincidentally, it also was his 30th birthday. Go 1976 babies!

We had reservations for a birthday dinner at Andalu, one of Kenny's favorite joints, and the site of his going away dinner over 8 months ago. Wendy, Abe, Trent, Ashley, Dana (Ashley's friend who just moved to Seattle to do her residency and who just turned 30 as well...go 1976!), Will and I joined Kenny to celebrate his birthday. Or, as he likes to call it, his "29 Years and 13 Months" celebration.

Andalu is a steady and good place to take friends, out-of-towners, parents and the like for dinner in the Mission. They serve up small plates that are delicious, and occasionally infuse their menu with a few new items to change things up, while preserving their great "stand-by" dishes. They are known for their great Ahi Tartar tacos that are on special on Tuesdays for $1 each...yum!




For dinner:

- Ahi Tartar Tacos with Chili and Lime, Mango Salsa
- Curly Polenta Fries, Spicy Tomato Vinaigrette
- Cambazola Cheese Fondue with Fuji Apples and Asian Pears
- Butter Lettuce Wedge Salad with Creamy Tarragon Vinaigrette
- Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin with Lemon Aioli, Mushroom and Fennel Salad
- Halibut Paillard with Cilantro, Ginger, Soy, and Hot Grapeseed Oil
- Dungeness Crab Rangoon with Sweet and Sour Sauce
- Roasted Portobello with Bone Marrow, Balsamic Reduction and Arugula-Frisee Salas
- Coca-Cola Braised Short-ribs with White Bean Salad
- Grilled Flatiron Steak with Chimmichurri and Fries

Dessert:
- Fresh Donut Holes with Castillian Hot Cocoa

Of note, the Dungeness Crab Rangoon is a newer menu item and it was wonderful. I love the Crab Rangoon that you can get at Eric's in Noe Valley, but the Andalu version is a slimmer, crispier egg-roll shape that is a nice taste of crab without too much overwhelming cream cheese. Another newer item was the beef tenderloin carpaccio, which was also a great treat because I love me some thinly sliced raw beef. Also, we noted that both the short ribs and flatiron steak dishes were much larger than we had last seen it, with a bigger plate, more sides, and more meat. Yum!

In general, we made the mistake of ordering too much and we were all gluttonous fools and tried to eat it all. Had we realized that the portions were slightly bigger, and remembered how rich/filling some of the dishes were, we would definitely have down-sized the order (future note-to-self).


The donut holes! And hot chocolate!





After dinner, we strolled down the street for some more revelry and libations at Kilowatt, a good old alternative bar with pool tables, darts, multiple TVs featuring sporting events, tattoo-streaked bartenders, and almost everything you could want on tap. Also, if it's your birthday, you can go to the bar, hand over your ID, and they'll give you a Polaroid camera with 10 pictures to use. The caveats are that you have to have at least 6 people drinking with you to get the camera. They also used to give you a cheap bottle of champagne too, but they must've realized that was too much hassle, and stopped offering that birthday treat.














A few of the Polaroids:






And, apparently, Shaun has decided that his famous "party face" has graced the blog pages too often and he may be in need of a new "look". So, here are a few candidates for Shaun's new "blog face":






Any winners? Feel free to vote for your favorite. Personally, I like the original "look".

SATURDAY

Saturday was a fantastic day of productivity. I did laundry, cleaned up, made three homemade cards, and started the monstrous and mundane task of ripping all my CDs onto my hard drive...ick. I think I got through about 50 or so. Will and I went for a long walk in our surrounding neighborhood and checked out all the houses on sale (still damn expensive!).

At 5 pm, Wendy, Kenny and Jet came over to join Will, Courtney and I and watch Game 6 of the NHL playoffs between the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes (the Hurricanes were leading the series 3-2). It was a sweet game, with Edmonton clearly dominating the Hurricanes with a flurry of defensive and offensive prowess, and strong physical presence, winning 4-0. Carolina seems to be playing on their heels and reacting to being pummeled against the ropes. It's so exciting to see Edmonton come from behind and tie the series to take it to Game 7 in Carolina on Monday (today!).

Wendy had a brilliant idea to pick up some ingredients so that we could make a somewhat bastardized version of the Belgian Moules et Frites (Mussels and Fries) recipe from Geneve's food blog. In fact, Wendy picked up 5 pounds of mussels for $14 at the Seafood Center on Clement in Inner Richmond. We cheated and used the fast food fries from Ore Ida instead of making homemade fries, very yummy still for lazy cooks like us!

We prepared the Moules et Frites during the first intermission, and also threw in some french bread (for the broth!), shrimp cocktail, and brie cheese. The mussels were really easy to make and it was a delicious and perfect companion to the sweet, sweet hockey game. In our fervor over the game and uncontrolled mass consumption of the mussels and fries, I completely forgot to take a few pictures for the blog...oops!


SUNDAY

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Sunday brought another sweet and sunny day, and we had to head to Castro Valley for a four-hour frisbee practice. Will, Coco and I picked up Wendy and headed over to East bay. It was somewhat refreshing to show up to practice without any traces of a headache, hangover, sicky flu, overwhelming allergies or tiredness...my mom would be so proud! I tried calling my dad to wish him a good father's day, but he was already on his boat competing in a fishing derby back home...sweet!

Practice was long, but really good and productive, despite having pretty much no subs. And, Castro Valley was not as HOT! as I thought it would be.

After practice, we headed back to the city and relaxed and ate dinner. Will and Wendy had an early hockey game, so I went with them to cheer the Panteras on as they played a team called "TBA".





Number 8 is sooo dreamy!!!


Fellow Canuck, Leeanne (sp?), and Captain Paul's wife

The game was really good, as both teams matched up really well with their skating level and physical play. I was very animated througout the game, as there were plenty of penalties, good scoring chances, fantastic goaltending, and a player on the other team was making me irate (he was a small guy with really good skills, but he played really physical and wasn't wearing any upper body pads/protection and had not face guard...he was an accident waiting to happen).

The game was scoreless through the first two periods, and then finally the other team went ahead 1-0 with the little annoying guy on a breakaway. Finally, the Panteras hustled and managed to get a goal amid some mass chaos in the last 16 seconds of the third period! Time constraints didn't allow for any overtime, so the game ended with a 1-1 tie. Sweet!

After the game, we headed over to Hotel Utah for some post-hockey drinks.

And, in other good news, my dad and his fishing partner Gary, came in second in the fishing derby! Congratulations to my Daddy on a great Father's Day!