Project 365: Day 17

Had a busy day-before-my-birthday day! Woke up with my lovey, stayed in bed and randomly caught a Streetfighter movie on TV (Legend of Chun Li or something like that, lol), went to the gym, got my hair did, had lunch downtown, picked up my wool and seersucker blazers from the tailor, did computer stuff, then had an AMAZING birthday dinner at Benu!

The dinner had 17 courses and lasted 3.5 hours! That’s pretty good if you ask me. I once had a pre fixe dinner in the Jewel Box at Mistral Kitchen in Seattle that lasted almost 4 hours, too. I honestly LOVE long dinners. They’re super relaxing and the food is almost always spectacular at these nice establishments. I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s birthday dinner. The food was SO delicious and the service was impeccable. (Anybody want to hit up French Laundry next?)

Afterward went to the Castro for some drinks but I didn’t last very long. I was SO frickin’ full and could barely move.

Can’t wait for brunch with T-Head and RSL tomorrow, then getting trashed with even more friends at Badlands!

Served with artichoke mayonnaise and walnut bread. Pre fixe dinner $180
Benu, San Francisco

When I saw this dish on the menu, I was very intrigued. I’ve had venison before, but never as a tartare. The deer had a surprisingly clean flavor. I expected it be very gamey, dark and tough, but it tasted pretty neutral. Most of the flavor from this dish came from the artichoke mayonnaise, walnut bread, and whatever the freeze dried crumbles were on the plate.

All the plates duirng dinner were beautiful! They were small poritons, but after 17 courses I was stuffed. The plates looked simple at a glanced but they had a lot of different components.

I’ll post the rest of the dishes soon!

Walnut bread. Even the bread was fantastic!

Moet e Chandon a Epernay, Champagne, Cuvee Dom Perignon, 1993. $40 corkage
Silverfox had this bottle of champagne laying around and he decided to pop the cork for my birthday dinner, aww! That’s a good thing because Benu had bottles of Dom Perignon 1996 and 1995 for $750 and $957, respectively. Ouch! We got away with only paying corkage.

The boxed bottle of champagne is just asking to be opened!

Menu signed by chef Corey Lee. This was a cute surprise at the end of the meal. We had menus at our table the entire time to keep up with what we were eating, but those were taken away at the end and replaced with a couple signed menus.