Twenty Eight
I've always considered my birthday less a single celebration and more as a series of events. To this end I give you a run down of Trav's 28th birthday.
My birthday started off badly, with work forgetting to organise a lunch. By the time they got around to it only two people had responded in the affirmative. Not wanting to look like a sad case I asked them to move it to the next Friday.
Things picked up that night though. Ange and I headed out to SOS. As one present she'd organised for me. Another being the copy of Warioware she'd given me two weeks earlier. It was our third time at the restaurant, but with a rotating menu based on seasonal produce we were always going to be surprised.
To keep a bit of continuity we started off with a bottle of Carlei Green Vineyard Pinot Gris 2006. The same wine we had the last time we dined there, only slightly younger.
Unfortunately SOS haven't updated the menu on their website, so I'm only able to give vague descriptions of our meals.
Ange started off with a entree seafood spaghetti and then moved on to a banded snapper fillet for main.
I grabbed the three mushroom risotto for entree and a serve of scampi tails with red wine vinegarette for main.
We'd discussed getting gelati on the way home as a dessert, but as soon as we saw the homemade honeycomb with chocolate and blood orange syrup we just had to have some. It was a wise decision.
After a bit of confusion Ange and I met up with Mike and Justine out at Lygon Street the following night. They handed me a bottle of Mount Gay rum and an iTunes card, which I really wasn't expecting (but thanks again, guys!)
After pushing into the crowd to begin the search for a place to eat we soon discovered the added bonus carrying around a bottle firmly wrapped in a brown paper bag confers. Every hawker on the street would offer outlandish incentives if we would eat at their establishment. They'd soon back down once I point out that bottle contained rum and not a wine varietal. Except for one enterprising chap, who offered me a bottle of rum twice the value of the one I was carrying. You could only imagine the quality of the food at that particular eatery.
After we had enough of squeezing past the throngs of people we picked a restaurant (as with Mike I don't remember what it was called) and made ourselves comfortable at one of the outside table. Though we quickly moved inside once the smoke from nearby diners started to choke Justine and Ange.
After re-settling ourselves in the relatively noise free, but 100% cigarette-free upstairs area we set about ordering.
Ange ordered the Fettucine Marinara, then quickly changed to a risotto. I grabbed the Rigatoni con Salcicia (ordered in flawless Italian no less. Mike went for a risotto with mussels, while Justine opted for the Vegetarian Risotto.
The restaurant also gave us a free bottle of Sav Blanc Semillon, which was nowhere near as sweet as it should've been for something with Semillon in the blend. Ange and Justine gave up after half a glass each, leaving Mike and I to power through the rest of the bottle.
The meals weren't spectacular, having sat for some time under a heat lamp. My rigatoni had actually begun to cool around edges. A quick stir soon redistributed the heat throughout the plate. I should mention that Ange let it be known that I can cook a better Italian meal than they could. Possibly the best compliment ever.
Once we'd cleaned our plates we wandered over to the opposite side of Lygon Street for icecream. Not long after that we went our separate ways. It wasn't that late, but the meals weighed heavily.
Sunday afternoon Ange and I headed out to the Belgium Beer Cafe on St Kilda Road to meet up with a few of the ZGeeks. The meals were good, if a little too pricey for what they were, but it was a nice way to spend a lazy, sunny afternoon. Especially as we ended up back in Lygon Street for another round of icecream.
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