the traditional anniversary gift for the 14th year is ivory, with the modern version being gold. i really don't have the means to find anything made of real ivory (nor do i want to), and so i tried to improvise with a silly gift that i found on amazon that i don't even know what he'll do with. i figured i could get away with a lucky elephant with faux ivory tusks:
and because it's amazon, i also found this:
but i also threw in something useful - something that he needed a replacement of since teddy decided to chew his up just the week before. he has a pair of ugg slippers that he likes to wear around the house, and with the fluffy part being a cream color that could pass as "ivory," and the exterior is kind of a gold-ish color. boom.
and while i was getting ready i remembered the damn advent calendar that i'd still not filled. yikes. so i scrambled to put some candy in each little opening, but the old lady and i had also found some of those fun cracker things that you pull apart to find prizes inside - these were mickey and minnie themed, and instead of crappy plastic toys there were cute socks in each. and so i decided to make it extra fun and turned it into a scavenger hunt of sorts. with six of them to hide, i sprinkled them throughout the remaining days between now and christmas and wrote little notes to put in random days of the advent calendar.
before we all left, she got to hunt for her first one, and she was pretty excited when she realized what was happening. and even though the prize was socks, she was still happy to find the cracker and get it open.
the drive to downtown l.a. was a pretty easy one despite the rain, and we found ourselves pulling into the intercontinental hotel's valet lot with a solid 20 minutes to spare before our reservation time. i'd seen something just outside that i wanted to capture and send to the bean - our anniversary apparently also falls on the birthday of one of the members of BTS. she was predictably stoked when i sent this to her:
and then we took a quick selfie before we headed inside. if you look closely you catch a glimpse of my gift from the hub - a sparkly, gorgeous white gold necklace (with a matching bracelet that you can't see).
we followed the sign and hopped onto the escalator for la boucherie:
that rainbow wall behind it looks like this:
and as we went up the escalator i looked more closely and realized it was made up of little plastic figures. so cool:
from there we headed for the elevators. here you don't push "up" or "down" - instead you touch the screen to indicate your destination and it assigns you an elevator to wait for that will take you right to where you want to go. fancy.
la boucherie is on the 71st floor, and my ears popped at least twice on the way up.
we were greeted by the hostess at the entrance, and she walked us back to our table. it was a quiet wednesday evening, so we were able to pick between two of the best tables in the place. it was a nice, spacious booth set for two with a pretty amazing view of the city down below.
to kick off the celebration, we were served glasses of champagne.
the amuse bouche was a bleu cheese mousse topped with an almond and drizzled with olive oil. might sound a little weird, but OMG was it delicious. also, i'm pretty easily impressed, so there's that. but it really was very tasty.
the chef came out to show us the tomahawk ribeye he'd selected for us:
and then our seafood platter arrived, served with four different dipping sauces - drawn butter, a mignonette that i've already forgotten the flavor of, fresh horseradish and cocktail sauce.
i'd also ordered a cocktail after draining my champagne glass. while it's meant to be a lighter, summer drink i didn't care - the "bee's knees" was sweet and delicious. apparently, i like gin.
the "cigar box tartare" was a fun novelty appetizer. the two "cigars" were filet mignon and ahi tuna, served in an actual cigar box that was a familiar sight to both of us.
we never turn down a good charcuterie plate.
before the main course arrived, we were shown a selection of different knives from around the world, along with an assortment of different salts and mustard sauces.
i like salt, so we asked for some of each. there's maldon sea salt, fleur de sel, himalayan pink salt and black hawaiian salt.
the tomahawk was cut off the bone and sliced for easy serving. there was a truffle béarnaise sauce for dipping, too.
and on the side, we had fresh asparagus and a medley of sautéed mushrooms.
a little later, some molten chocolate lava cake.
we took one more selfie before we left:
and one last look at the lights down below.
bathroom selfie!
and one more look at those fun figurines on the wall.
it was a really nice way to spend our anniversary evening together, and we got home around 10:30. the twirl happened right after that, and then we both kind of just passed out from the long day.
marriage...ain't it grand?
No comments:
Post a Comment
i heart comments. i wan-na hear what you have to say.
um, i think.