Tuesday, November 25, 2008

David's Birthday Celebration Lunch at The Firehouse

David and I had a lovely birthday celebration meal at The Firehouse in Old Sac this afternoon. We were seated in the main dining room next to the fireplace in a booth. We started with 2 appetizers; the Dungeness crab cakes with Meyer lemon and coriander confit and crisp pancetta frisée salad and black pepper aioli and the Drunken Balsamic Steak which was pan roasted with white balsamic-bourbon glaze and onion-thyme marmalade oven-warmed grape tomatoes, and spinach with crumbled Valbreso feta. Both choices were to die for. David's favorite was the crab cakes and I leaned towards the steak.


For entrees we both had the special which was macadamia crusted baramundi. (Not sure of my spelling of the fish.) There was a grilled polenta cake (which was the moistest polenta cake we have ever had, beautiful texture) which was topped with grilled asparagus. The fish a top of it all. It all sat on a plate of cream sauce that I can not for the life of me remember what it was made of but I think there was sherry in it, some lovely clear green chive sauce and drops of a blackberry reduction. It was all wonderful, and when eaten with a little of everything on the fork it was divine. We brought a bottle of VJB Cab to enjoy with our meal.

We decided to go all out and ordered dessert as well. The birthday boy went the Chocolate Decadence; bittersweet chocolate cake with silken ganache,raspberry coulis and crème anglaise. I as usual went with the dessert choice offering Meyer Lemon which was a Meyer Lemon Napoleon; layered sponge cake with lemon curd and tart lemon mousse, raspberry coulis and crème anglaise. The meal, service atmosphere, and our seating was a real treat.

We arrived early and walked hand-in-hand along the high wooden sidewalks of Old Sac browsing through a few of the shops. Unexpectedly we found a few Christmas gifts which was nice to get done.

Thanks to my sister girlfriends for the gift certificate last Christmas. We had an absolutely delightful time!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Happy Birthday David!

I had never heard of baramundi until I had it recently.

Sounds like a great and romantic evening. Sigh. :)

Diane said...

baramundi was new to us too Sarah. Very nice fish.

Unknown said...

Yesterday's picture is LeRoy's hs grad. photo.

What a happy special time you two had to celebrate David's birthday. Let the good time continue to warm your hearts.

I've seen baramudi on menus recently but have not been too anxious to try. Glad you enjoyed it.

Love, Vaden

Erin said...

Hmmm...you made me hungry again. I'm jealous of the ganache dessert Uncle David had.