Mad Hatter’s Tea Party

12th Birthday Party

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Food Porn

We celebrated Brian’s birthday at Morimoto in Philadelphia. Morimoto is the Japanese chef from Iron Chef and Iron Chef America. Morimoto was discovered while he was working at Nobu in New York. We ate there about 3 years ago and that meal was in my top five (maybe top 2) meals I have ever eaten.

I had high expectations for Morimoto. It was very highly rated online and got rave reviews. We splurged and had the 8 course Chef’s tasting menu. And it didn’t disappoint. Every dish was amazing.

It is hard to say what my favorite dish was, maybe the tuna, or the octopus. I think Brian liked the braised Kobe short rib with wasabi crust. You’ll notice that most of my pictures have a bite of food missing, because I kept forgetting to take the picture until after I started eating. 🙂 I forgot the Kobe beef entirely.

Japanese restaurants aren’t really known for their desserts but the banana peanut butter bacon ice cream was fantastic.

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nom nom nom

I saw this Food Challenge game on Facebook today and decided it was too fun not to post on my blog. Out of 100 more or less unusual foods I have eaten 80 and 5 of the 20 I haven’t eaten are actually drinks.
1. Abalone
 2. Absinthe
3. Alligator
 4. Baba Ghanoush
5. Bagel and Lox
6. Baklava
7. Barbecue Ribs
8. Bellini – This is actually a cocktail of sparkling wine and pureed peaches
9. Bird’s Nest Soup
10. Biscuits and Gravy
 11. Black Pudding
12. Black Truffle
 13. Borscht
14. Calamari
15. Carp
16. Caviar
17. Cheese Fondue
 18. Chicken and Waffles – I have eaten chicken and I have eaten waffles but not “chicken and waffles.” And there used to be a Chicken and Waffles places right down the street from our first apt. in L.A. (The one where we lived under Vincent Kartheiser.)
19. Chicken Tikka Masala
20. Chile Relleno
21. Chitlins
22. Churros
23. Clam Chowder
24. Cognac
25. Crab Cakes
26. Crickets – No, but I did eat a chocolate covered ant at Godiva.
27. Currywurst – No, but it sounds good.
28. Dandelion Wine – Another drink I haven’t had
29. Dulce De Leche
30. Durian – People eat durian??
31. Eel
32. Eggs Benedict
33. Fish Tacos
34. Foie Gras
35. Fresh Spring Rolls
36. Fried Catfish
37. Fried Green Tomatoes
38. Fried Plantain
39. Frito Pie
40. Frogs’ Legs
41. Fugu – This is that possibly lethally poisonous pufferfish that they eat in Japan, and probably the only thing on this list that I wouldn’t eat if given the chance.
42. Funnel Cake
43. Gazpacho
44. Goat
45. Goat’s Milk
46. Goulash
47. Gumbo – This is my favorite meal.
48. Haggis – I do really want to try haggis.
49. Head Cheese
50. Heirloom Tomatoes
51. Honeycomb

52. Hostess Fruit Pie
53. Huevos Rancheros
54. Jerk Chicken
55. Kangaroo – If jerky counts I ate some kangaroo jerky that I bought from Jungle Jim‘s in Cincinnati. Best grocery store EVAH!
56. Key Lime Pie – This is my favorite dessert, especially how my grandma makes it.
57. Kobe Beef
58. Lassi – This is a yogurt based drink from India. That I am surprised I haven’t had.
59. Lobster
60. Mimosa
61. MoonPie

62. Morel Mushrooms
63. Nettle Tea
64. Octopus – nom nom nom
65. Oxtail Soup – Brian makes a mean oxtail soup
66. Paella
67. Paneer
68. Pastrami on Rye
69. Pavlova – I’d never heard of this. Apparently it is a meringue based dessert named after the famous dancer.
70. Phaal – One of the spiciest of Indian curries. I need to eat this.
71. Philly Cheese Steak – Nope.
72. Pho
73. Pineapple and Cottage Cheese
74. Pistachio Ice Cream
75. Po’ Boy
76. Pocky
77. Polenta
78. Prickly Pear – Brian once made up prickly pear jam from pricky pears he harvested from a mountain hike in SoCal.
79. Rabbit Stew – Brian made this recently.
80. Raw Oysters – Of course, I grew up in South Florida.
81. Root Beer Float
82. S’mores
83. Sauerkraut
84. Sea Urchin
85. Shark
86. Snail
87. Snake
88. Soft Shell Crab
89. Som Tam – Never heard of it but now I really really want it. It is listed at 46 on World’s 50 most delicious foods by CNN Go
90. Spaetzle
91. Spam – spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam
92. Squirrel – Nope
93. Steak Tartare
94. Sweet Potato Fries
95. Sweetbreads
96. Tom Yum – This is my most favorite soup.
97. Umeboshi
98. Venison
99. Wasabi Peas
100. Zucchini Flowers

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Remember remember the month of November

For those of you that aren’t on Facebook, and didn’t see my daily word count, I am happy to announce that I won the Nanowrimo challenge and finished a 50,000 word book in November. 

 

I had some dark days and days when I was really looking forward to the end of November, but, for the most part, it was a really good experience. I challenged myself and met that challenge, and that always feels good. I also learned about my writing style and added some new skills to my writing repertoire.

 

I am proud of myself, because writing every single day for a month isn’t easy. But I am even more proud of my daughter and husband.

Z also participated in Nanowrimo, the junior version. She gave herself a VERY lofty word goal of 20,000 words and she won her challenge too! With a couple days to spare. I am crazy impressed. I am impressed with how much she wrote but also with her determination, which got her sitting in front of her computer, day after day and night after night, to get her story done. Congrats Z!

My husband had his own challenge for November. It was to write and produce 4 songs in 4 weeks. This is a Spin Tunes challenge. The first one was Write a Happy Song about Death. Brian’s answer to that was Hello World!, a “death takes a holiday” song. This is a fun song that makes me want to drink a margarita on the beach.

His second song challenge, News to Me, was about a topical news story. B thinks it is debatable whether he fulfilled the actual requirement of the challenge, but I think he totally delivered.

Clubbin Tonight is B’s first attempt at a rap. And I think it is pretty hilarious. It almost works as one of the typical songs you’ll hear on the radio these day about going to clubs and dancing. But, if you actually listen to, or better yet, read the lyrics, you we see B put his usual funny twist on things.

Last song, and maybe my favorite, is a love song to Stephen King’s Christine, from an old beater. It is entitled, Christine. I love how poetic this song is and how heart-felt, even though it is written from the p.o.v. of a car.

To celebrate our awesomeness (I actually said that to the waiter) we went to dinner last night at Max Brenner. It was a real treat! (pun intended) All the food was good, some dishes, (B and I split 3 appetizers) were great. The presentation was amazing, I kind of felt like I was eating dinner at Willa Wonka’s Cafe, if there was such a thing. But it was also really classy, about a million miles away from something like Chuck E. Cheeses. Max Brenner is known for it’s chocolate and, since we were celebrating, we each ordered a dessert. Z got a chocolate pizza, B got fried banana fondue, and I got a chocolate heart cake with ice cream, berries and a shot of chocolate milk.

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It was a magical night, (we walked there, through Christmas Village, and under the lights) and a magical dinner to cap off our crazy November.

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