25th Birthday - Clio, ACBF, and party!

My 25th birthday was on Friday...crazy. When I was younger I always used to imagine myself as a 25 year old working in a city wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase. I got the city part right but definitely not the wardrobe! No business suits for this girl.

It doesn't feel weird to be 25...truthfully it feels just like 24...and even more truthfully sometimes I still feel like a little kid. I guess that's a good thing?

Anyway my birthday was fantastic!! It started on Thursday with an extravagant gift from my boss (actually it started at Iron and Wine a few weeks ago), the Nike FuelBand! I really like it but forget to wear it sometimes. I'll talk more about it once I've worn it for a few weeks.

On Friday I came into work to a box of munchkins sitting on my desk. I had so many for breakfast and ate them throughout the day. Yay for birthday treats! For lunch my co-worker took me out for sushi and it was delish. I tried to stay pretty light since Tom told me to be hungry for my surprise dinner that night!

Before dinner Tom came over with beautiful pink and yellow flowers, and some birthday gifts! This guy knows me too well: he got me a molecular gastronomy kit and a head chef coat (with French buttons)!!

I cannot wait to use the kit and to be a real top chef, weeeee!!

After presents, it was time for dinner. We ended up at Clio, a practically secret fancy place in the Elliot Hotel that I had been talking about for months!! We took one look at the menu and Tom asked the ultimate birthday question: "Should we do the 14 course tasting menu with or without the wine pairing?"

And so it was decided! 14 courses were about to come our way. We opted out for the wine pairing -- we had a big day of drinking ahead of us and I'm not a big wine drinker so I didn't think it was worth taking up space in my belly with wine :)

Compared to Menton last year, Clio was a lot more adventurous with the combinations and flavors. I will do my best to remember each course, but I guarantee I'll miss about 50% of what was on each plate.

A dark TKO waiting for drinks!

Birthday girl and a delicious martini...HUGE smiles!

Amuse bouche -- a little crouton type thing with a goat cheese emulsion.

Course #1 - Tomato water with oil droplets, some type of berry, and a little tomato ice pop

#2 - Striped bass sashimi with orange slices, goji berries, chardonnay droplets and a soy based sauce

#3 - Oysters with caviar and chives

#4 - Strawberry gaspacho with tuna, fresh (first of the season) strawberries and a crispy  garnish

#5 - Lamb tartare with a yogurt sauce made with the bones of the lamb

#6 - A lobster cassoulet with parsnip broth, topped with chili threads and a (lemon?) foam

#7 - Some type of white fish topped with BBQ sauce and served over greens

#8 - Escargot with crispy duck tongue (!!)

#9 - White asparagus with morel mushrooms, a crouton, and Parmesan foam

#10 - Foie gras with honey, raspberry jelly, mushrooms and a crispy honey stick thing -- there are also little pickles hidden under the foie gras

#11 - Slow cooked pork with a very crispy skin, couscous, asparagus and ramps

#12 - Blue cheese and cheddar cheese with raisin bread (unpictured), dates and candied raisins

#13 - This picture looks weird, but that is two cream filled cripsy cannelloni, raspberries and a red pepper sorbet

#14 - A crazy dessert! There is a chocolate gelato, a mint gelato, white chocolate powder, and a LOT of other stuff!

#15 - An extra birthday course! A pineapple something, raspberry sorbet, and white chocolate powder.

Little blueberry chocolates with the check!

Extremely full at course #15!

This dinner was amazing and made me so incredibly happy! My 3 top courses were the lobster cassoulet, the sashimi, and the foie gras. I'm such a sucker for foie gras. I really really liked all 3 desserts -- it's hard to pick a favorite. Just as fun as eating was making Tom analyze and rate every course while we ate! He's such a good sport :) His favorite was the white asparagus, surprisingly!

On Saturday we had a big day planned! During the day I went to the American Craft Beer Festival with a few friends. It was awesome as usual. This year's festival had over 640 beers from over 140 brewers. Insanity! I attempted to check off all the beers I tried from the packet they gave me but probably missed a few. I think my favorite of the day was Lawson's Double Sunshine IPA. Not a big surprise since it scored 100 on Beer Advocate. I didn't take any pictures during the day because my hands were always full, but I had a really great time. By the time the festival ended at 4:30 I was pretty drunk.

After the festival we went back to my apartment to get ready for a little get together I was throwing. Major thanks to Tom and his brother who got everything together and set up while I ate pizza and took a nap :)

The party was really fun and me and Tom won the beer pong tournament!! We set up a real bracket and everything :) Unfortunately we weren't playing for anything. Next time they'll be a prize for the winning team!

I didn't take any pictures at my house either, but here's one my friend took of the ladies (and Andy):

Okay, this is a long post and has far too many exclamation points. I have one more birthday present happening next week :) Can't wait for it!!