Happy 5th Anniversary

Katie and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary. It's hard to believe it's already been that long! We didn't do anything too fancy since Katie had to be at school all day studying for a huge anatomy test the next day. I was working at Mannes doing some scheduling for the fall. But I did get her 5 red roses and took her to dinner (both surprises) at a place called the Garden Café. It is about a 15 minutes walk from our apartment but is rated as highly on its food as the best restaurants in the city. A couple runs it; the husband cooks and the wife is the hostess (and main server). The dining room is very small (about 9 tables, most of which are for 2 people only) and reservations are a must.

Before getting to the restaurant, however, we noticed a wine store that had a placard out front advertising free tastings of caipirinhas, a Brazilian drink made with lime, sugar and a Brazilian liquor called cachaça (ka SHA sa). We had never had them, they were good, and we purchased a bottle of the liquor thinking we could make some of these drinks later. It came with a wooden lime-crusher (pestle). So we ended up getting a nice pre-dinner cocktail.

At dinner we had the prix fixe (which included a first course, main course and desert). For the first course, Katie got an endive salad with fresh tomatoes and Irish cheese; I got a Maine crab cake with capers and cornichons (little pickles). Of course, we shared tastes of each other’s food, and they were both excellent. For the main course, Katie had wild Coho salmon with sesame and scallion noodles and I had an orange-ginger boneless duck breast with rice. So good! We also had an Austrian dry Riesling with everything. Yum. For dessert I had hazelnut gelato with wafers and chocolate and Katie had coconut pound cake with vanilla ice cream and fresh mango sauce. We switched desserts halfway through. It was a very pleasant evening, and Katie said it was just what she needed to take her mind off studying (however briefly) and her upcoming test.

Last night, after her test (the results of which she won’t know until next week), we went to Prospect Park’s band shell and heard the Brooklyn Philharmonic do a great program including excerpts from Copland’s “Rodeo,” Bizet’s “Carmen” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird.” There were probably 3,000 people out there. We sat in the seats, but some people were in the back spread out on the grass. Others were outside the fence at the barbecue pits where they could grill burgers and still hear the music (though not see the orchestra as well). One positive about New York in the summer is the fact that there are many free concerts and activities. It almost balances out the heat, humidity and various unpleasant odors that assault one’s senses from time to time. Needless to say, we are looking toward a visit to the Northwest later this summer!