Yesterday Hyperception spoiled me rotten the entire day in honor of our 20th wedding anniversary. He took the entire day off from work and school, we sent Beorn off to school, and then after our morning routines he took me lunch downtown at an Upscale pan-asian resturaunt called Liquid Ginger, where we had a fabulous meal of pan-seared scallops and pot stickers to start, thai-curried silken tofu with vegetables and gingered shrimp with snow pea pods. Each meal came with soup, miso for Hyperception and a spinach-tofu in a very delicate chicken broth for me, salad with ginger dressing, spring roll and rice. A pot of chrysantheum tea rounded out the meal.
We then took a stroll around downtown, walking through the park and listening to the migrating birds singing their various songs.
We went back home to meet Beorn when he returned from school, got him set up and going on his weekday routine and homework, ordered him a pizza for dinner, and verified that he knew his evening routine. Then we went out to The Melting Pot for our anniversary dinner.
Neither of us wanted a bottle of wine, so we focused our attention on our meal. We ordered what is known as
The Big Night Out, a four course fondue meal.
The appetizer was a traditional cheese fondue of Emmanthaler and Greyuer, melted in chablis and lemon juice with a touch of chopped garlic. Seasoned with kirsch, ground nutmeg, and freshly grated black pepper, we dipped various types of bread cubes, granny smith apples, and vegetable crudites of cauliflower, celery, and carrots into the luscious cheese.
A salad course was next. Hyperception got a spinach and mushroom salad with a lime vinaigrette, whereas I had a "California" salad of frisee, greens, gorgonzola crumbles, sunflower seeds, and diced fresh tomato concasse with a raspberry vinaigrette.
The entree course was next. We do the bourginoin (sp?) version, the hot canola oil for cooking our food. Our entree consisted of pork tenderloin cubes, jamaican jerked beef cubes, chicken breast tenderloins, shrimp, filet mignon cubes, lobster tail, and butter nut squash filled ravioli. We got broccoli florets, sliced yellow crookneck squash, par-boiled red potatoes, and button mushroom caps to cook along with the meats.
Coatings included a tempura batter and a sesame paste batter. A green g-ddess paste was also included for filling the mushroom caps before coating with the batter and cooking.
Sauce choices on the table for after the various items were cooked included a sweet mango chutney (went excellent with the fried ravioli), curried mayonnaise, cocktail sauce, gongonzola port dressing for the beef, sweet and sour, teriyaki, and a garlic butter for the shrimp and lobster.
Dessert was a dark chocolate and marshmallow fondue, flambed with 151 rum and some chopped Oreos stirred in. The dippable offerings for the chocolate fondue were sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, mini rice krispie treats, chocolate brownie bites, chocolate dusted and coconut dusted marshmallows, and a slice of cheese cake.
It was wonderful, and it is a good thing such a celebration only occurs every decade or so.
