For years Molly and I have been talking about our Friendversary...and counting all of the many many years we have known each other. Which is amazing since we're in our 20's so we literally met in utero. hahahaha just kidding. Anyhoo - we have been talking about doing something for our friendversary since the 10 year mark and finally this year we actually came through on a celebration albeit 5 years later. Things came up...you know two weddings, a baby, moves and a dog... so for our crystal friendversary we headed up to the French Laundry for a feast during white truffle season. What was particularly awesome is that we first went to the French Laundry many many moons ago and that was our first fine dining experience and I think changed the trajectory of food for the both of us. Bookends for a wonderful food journey and friendship.
And now to the feast - I had to try REALLY REALLY hard to not inhale every single course so that I could savor and lose myself in every food memory
The famous amuse bouche - Salmon Coronets and Guyere gougeres
Nantes Carrot Veloute with medjool dates, marcona almonds and cilantro. Tasted like the earth - not dirt like but like it went from the garden to the blender to my bowl. And THANK YOU to the resident farmer Tucker Taylor for the tour and the awesome produce he is growing on the property.
The legendary Oysters and Pearls... ugh ugh ugh... sabayon, tapioca pearls, and sturgeon caviar. The first time I ate here, they served this in an oyster shell. I did feel like there was more because it was served in the bowl - deliciousness :)
Uni with apple ganite. I was surprised when this showed up because it is not what I would typically think of as something TFL would serve. Very Japanese...minimal ingredients and presentation but delicious goodness all around.
Abalone with bacon, savoy cabbage, ginger and peanuts. Heavenly little slaw type mixture under the most tender piece of abalone I have ever tasted.
Egg Custard with truffles and a potato crisp thing with chive. Freaking delicately amazing.
Salad course... Hawaiian hearts of pam, persimmon, beets, star anise and mache. This was like a little geometric sculpture
HOLY WHITE TRUFFLE SEASON! Behold the box of crown jewels...ahhhhh that is literally thousands of dollars of product in that little box. Each freaking truffle was the size of a softball and look at the healthy portion below on top of my hand cut tagliatelle
Monkfish wrapped in bacon with spaetzle, pickled pearl onions, turnips and mustard.
Scallop with salsify, black truffles and watercress (MORE TRUFFLES!!!)
The entrance of the salt service can signal only one thing... FOIE GRAS! I freaking love all the salt the bring out. Two different kinds of volcanic salt, sea salt, japanese snow salt and jurassic salt..that's right dinosaur salt bitches.
Foie gras terrine with banana, celery, cashew, oxtail and honey banyuls gastrique. I would have never thought to pair bananas with foie because typically I like a little acid to cut through the richness of duck liver. But the banana gave it a totally different flavor profile - richer but not heavy. Not my favorite pairing for foie but totally eye opening to what you could do with foie. Definitely reset my foie limits.
Now we go down home southern with a BBQ rabbit , baked beans, collard greens and corn bread. Super rich in a demi glace sort of way and also completely unexpected!
Beef with potato, mushrooms and bone marrow sauce - WOW lemme get back to that bone marrow sauce - WOW
Rad soft cheese with a little savory pan perdu, poached prunes, hazelnuts and sorrell.
Palate cleanser sorbet...elderflower with oxtails, chamomile and white honey. I always love this little gesture...almost as much as I love when the de-crumb the table.
Also legendary..Coffee and Donuts. No longer on the regular menu and is only served for special occasions or to special guests :) I like to think of us as special guests mainly because we are repeat diners. Donut was fabulous..light and fluffy and totally crisp on the outside. The cappuccino semifreddo is freaking amazing - no questions asked.
Surprise! more truffles! A white truffle float - melted toffee layer on the bottom, some bananas, white truffle ice cream and malt foam.... oy vay
Oops I forgot to tell them about my aversion to chocolate - DOH! But it worked out. I ate both of the ice cream servings and Molly ate both of the chocolate servings. The sign was a nice touch :) To many more friendversarys - YAY!
Happy Holidays everyone! Ahhh cold and rainy weather can mean only one thing....holiday party season. And every year we count down the days until the Salesforce company party. Why? Because Benihoff goes BIG and knows how to throw a party. The food, drinks and entertainment are always a hit. This year there were rumors of Katy Perry...which seemed totally crazy. The actual headliner was Cyndi Lauper which was rad because young and old we all know a few a her songs.
For years Molly and I have been talking about our Friendversary...and counting all of the many many years we have known each other. Which is amazing since we're in our 20's so we literally met in utero. hahahaha just kidding. Anyhoo - we have been talking about doing something for our friendversary since the 10 year mark and finally this year we actually came through on a celebration albeit 5 years later. Things came up...you know two weddings, a baby, moves and a dog... so for our crystal friendversary we headed up to the French Laundry for a feast during white truffle season. What was particularly awesome is that we first went to the French Laundry many many moons ago and that was our first fine dining experience and I think changed the trajectory of food for the both of us. Bookends for a wonderful food journey and friendship.
The famous amuse bouche - Salmon Coronets and Guyere gougeres
Nantes Carrot Veloute with medjool dates, marcona almonds and cilantro. Tasted like the earth - not dirt like but like it went from the garden to the blender to my bowl. And THANK YOU to the resident farmer Tucker Taylor for the tour and the awesome produce he is growing on the property.
The legendary Oysters and Pearls... ugh ugh ugh... sabayon, tapioca pearls, and sturgeon caviar. The first time I ate here, they served this in an oyster shell. I did feel like there was more because it was served in the bowl - deliciousness :)
Uni with apple ganite. I was surprised when this showed up because it is not what I would typically think of as something TFL would serve. Very Japanese...minimal ingredients and presentation but delicious goodness all around.
Abalone with bacon, savoy cabbage, ginger and peanuts. Heavenly little slaw type mixture under the most tender piece of abalone I have ever tasted.
Egg Custard with truffles and a potato crisp thing with chive. Freaking delicately amazing.
Salad course... Hawaiian hearts of pam, persimmon, beets, star anise and mache. This was like a little geometric sculpture
HOLY WHITE TRUFFLE SEASON! Behold the box of crown jewels...ahhhhh that is literally thousands of dollars of product in that little box. Each freaking truffle was the size of a softball and look at the healthy portion below on top of my hand cut tagliatelle
Monkfish wrapped in bacon with spaetzle, pickled pearl onions, turnips and mustard.
Scallop with salsify, black truffles and watercress (MORE TRUFFLES!!!)
The entrance of the salt service can signal only one thing... FOIE GRAS! I freaking love all the salt the bring out. Two different kinds of volcanic salt, sea salt, japanese snow salt and jurassic salt..that's right dinosaur salt bitches.
Foie gras terrine with banana, celery, cashew, oxtail and honey banyuls gastrique. I would have never thought to pair bananas with foie because typically I like a little acid to cut through the richness of duck liver. But the banana gave it a totally different flavor profile - richer but not heavy. Not my favorite pairing for foie but totally eye opening to what you could do with foie. Definitely reset my foie limits.
Now we go down home southern with a BBQ rabbit , baked beans, collard greens and corn bread. Super rich in a demi glace sort of way and also completely unexpected!
Beef with potato, mushrooms and bone marrow sauce - WOW lemme get back to that bone marrow sauce - WOW
Rad soft cheese with a little savory pan perdu, poached prunes, hazelnuts and sorrell.
Palate cleanser sorbet...elderflower with oxtails, chamomile and white honey. I always love this little gesture...almost as much as I love when the de-crumb the table.
Also legendary..Coffee and Donuts. No longer on the regular menu and is only served for special occasions or to special guests :) I like to think of us as special guests mainly because we are repeat diners. Donut was fabulous..light and fluffy and totally crisp on the outside. The cappuccino semifreddo is freaking amazing - no questions asked. 
Surprise! more truffles! A white truffle float - melted toffee layer on the bottom, some bananas, white truffle ice cream and malt foam.... oy vay
Oops I forgot to tell them about my aversion to chocolate - DOH! But it worked out. I ate both of the ice cream servings and Molly ate both of the chocolate servings. The sign was a nice touch :) To many more friendversarys - YAY!
That's a picture of Sam with a light ball thing on his head. I think it was in the sensory area or something.
Some pics from downtown Hamburg Germany... The latest trip to Europe had me on 6 planes in 5 days and in each city for less than 24 hours = not that awesome but a lot of stamps on the passport
After taking some family pics up at Inspiration Point, we headed over to Julius Kahn park to let Donut run around before heading home for her to nap and for the bird to start cooking in the oven. While at the park we noticed a pretty extensive security detail and were trying to figure out who might be in attendance and it was none other than Nancy Pelosi with her grandchildren at the park. While obviously staring at her....the guys decided to make good use of the playground...
And Donut thought it was hilarious to see her dad and uncle Sam being so silly
Once we got home we got to work on the bird and setting the table...then Donut changed into her European Thanksgiving outfit to out cute everyone at the table.
Happy Friendsgiving! I forgot to take pictures of the food but did get some pics of the silly-ness that ensued once dinner was eaten and the kids discovered the glitter on the tables.
The garden is really starting to fill in nicely. The salad greens are 100% backyard fresh and we are just starting to get enough beans ripening at the same time to almost make a dinner serving.
Spinach up top and assorted lettuce and arugula down below
Assorted swiss chard and radishes above and snow pea bush vines below...
the monster cherry tomato plant - lot of leaves and lots of fruit...but nothing turning red yet - arg
So in Copenhagen they had these hot dog stands EVERYWHERE - and as a fan of processed meats (seriously I love hot dogs and sausages...not so much ham - but anywhoos... The standard hotdog came in this bun. not like the traditional bun you see where the bun is split so it folds open in half but it has a freaking hole in it.... A FREAKING HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BUN! It was almost too obscene to eat - but we ate them anyways - and they were delicious. If just a little heavy on the dressing.
This post is long overdue...but while in Copenhagen, I was able to go to Herman - a FREAKING amazing white tablecloth type of restaurant. Want to post pics now... but will get to describing what these are later.
