HAPPY BIRTHDAY MENOLLY (PAM)!!!!!!

Thank you, TOM.

The guys took me out for a celebratory dinner. We wound up going to Miraku for teppenyaki and sushi bar. The chef in the video is who we were treated to. He calls himself "Mr. Yummy" on his chef’s coat.

Hyperception and I split a sushi and sashimi platter, chef's choice. It came with three nigiri each of tuna, salmon, snapper and eel. Now, I don't like eel, but Hyperception is a fan. He ate the first piece, his eyes widened, and he said, "I don't believe I've had eel this good since I left New York." So, I went ahead and had one of the three pieces. It was good, though I still do not care enough for it to order it separately. But should we get that platter there again, I'll have one piece while Hyperception has the other two.

The sashimi was supposed to consist of 12 pieces as well. Instead it consisted of three slices each of tuna, salmon and snapper, four slices of octopus and six pieces of conch; all served on a bed of julienne daikon. I know sashimi should be eaten purely alone, but I just had to try putting a slice of gari and a few slivers of daikon on each piece. Heavenly.

That alone was a wonderful start. And well worth the $25 price for both of us, especially as it came with a bowl of miso soup.

Beorn wouldn't touch the sushi or sashimi, so we allowed him to get a combo appetizer. He had gyoza, steak terriyaki skewers and bite sized fried fish of some sort.

The teppanyaki (the large habachi grill/show part of dinner) was fun and good. Each dinner came with a choice between a light onion soup or miso soup, and a salad with ginger dressing, a shrimp flambé appetizer (only three tiny shrimp, but we truly didn't mind as there was so much food anyway) and a choice of steamed white or cooked on the grill in front of you fried rice. We all chose the onion soup, since we had the miso with the sushi/sashimi.

Beorn had the combo New York strip, chicken and grouper dinner and was very happy with it all. Hyperception had the New York strip, tuna and scallops. I had intended to get the combo New York Steak, calamari and shrimp, but the free entreé on ones birthday was restricted to the single ingredient meals. This was actually fine with me, as there was the small shrimp appetizer, and Hyperception was willing to give me a taste of each of his items, so I had a bite of steak, tuna, and scallops, along with my calamari. We were both very happy as well.

I had a pot of hot tea, which was kept hot by being set on the hot grill and the guys both stuck with water. A very fun, pleasant meal in a nice setting overall.

We had planned on going to the Ben and Jerry's scoop shop next door for a celebratory ice cream after, but we were all totally topped off. We put that off until after dinner tonight. Kind of nice actually, extending the celebration. ;D

Yikes, that must mean I'm 2 days late in wishing you a happy birthday!

That's not true. Apparently you do not realize that my time zone is three days after yours.

Yes. It just now turned Wednesday for me.

Well, the rain was definitely east of me, as Beorn and I spent my birthday in San Francisco with Savor Dam, checking out Stanford as a possible university for Beorn to attend next fall.

Thanks Tom.