BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Saturday night was Meena's birthday party! It wasn't her exact birthday, but we felt like it would be the most fun to hang out on Saturday. We could go all out and stuff. You know. Eat, drink and be merry. All that lovely stuff.

We started off the night at one of our favorites - Black Mountain Wine House. We thought it would be fun to start there with a bottle of wine and a few nibbles. So we kicked it off with a bottle of proscecco and a nice charcuterie and a couple cheeses. One smoky goat cheese and then a really rich, gouda like cow's milk cheese. The rain was coming down hard outside, but all was well inside Black Mountain.

After we finished up there, we hopped in a car and rode on down to Red Hook for the evening's main event. We'd been wanting to try The Good Fork for a really long time. From the moment we'd heard about a little Korean girl cooking in the kitchen of a restaurant she owned with her white boy husband, we figured the place was just calling us. It took us a long time, but we finally made it down there for what ended up being a really lovely meal.

Meena kicked her meal off with a really fantastic dish of seared diver scallops. They were seared perfectly and the sauce was touched with lemon and some sort of Indian spice. Meena was also pretty in love with the grilled ramp.

I started with housemade pork dumplings and a really thick, soy based dipping sauce. I think it was anyway. Whatever the case, they were really good.

Next, Meena moved into her main course, the dish she'd wanted to eat for a couple years - steak and eggs Korean style. It was a lovely grilled skirt steak with an egg and kimchee rice. It was really awesome. The fried egg, the medium rare steak ... and the spicy rice packed with all that amazing fermented cabbage flavor?!? Perfect dish.

I went with the thai spare ribs with a panzanella that had a little pepper and okra. The ribs were just perfect. The meat was tender and packed with flavor. I'm not sure what gave it all the deliciousness, but it was really wonderful. And the little bread salad was the perfect pairing.

We finished the meal off with a chocolate bread pudding that had a bit of raspberry glaze and some ice cream.

Suffice it to say, we were so so so stuffed. But the food was just so darn good that we had to eat it all. It was a gluttonous night, but man was it worth every last calorie. If you're going to go all out, you might as well do it right.

After dinner we walked across the street to Tini, a lovely little spot we'd once explored for brunch. We saw a nice little Rose tasting on their special board and figured we'd give it a try. What happened next was funny.

The waitress brought us the biggest, most giant fishbowl glass of wine ever. Later, we were informed that she actually put all four of the tasting flight wines in one glass. Thinking the flight was actually just one big cocktail. Well, she later corrected her mistake, but we did have a few drinks of the massive concoction before we moved on to the smaller glasses. Not that great. But not that BAD either. It was sorta strange. Very funny. Silly story.

And that was that. That was Meena's lovely birthday night and I think we both had a real blast. Great food, fun new spots and old favorites. I think she really enjoyed it.