Per Se!!!

(and anniversary number 5)

For our 5th (that's right FIVE, can you believe it) anniversary we wanted to have the ultimate dinning experience. I have been dreaming about chef Thomas Keller and his amazing food for years now and this anniversary was the perfect chance to splurge (and boy, it was a splurge).

We went to New York's famed Per Se. We arrived at the iconic blue door, but thanks to my diligent internet research, we knew that you have to go in the glass doors to the side.
So we entered our Mecca. We were a bit early (surprise, surprise) and were seated in the salon for a glass of wine until our table was ready. We were one of the last reservations for the evening and towards the end of our meal we were the only people there. Here is the picture we took from our table, it's blurry because i didn't want to turn the flash on but the view behind the fire place is of Columbus Circle.
We sat down and opened our menu and this is what we saw:
Cheesy? Yes, but so cool. They let us take the menu home with us. The Sommelier even prepared a list of the wine pairings that we had with each course as well. We're both thankful for this otherwise we wouldn't be able to remember half of what we ate. The service there is unparalleled.
The first thing we had was the salmon cornet and gougere. Think of a deliciously cured salmon in a cone with a pop of cheese.
Now that our appetizer was whet we moved on to the first course: Oysters and Pearls. It's a sabayon of pearl tapioca with oysters and white sturgeon caviar. It's the iconic dish of Per Se. And it was unbelievable. However, we forgot to take a picture so I borrowed one from the internets, hence the much better quality of the picture.
The next course was caramelized big island hearts of palm. Heirloom cauliflower, scarlett grapes, toasted almonds, mizuna leaves and brown butter gastrique. The brown butter was too die for.
Next came the seasame crusted stripped bass, which we promptly forgot to take a picture of. but the next course was a butter poached nova scotia lobster with applewood bacon, caramelized salsify root, watercress and sherry vinnagrette. I remembered the camera on this one!

After this absolutely amazing course we feasted on pork belly, foie gras, and lamb saddle. We were so engrossed in our meal that I forgot to get the camera out to take pictures. We just finished the pineapple sorbet course when I remembered the camera...just in time for dessert.

I had the "tropical tea" which consisted of passionfruit-chocolate cremeux, Earl Grey Genoise, Passionfruit Mousee and Earl Grey Ice Cream.
Chad had the "toffee apple" Apple "creme Patissiere", Caramel jelly, Poached Snow Apples, Root Beer Soda and Caramel Ice Cream.

For some reason they thought we needed more dessert so, in honor of our anniversary they gave us a chocolate torte with vanilla bean ice cream.
And for MORE dessert goodness they brought out a container full of truffels, macaroons, and butterscotch, all made in house and all terrific. They also sent us home with some homemade shortbread and a couple of boxes of chocolates.
To top off the evening we got a tour of the kitchen (which by this time had closed down but still super cool to see) plus I got to meet the pastry chefs. =)

I like to kick, stretch, and kick....I'm Thirty....thirty years old.

Well, eventually it had to happen. I had to leave my 20's behind. For the previous three years my birthday had always coincided with the beginning of finals. This year, without that hanging over our heads, we decided that a tropical local was the only appropriate place to mark this milestone.

So off to Provo we flew.

We booked an oceanfront room with a balcony.
The view was unreal.
The beach was amazing.
But the water was choppy the first couple of days.
But that didn't stop us from putting on our ever-stylish snorkel gear.
And we hit the reef that was 20 yards from our room...and took our first of many underwater pictures.
The reef off the beach was amazing. Yup this is just steps away from our hotel room:
And then there was my birthday. We celebrated with a Delicious Amaretto Cake....did I mention it was delicious?

The next day the wind died down.
And we hopped aboard on all day snorkel tour. I'm on a boat:
We went to a great reef first, where we saw....A REEF SHARK! (photo not found; the shark was too quick for us). Next we to the Salt Cays to do some diving for Conch. The Salt Cays are a really shallow area (1-8ft) that encompasses about 20 sq. miles of the Turks and Caicos.
The Conch shells we (well, not us, we kind of struck out) found. These made up a portion of our delicious beach side lunch.
Next, we went to a deserted island and our Captain made us a fabulous lunch of roast fish, grilled chicken and conch salad, which we ate here:
Next on the trip, we went combing for sea shells here:
Then, after a quick stop at an island to look at some iguanas we went to one more reef for our last snorkel of the day. And guess who showed up? JoJo, the local dolphin.
This wasn't an enclosed "swim with dolphins" kind of encounter. This was Jo Jo, right next to our boat. See, JoJo next to our boat. JoJo swam with us for about 15 minutes until he got bored and swam away.
The next day was Scuba Diving. This is the boat that took us out.
But no pictures were taking of the actual Scuba Diving. We were going too deep for our camera, we went about 40-50 feet. We saw the wall drop off to 7,000 feet and swam over the drop off. (Well, Chad did, I just peered over it). We also saw sea turtles, octupus, eels, and baracuda. It was incredible and Chad and I are hooked. We are now looking for Scuba certification courses.

After Scuba we went back to our beach and spent the rest of the day in the water. The water was clearing up nicely by the end of our trip and we were able to get some really great photos.

Eagle Ray:
Turtle:
If you want to see the rest of our pictures (they are mostly underwater pics). Go Here:
http://turkscaico.shutterfly.com/

Snow Day 2

This has been a strange winter for us, marked by brutal cold and very little snow. That is...until yesterday. One of the few big snows we've had this winter.... Plessy loved it. Watch with the sound on....in my next life I'm going to compose soundtracks. =)