The first adventure was on Friday night. I asked Jeff to take me out, so I would feel like it was kind of a weekend. Piedad stayed with the girls, and we had an early dinner at Osaka, which is a Japanese/Peruvian fusion restaurant right next door to our favorite French restaurant.
Since we were dining early, they had their "abridged" menu which they served between 4 and 7.
Even the shortened menu had too many choices for us, so we asked our waiter for advice. He was great and helped us pick an assortment of small plates to share. Jeff asked for spicy, and the first dish he recommended was called nikudito, tenderloin with avocado.
It was only a little spicy. The avocado helped, and the overall flavor was delicious. Ironically, the spiciest thing we had was the ceviche with wasabi, which was Jeff's pick, not the waiter's.
The major spice was in the sauce, so I tried to stick to the ones on top and let Jeff have the ones on the bottom. Wasabi will clear your sinuses out. Our favorite dish was the one the waiter recommended as the best one, the spicy tartar.
The only "spicy" part was the mustard on the outside. The rest was delicious salmon and avocado. Definitely worth a repeat. The most interesting was probably the antiku which had tenderloin wrapped around the outside and jumbo shrimp tempura on the inside.
I also have to give an honorable mention to Jeff's favorite, the panca ribs.
They were covered in a sweet sauce, and the meat just fell off the bone. The lettuce was covered in a wasabi dressing, which was a bonus for him and a major deterrent for me.
The waiter also helped us with the drinks. I was going to order a kino lime, but he sized me up pretty quickly and warned me that that would be really strong, and I would probably like the midori sens better. He was right. My drink had gin, sake, cucumber, pear, and honey.
Jeff got the other one, which was pretty much straight vodka with a couple things sprinkled on top.
Our waiter also recommended a dessert and a sweet wine to accompany it. I'm not usually a fan of Asian desserts, but this one was quite good, and the wine went with it perfectly.
Luckily, we had a bit of a walk home to digest all the deliciousness.
On the Monday of my actual birthday, I went to work as usual. I've started teaching more English classes now, and the English department has adopted me, so they got me a cake and a bottle of wine.
The cake was really good, and I got the Maths department, who I've also been working with, to help me finish it off later in the day. The EAD department also had a joint birthday celebration for me and another member on Wednesday, so more cake.
It was a cake crazy week. For my actual birthday, I wanted to try out another restaurant called Harry Sasson. The problem was, Viv had swim, and I really wanted it to be adults only. I felt a little guilty about ditching the girls though, and so when Elena asked expectantly about chocolate cake for my birthday, I thought, well, I have to get her chocolate cake before I go out without her. Enter the smallest chocolate cake Kayser has.
We barely made a dent, but it looked great with the beautiful roses Jeff got me.
The girls and I all love them, and they're still going strong almost a week later. I had to explain to Elena though that she couldn't take them out of the box. There's a water absorbent sponge/foam underneath that keeps them alive.
Piedad took the girls off for Viv's swim practice, and then we met up with Angie and Josh and walked down to Harry Sasson. It's in a really interesting building. The owners are the same as the ones for the Club Colombia restaurant, and they've done a similar thing of starting with an old house and then building around it.
When we showed up at 6 on a Monday night, we had it pretty much to ourselves, but within half an hour it was hopping. This is definitely a place you need reservations for. Our friends Mike and Steph joined us, and the fun officially began. The waiter was great and not only got us all the correct orders without writing anything down, but he also managed to correctly give us three separate checks. I started with the crab bisque on Steph's recommendation. It was delicious!
For our main courses, we got various meats and fishes, and then a whole bunch of side dishes to share.
We were pretty stuffed at the end, but Jeff managed to tip the waiter off that it was my birthday, so I got some birthday bread pudding.
Again, we were thankful for the walk home. It freed up enough space for more chocolate cake and wine on the balcony with Angie and Josh. I had quite a headache at work the next day, but it was worth it for a great Monday birthday.
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