Special Dinner Post

Written in the cab on the way home with a somewhat intoxicated afterglow. Dinner at Provisions with drinks at the bar with Sartorial and Twist! Did not know Twist was going to dinner until halfway through the day today.  Needless to say a wonderful surprise. Started off with some lemony vodka drink. I asked bartender to make me her personal fav vodka drink. I think she faked it b/c she was ragging on vodka being boring while she made this. Whatevs. Not bad but not as punchy as I really prefer.  Involved lemon juice, celery bitters and champagne.  Kind of flat was what I kept thinking.  Followed by red wine. God bless the bartenders at Provisions. I was completely overloaded with info when trying to pick something out and made the mistake of asking for a recommendation.  Result was Sartorial egging me on to try everything red by the glass on the menu--which was not so bad really.  Back to the info dump on the wine, and gin and pretty much anything else that came up-- words like sea foam and loamy and salt spray came up in the conversation.  Wound up with something not bad from Spain.  At the table moved to Angela pinot noir from Willamette Valley in Oregon. Kick ass.We had two bottles.  When I say "we" I mean 3 out of the 6 people at the table and perhaps myself most of all.  What can I say.  It was really really good.  So what all was there?  As noted in previous post, Veggie Tales, Sartorial, Twist, Outside Counsel and another fun surprise--Boss Lady!  It was quite the party.  Not sure in retrospect if we were all laughing or if everyone was laughing at me. Nonetheless, it was a good time!

Started with bone marrow brioche and tomato jam with goat cheese Gouda at the bar. Eaten together as a mini sandwich in the brioche; pretty damn tasty.

Bone marrow brioche

Other food: honest to god, we ate so much I'm not even sure what all we had. [see menu here] Pretzel bread with cheese. Mussels. Oysters.  Some raw sashimi tuna. Oh and a pizza with tomato and some cheese on the side (burrata with burst tomato and pizza bianca). Fan-freaking-tastic. Also had three pasta dishes. Something with crab. Something with duck. A mushroom thingy.  All good, but I liked the duck best. In my buzzed state I told some dumb story about eating gross gnocchi in Civita, Italy. (I think the point of it was to say I have not touched gnocchi since that fateful afternoon. Although we were not eating gnocchi so not sure how that came up.)  We got every dessert too!  Bonus, and benefit of eating with law firm partners! Favs of mine were the rhubarb soft serve. The beet cake and curry pineapple upside down cake were also lovely. I sucked down a cappuccino then Sartorial and I hit a cab home. Had a great convo (as I recall it) but I can't tell you about what! Those are the best dinners. Overall, evening was a Yay! I think I was just happy to be out socializing and not paying a babysitter (sorry Hubs, and no offense to my darling and brilliant offspring.  Mommy loves you!)  Outside Counsel is one I have not seen a while and it was great to visit and catch up. He is unusual in that he is a normal person and not a complete tool-which is why I left law firms.  Too many tools.  All in all, a great evening both company and food wise.

Update 4/27: Geez, forgot the BEST dish of the night: Curried mussels with cauliflower.  TO DIE FOR.  And yes, I do like curry.  Put some curry on a wad of paper and I would probably at least try it.

THE CURRIED MUSSELS

Pass & Provisions I'd give a 4, and recommended.

The fab pinot noir.  Hubs is praying I don't find this anywhere easily accessible.

It's a bone! with tomatoes.  I appreciate the macabre presentation.

I ended up with 2 wine glasses that I think was a running joke the rest of the night.

Um, thnk this was the crab pasta?

lobster roll.  it was just meh.  too much mayo but nice celery crunch.

curried pineapple upside down cake

dessert carnage

Menu b/c I couldn't recall what all the desserts were.  yeah, you can't really read this.

Yuzu sherbet with beet cake, a delight. 

The duck pasta thing

Marginal vodka cocktail.

OMG, how could I forget this!?  Ham o' Day.  Freaking phenomenal!  Melt in your mouth.  Don't eat pork?  Too bad for you!

Oysters

Carrot cake donut. I only had a little bite b/c I knew Twist was dying for this.  It's fried.  Need I say more?

Big eye tuna, raw.

Backstreet's Back . . .

Work lunch today with Twist, Boss Lady, and herbivore co-worker I will dub Veggie Tales. Lunch was an interview with potential hire at Backstreet Cafe off Shepard in River Oaks. Never been there before. Now, I am in love.

Darling patio and charming sun room that opens out to patio made for very pleasant atmosphere. Day before Twist and I had done a menu breakdown both zeroing in on the jambalaya as potential lunch choice. I did, however, say that if there were any seasonal crawfish specials I would have to go that route. Indeed, today's menu included the seasonal crawfish cheesecake. How gross does that sound? Totally, right? I thought so too but my curiosity got the better of me. Even the waiter was like, "wha?" when I ordered. It came with a nice little green side salad that I sucked up. The cheesecake was really more like a quiche but not as eggy. Very light and fluffy. And very freaking AWESOME. I can't even really articulate the symphony of flavors and the execution of this dish other than to just say it was really damn good. Really. The crust was light and flaky. I ate the whole slice and wasn't too stuffed or full. Just the perfect amount. The red pepper sauce it was in was even good and I believe my distaste of red pepper has been well documented here.  It was simply, The Shit.

Twist did in fact follow through on the shrimp and ham jambalaya.  I didn't hear him raving about so will assume that it was ok but not the best until I hear otherwise from him.  Veggie Tales got the lump crab salad.  I toyed with getting that but I just kept thinking it was an actual salad and picturing lots of mayo.  Oh how wrong I was.  Behold:

crab salad

No lettuce and mayo there.  Looks pretty pretty pretty good if you ask me.  I cleaned my plate and felt so good that I decided I would be ordering dessert (by the way, I'm back at aquatic bootcamp so figure I can have dessert if I want to, especially b/c I swam about a mile last night and did umpity-ump push ups and jumping jacks).

bye-bye crawfish cheesecake

I have a pecan pie thing--Backstreet had it on the menu. Boom. Done.  Everyone else was a loser and got no dessert and I didn't offer to share.  Get your own damn pie.  You see it wasn't a slice either.  It was a cute little tart-y pecan pie.  Again- wow.  Perfect toasty pecans!  Good pecan to filling ratio and good filling.  Now, I am a purist and don't like chocolate in my pecan pie.  This did have some stray bits of chocolate so those bites were kind of a bummer, but it wasn't enough to render the whole thing bad or to be too noticeable, which I appreciate.  And, before I forget, may I give my compliments to the pastry chef at Backstreet?  Or whomever makes the pies.  This is far and away some of the best crust I have ever had the pleasure of eating.  Light and flaky, not too rich.  Nice body and set off the filling well.  My personal preference would have been to have a dollop of some vanilla cream or homemade whipped cream on the pie rather than ice cream. but then I don't like ice cream on my pie.  Don't really get it.  Those 2 items should just go separately.  Maybe that's just me.

Pecan pie

All in all I would say the lunch was a rousing success.  Food was awesome, the weather was awesome, the sun room was awesome.  I gave Twist some Wendy's coupons and think I am finally out of the doghouse with him-also awesome.  and it's Friday-awesome!  Oh, and my daughter, Precious Perfect is 3 today.  Not quite as awesome but still pretty cool.  She is my greatest joy and my greatest challenge on a daily basis.  Go listen to Sting's "All Four Seasons in One Day"  that is my kid.  God help us all.  Happy Birthday baby!

I give Backstreet Cafe a 5 and a Hellz yes! Recommended.