Birthday Feast Roundup

Birthdays are a fabulous excuse to get your favorite people in one place and eat delicious food. That is what I look forward to most when it comes to my birthday – spending time with my loved ones and indulging in something wonderful. I turned 27 on Friday and indulge I certainly did!

The big day started off with my coworker delivering a giant vanilla with chocolate frosting and sprinkles cupcake from Crumbs bakery to my desk. She knows me so well. This was my first experience with a Crumbs cupcake and it certainly won’t be my last. My two coworkers and I devoured the poor thing, and did it so quickly I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of it in all of its glory.

Overall I thought the cupcake was delicious, it was very moist (apologies if this word offends you) and the frosting didn’t overpower the whole thing as sometimes it can do. It’s a great little gift for someone’s birthday!

Friday night, my friends, coworkers, sister and I went to Trattoria Il Panino, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the North End. While the heat made for an interesting outdoor dining experience, the food was delicious. I feasted on pesto pasta which was light and fluffy – homemade pasta at its finest.

The next night, my very generous brother in law took my sister and I to Oishii in the South End for both of our birthdays (my sister and I are 3 years and 364 days apart to be exact). I’ve been to Oishii before and while it really deserves its own blog, this will have to do. Oishii is such a unique restaurant – it has mastered the art of being a fine dining establishment without any pretentiousness. Everyone is very friendly, service is stellar and the food is certainly something to write home about. It is expensive though, so a perfect place for a special occasion!

We began our meal with three appetizers:

-Salmon tempura with arugula salad in lemon dressing
-Kobe beef carpaccio with micro greens, fried Shallots, soy and pickled cherry blossom tempura on top
-Miso soup or “shiru”

All were delicious, especially the Salmon Tempura. It had a great crunch to it, and the lemon dressing was sublime.

For the rest of the meal we got:
-The Maki covered with Toro which has spicy mayo, asparagus, cucumber, bonito flakes and toro torched on top with a gingery Sauce and jalapeño
-Oishii Spicy Tuna Tempura Maki which has bluefin tuna sashimi, fleur de sel and chives
-Crispy Salmon Maki which has crispy tempura flakes, spicy mayo, tobiko and avocado maki with raw salmon and menegi on top
-Rock Shrimp Explosion Maki which has tempura rock shrimp and avocado rolled in white seaweed with brown rice chips and ting's wasabi flavored lemony sauce on top
-Toro Truffle Maki which has shrimp tempura, spicy mayo, cucumber, covered with seared toro, white truffle and sturgeon caviar on top

And lastly for dessert we feasted on a green tea layered cake with mascarpone and chocolate. A very satisfying dessert that wasn’t so rich you felt nauseous after you ate it.

Everyone had their own favorites of the night; I would certainly recommend the Crispy Salmon Maki and the Rock Shrimp Explosion Maki. Top notch sushi restaurants such as this make all the difference in the world – the ingredients are fresh and the fish practically melts in your mouth. And when it comes to eating sushi, I have a “go big or go home” mentality. I rarely eat rolls that only have one or two ingredients in them. While rolls with 5+ ingredients may seem intimidating to people, about 99.9% of the time the ingredients come together so harmoniously and it’s worth taking the risk.

Overall, a heavenly birthday that satisfied both my heart and stomach.