As always, I prefer a low-key birthday where I sit around and do nothing all day long and then go to the most extravagant possible restaurant for dinner. I am a huge foodie and one day I will host my own food show called Are Yoo Hungry? haha!

My birthday gifts included a pasta maker! I opened that gift the night before my birthday and made my first fresh pasta. I made fettucini with homemade bolognese sauce! Yummy! I also got a new camera, so these pictures in this picture gallery are taken with my new Canon digital camera! I am learning how to use the aperture! I also got a funny joke gift - the Pedi Egg - because I'm addicted to TV infomercials and always half-joked/half-really-wanted the Pedi Egg!

This year, we decided to eat at the very hyped and trendy and famous OSTERIA MOZZA which opened recently to great acclaim. It's the new restaurant from celebrity chefs Nancy Silverton and Mario Batali, both whom I love and am a huge fan of! You have to make a reservation at least a month in advance, so we decided to see if we could just walk in and sit at the bar. There's always a huge line and it's first come first served. We arrived at 6 p.m. and luckily there were still four seats open. Our waiter was INCREDIBLY smart and well-informed on wine and food and educated us on the menu and wine list. When our food would arrive, our waiter would also tell us how to eat it etc. (I know that sounds sort of strange, but it was really helpful, more on that below.) Here's the restaurant's website: OSTERIA MOZZA

We sat at the "Mozzarella bar" where Nancy Silverton and her staff prepared fresh cheese dishes and salads right before your eyes. (The rest of the food was made in the kitchen). You can order one of several different mozzarella appetizers - they include everything from fresh buffalo mozzarella with prosciutto to burrata with speck (Italian bacon), peas, and mint to sheep's milk ricotta with radicchio, walnuts, honey and fried rosemary.

We chose the very special "only available Thurs-Sunday" burrata with leeks and olive oil and crostini along with a bottle of 2002 Isodor Polencic pinot noir - SOOOO YUMMY!

We spent most of our dinner hypnotized by Nancy and her staff preparing al the appetizers and salads in the center of the mozzarella bar. One assistant chef was an artist with her paring knife - she peeled and sliced these fingerling potatoes with these graceful, almost exquisite hand movements, like she was doing sign language or Cambodian classical dance where the dancers use graceful hand movements to tell a story. We were mesmerized by her hands! It really took food to this artistic and creative level, watching the staff prepare the dishes.

The burrata was heavenly. It was presented in this little "bag" and when you cut into it, it oozed out. Very creamy, rich mozzarella. I normally HATE leeks but the leeks worked beautifully with this cheese and did not overpower it. There weren't that many leeks. The crostini was drenched in what was the greatest. olive. oil. I. have. ever. tasted.

We also ordered a charcuterie plate of different prosciutto and salami that was either imported from Italy or cured and aged at the restaurant itself.

Our dinner lasted THREE HOURS - they really really take their time between all the dishes you order, which actually was quite nice because it gave you a chance to rest and digest your food! LOL! We barely talked during dinner, we both were in such a food coma, haahaha. We then split a pasta dish - Fresh Ricotta & Egg Raviolo with browned butter.

This is when our waiter gave us eating instructions. The fresh ravioli pasta was covering this beautiful mound of fresh ricotta and a perfectly poached egg yolk. There were a couple slices of fried sage on top and the plate was drenched in this rich browned butter sauce. Our waiter told us to split the egg yolk and mix the yolk with the butter sauce before eating it. OHMYGOD IT WAS SO GOOD. It was SUPER rich. The ravioli was actually one sheet of ravioli, about 4 square inches, which doesn't sound like a lot but it was so rich that after a couple bites, you were full. The browned butter tasted almost like caramel.

At this point, I was stuffed but we still had more food to eat! Including the Crisp Duck al Mattone with pear mostarda & Brussels sprouts. We had visited Cremona, Italy (birthplace of legendary violinmaker Stradivarius) in 2004. Cremona is famous for their "mostarda" which is basically a thick honey-like clear viscous liquid with various fruits that has been pickled. It's an extremely sweet yet spicy sauce - imagine honey mixed with wasabi and mustard. I know that sounds gross, but really, it isn't. It's so delicious. In Cremona, they pair this with dark meat. The pear mostarda was super spicy sweet and the dusk was very crisp and still tender/fatty. The brussel sprouts added just the right amount of bitterness to offset the sweet mostarda.

We also ordered a small side salad that was just greens with a simple salt/olive oil/lemon vinagrette and a small side of this grilled radicchio with parmesan slices and pancetta.

Even though we couldn't eat another bite, we HAD to order dessert! We tried the gelato. It came in three flavors - espresso, pistachio/hazelnut, and caramel. The caramel was wrapped in marshmallow (tasted like Fluffernutter!) and salty peanuts. It was HEAVENLY.

So that's how we celebrated my birthday. I wanted to share our fun food evening with y'all. Now I need to go lie down... I am still really stuffed and can barely move!