Happy Anniversary to Us
Eight years together, three years of marriage: how else can you celebrate but with gluttonous excess?
On about Wednesday, I emailed Phil with, "Holy crap! Our anniversary is this weekend." He responded, "Well would you look at that?" With that loving exchange, we settled on Friday to mark the occasion.
As a result, we finally tried Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a Nepalese/Himalayan restaurant on Solano Ave in Albany, CA. We have been trying to eat there for a month. One might think, eating at a restaurant, not that hard. However, our experience would indicate otherwise. One night we stopped by and they were closed for the week. Two weeks later, we tried to take Sarah (many visitors lately...an excuse for blog absence? Yes): closed for private party. Yesterday Phil informed me that if we didn't make it that very night, we should never go because we may upset the space-time continuum. Turned out, those crazy, crafty fates wanted to save it for our wedding celebration.
The food was well worth the effort of the two failed attempts. If for some reason you find yourself on Solano Ave, stop there and order the Khasi Ko Chhwela, which Phil had. On paper, it's lamb with onion. Really, it's the most savory and interesting lamb dish I've ever tasted. The Piro Kukhura, my meal, also tasted wonderful, but it was not unusual. It was shredded chicken with onions and ginger. The nasty surprise was the tomatoes. You've got to warn a girl before you do that to her! We washed it down with a 22 ounce Kirin Ichiban (er, each). Many people would have anniversary wine. That seems a poor, strange choice. Kathmandu had a fair wine selection, but the food was much better suited to beer. Northern California calls up images of vineyards and wine bars. In my limited experience, the beer available at almost any restaurant, domestic, international, and micro-brew all, is at least as varied and interesting, if not more so.
After, because we are extremely exciting people, we played cards and enjoyed more beers at The Pub. I highly recommend playing Spit with Phil when he's had a few. It's much easier to win. The Pub may be my favorite bar, only excepting Nick-a-Nees, which has PBR on tap for $1.00 (or did when I was in RI). Just ignore the extremely drunk middle-aged yuppies philosophizing over Sorry!, and focus on the $10.00 pitchers of Summer Solstice. A deck of cards helps as well. Because The Pub sells tobacco (nice tobacco, not like, Marlboros), the inside has that deep tobacco smell without the smoke. It looks like (and in fact I think is) a converted house, with comfy chairs and wooden tables crammed in. It's starts getting packed at 10:00PM on the weekends, which works for me and the old ball and chain, because that's just about when we are ready to go home. I enjoy being 80 years old in my 20s. I hit all the happy hours and am in bed by 11:00.
I think Phil and I are well-suited (which is good, see above re: married). I'm glad he doesn't want to have lavish plans for our celebrations; there's always so much pressure to make it PERFECT. We simply strolled out or door and wended our way through the hills of Berkeley to an evening of fine dining and romance. Well, our version of romance.
On about Wednesday, I emailed Phil with, "Holy crap! Our anniversary is this weekend." He responded, "Well would you look at that?" With that loving exchange, we settled on Friday to mark the occasion.
As a result, we finally tried Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a Nepalese/Himalayan restaurant on Solano Ave in Albany, CA. We have been trying to eat there for a month. One might think, eating at a restaurant, not that hard. However, our experience would indicate otherwise. One night we stopped by and they were closed for the week. Two weeks later, we tried to take Sarah (many visitors lately...an excuse for blog absence? Yes): closed for private party. Yesterday Phil informed me that if we didn't make it that very night, we should never go because we may upset the space-time continuum. Turned out, those crazy, crafty fates wanted to save it for our wedding celebration.
The food was well worth the effort of the two failed attempts. If for some reason you find yourself on Solano Ave, stop there and order the Khasi Ko Chhwela, which Phil had. On paper, it's lamb with onion. Really, it's the most savory and interesting lamb dish I've ever tasted. The Piro Kukhura, my meal, also tasted wonderful, but it was not unusual. It was shredded chicken with onions and ginger. The nasty surprise was the tomatoes. You've got to warn a girl before you do that to her! We washed it down with a 22 ounce Kirin Ichiban (er, each). Many people would have anniversary wine. That seems a poor, strange choice. Kathmandu had a fair wine selection, but the food was much better suited to beer. Northern California calls up images of vineyards and wine bars. In my limited experience, the beer available at almost any restaurant, domestic, international, and micro-brew all, is at least as varied and interesting, if not more so.
After, because we are extremely exciting people, we played cards and enjoyed more beers at The Pub. I highly recommend playing Spit with Phil when he's had a few. It's much easier to win. The Pub may be my favorite bar, only excepting Nick-a-Nees, which has PBR on tap for $1.00 (or did when I was in RI). Just ignore the extremely drunk middle-aged yuppies philosophizing over Sorry!, and focus on the $10.00 pitchers of Summer Solstice. A deck of cards helps as well. Because The Pub sells tobacco (nice tobacco, not like, Marlboros), the inside has that deep tobacco smell without the smoke. It looks like (and in fact I think is) a converted house, with comfy chairs and wooden tables crammed in. It's starts getting packed at 10:00PM on the weekends, which works for me and the old ball and chain, because that's just about when we are ready to go home. I enjoy being 80 years old in my 20s. I hit all the happy hours and am in bed by 11:00.
I think Phil and I are well-suited (which is good, see above re: married). I'm glad he doesn't want to have lavish plans for our celebrations; there's always so much pressure to make it PERFECT. We simply strolled out or door and wended our way through the hills of Berkeley to an evening of fine dining and romance. Well, our version of romance.
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