Queen for a Day!

So yesterday was my birthday! My 48th birthday! My party is going to be Saturday at Kari & Del's. We're just going to swim and grill out and have some dessert. But yesterday Kari called and wanted to take me out to lunch. So Kari and Teresa took me to Benihana! I have never been there. It was fun. We did have an 'experience' with our waitress, tho.

I wanted to try the sake. I've never had it before and I thought it would be fun to just try it. They had a sampler with three different sakes you could try for $12.00 so we were talking between us and we decided to order one and we could share all of them. Well, when the server brought it out she brought us three of the samplers! So that would have been three for each of us! $36.00 worth of sake! Just to taste it! I don't think so! So we explained to the server that we just wanted one of the samplers (which like I said had three sakes). I felt bad about the misunderstanding but our waitress could barely speak english so I'm sure it was hard for her. When the waitress came back (she was not the same one who served us the sake) she saw that we only had one sampler and she thought we needed two more and I said, oh no we only wanted one sampler. My goodness she got mad at us. Clearly. Mad. At us. Ooops!

After that when she did finally come around from time to time, we realized she really didn't understand much of what we were saying at all. Or maybe she just didn't care at that point. I felt bad for her, but she really seemed to take the whole thing very personally. She really didn't seem cut out for the whole waitress thing.

So I found out that straight sake is definitely NOT my thing. Good thing we didn't end up with $36.00 worth! But the martinis that we all got were very good. And they did have sake in them. But it's very different on it's own. I guess alcohol is like that. The filet they prepared was excellent. It was very flavorful and very tender. The chicken was good, but couldn't compare to the filet. I hadn't had sushimi for probably 15 years, and I just wanted to try some again. So Kari & I had the tuna and whitefish. With a little soy and ginger the tuna wasn't bad. I didn't care so much for the whitefish. Still, it wasn't as good as the sushimi I had years ago back in San Diego, which isn't surprising. Anywhere that's on the ocean I figure is gonna have fresher fish. And I do remember it being very, very fresh! But we did have a lot of fun and it was a very nice lunch, but it wasn't very filling so we headed over to Tommy Bahamas.

I love Tommy Bahama style. I mean my husband is from the Caribbean. We met in St. Thomas. I love the Caribbean. Tommy Bahama is caribbean plantation style all the way. So the atmosphere is already great. The goat cheese appetizer is sooo good. And the peach cobbler dessert was pretty good. But I was disappointed in the drinks this time. They are usually very good, but this time they weren't so great. Kari's lemon drop was incredibly sour, tart and bitter - even with a sugar rim. And my tropical twist was very strong. I couldn't drink it. Teresa squeezed her juicy pineapple wedge into hers and added some raw sugar and that helped but Kari and I had to send ours back. I hate to do that and I normally never do that, but I just couldn't drink it. I think they must have had a new bartender or something. I got a mango martini than was better than the first but still not outstanding. Kari got a Pinot Grigio that she really liked. We had great conversation and a couple of really good belly laughs. You know the kind where you start to cry. It was fun! Expensive, but a lot of fun. I feel kind of bad when I'm being treated and it seems so expensive. But if you feel bad, then it kind of ruins the fun for the people who are treating you. So Kari said she knew I was going to have a hard time with it and she basically just wanted me to get over it! So I did!

Kari gave me a great card that I can't wait to scrapbook! Queen for a Day! It's a popup card! I'll take a pic and upload it to this post! It was so nice to spend the afternoon with two really good friends, good food, good drinks, good laughs and good conversation!!! A good 48th birthday!