I love Sardine...

Well, we had to celebrate Ray-Ray's birthday somewhere, right? Why not Sardine? And it was fabulous, as usual. We started with domestic bubbly and the birthday girl had a chocolate martini. Then came the oysters, half Kunamoto and half "East Coast"--these bigger and not the briny jewels that the Kunamotos are. C-Vo tried both (for the first time!) and liked them!







It took me forever to really appreciate oysters-- slimy, chewy little things. But now I love them.



We also had the piccolo fritto, "little fried things" which this time included not just the fried lemon slices, but fried Oranges! Dude! Delish.







Birthday girl had the Duck Confit with pasta, really tasty. One of the best ways to do duck, if you ask me.











Jim had the mussels, big surprise. He loves mussels and these were very tasty.













C-Vo had the salmon, because it was so good last time, she said. I don't usually rave about lentils, but the ones that accompanied this dish were oh-so-buttery-melty and yummy.





and I had the skatewing, which I've found is never a bad choice. The broccoli di rape was absolutely stunning. I've never had it so good! Perfectly bitter and yet still sweet and delicious, a great complement to the buttery fish and capers. Ooh, and little fingerling potatoes hiding in there too.

Senor Dia called midway through our evening and asked to stop by to say hi. He arrived just after dessert (no photo, but that was a pineapple crepe with coconut ice cream, shared amongst us). After that, we thought we'd walk to the Great Dane, but only got as far as the Come Back Inn, which was fine, because it was F-ing cold out. C-Vo and I played some really shoddy pinball and we had drinks and peanuts.

Note the peanut.




At the end of the evening, I ended up drinking most of Ray-Ray's second gin and tonic, and as a result, slept in the car for most of the time going home. Sorry, gang, I'm a lightweight. But I had a blast with all of you and hope we can hang out sometime soon!