Sheri's Birthday Dinner

I am not going to get into too much detail because it is late and I should be in bed, but here is brief run-down of Sheri’s birthday dinner.

We went to Sullivan’s Steak House.

Every dinner comes with their famous salad wedge. It is a quarter head of iceberg lettuce covered in crumbled blue cheese, and then drizzled with a light blue cheese dressing. Finely chopped tomato bits are scattered on top of that. (The tomato had a very good taste, like they were from someone’s back yard in the middle June.) I think the salad wedge is what Sheri was looking forward to most! This is where we went last year for her birthday dinner and when ever we would mention it over the last year, that is what she talked about first.

They also bring a loaf of freshly baked bread to the table. Very good.

We both had iced tea to drink. Of course, very good.

We split two side dishes. One was a big plate of steamed asparagus with a little pitcher of hollandaise sauce. (We just used our fingers to pick up the spears and dip into the sauce. Miss Manners says it is acceptable to use your fingers with asparagus!) The asparagus was very hot without being overcooked. How do they do it? The sauce was wonderful. The right balance of butter, lemon, and egg yolk.

The other side dish was mushroom caps in what seemed like a reduction of red wine and maybe beef juices. Very flavorful.

Now for the good stuff. Sheri had the 16 ounce (yes, one pound!) filet mignon done medium rare. Wow was it good. It was about as tender, and the same color, as good tuna sushi. Sheri like it, but decided that, for now, she is a medium done person.

I had a very good 20 ounce bone-in Kansas City strip also done medium rare. Excellent. I think the strip is my favorite steak. Porterhouse is too greasy and heavy. T-bone is too much bone, not enough meat. If it is a good cut, I think a strip is just about as good as a filet.

We were going to call it quits, but I talked her into getting a cup of cappuccino. I did that by reminiscing about how on our cruise we always finished off dinner with a strong cup of cappuccino. We were just going to have that when we saw a chocolate soufflé go by. So we ordered one too and split it. It took 20 minutes to cook, and our cappuccinos were huge, so it worked out well. I actually still had coffee left by the time I finished my half of the soufflé.

Even though the soufflé looks huge, by the time they server it and it deflates, there is not much actual mass left. At the table he divides it in half with two spoons, puts each half on a plate, and then poured a wonderful liquid egg-ey, vanilla-ey custard sauce on the plate. Well worth the wait. Drinking the cappuccino brought back good memories and made the meal seem like more of a special event.

Do I have you drooling?

Good night.