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Monday, February 13, 2012

Turning The Big 39

Last week was the week when I turned another year older and none the wiser. I have stopped celebrating my birthdays for some time now but this year, I decided to give it another go. Well actually, I lie. I do celebrate my birthdays but with lesser pomp than usual as the years progress. This year, I decided to invite my friends in smaller groups for dinner for a more intimate dining experience without having to go through all the usual birthday brouhaha. On the actual day however, I asked two of my good friends to go out and have dinner with me at Famous Dave's, a barbecue chain which is one of our favorite places to eat out. To recap my life's adventure that day:

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs
Today is my big day and feeling a bit more optimistic than usual, we started the evening with a panda. Well, Hello Panda to be exact. Now, don't get any weird ideas. Hello Panda is a brand of chocolate-filled treat from Japan. And by treat, I mean a yummy treat. A favorite since college, I have not had the chance to try one until today. I've seen them in most oriental stores and the World Market store almost always carries them. Today however is the the first time I actually bought them as a treat for myself. I was trying to not snack since I knew I was going out for dinner with friends but by 7pm, I just needed to nibble on something. 

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs
For dinner, we went to Famous Dave's and had Onion Strings for starters. Yes, strings, not rings. The onions are sliced very thinly that they resemble stings. They are seasoned with a peppery flavor and complemented with a tartar sauce dip of some kind. Very tasty indeed with a bit of a zing. As much as I wanted to order more appetizers for the three of us, I know for a fact that their serving portions are huge so we had to pace ourselves and settled for just the onion strings. 

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs
For the entree, I was hoping to get the platter that fed two to three people for the simple reason that they are served on garbage can lids. No, these are of the sanitized variety but wouldn't it look cool on my blog? We ended up ordering the two meat platter combos and thus, I have to get my usual rib tips and to balance this pig-out food, I paired it with fried cod. Their corn muffins are to die for as well. All in all, not too bad. 

Copyright 2012 LtDan'sKitchen blogs
Dessert was another story however. We decided or I decided I wanted to try their bread pudding and boy was it impressive. It was sliced so big it was way too much dessert even for the three of us. While we were eating it though, I could not help but think that my bread pudding is better. Oh my word! Sometimes, the baker in me tends to be very critical about desserts I eat and this results to a crippling problem because instead of savoring the food, I end up figuring out ways to improve what is in front of me. Despite this realization, it was still a wonderful dinner and we went home very full, a bit too full to be honest.

So there you have it folks! My big 39th birthday dinner with friends. Next year, I'm turning 38!

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