Happy Birthday Mara!

[Matata]

Belle & Mara, Scorpios, now that explains everything

Seriously, best wishes for a happy day to both of you lovely ladies.

 

[jorman]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
Did you get your song message this morning?
I hope you had a great day and that Greg got you a birthday surprise.
Let''s talk tomorrow so you can tell me all about your day!

 

[Regular Guy]

Mara Belle & Diane,

Happy Birthday to all, and many more...

 

[larussel03]

Happy Happy Happy Bday Mara!!!

 

[Mara]

thanks everyone!!

we just got home from dinner and i am STUFFED. insane amount of food. molten chocolate cake. nuff said!!

jorman, oooh i am so bummed!! i saw your note and thought hey i didn''t get any vm''s today. and i remembered that earlier today my sister said she left me a message and it never showed up on my phone as a VM! so i just randomly checked now and got your AWESOME birthday song, thanks so much sweetie!!! haha you sounded fab. and i got my sister''s message too. hehe. so THANK YOU. super cute. i wish i had gotten it this morning.

so now we are going to open greg''s presents to me (woo hoo i love late nite present opening) then my bday is officially over for another year.

it felt like it went by really fast this year! maybe that happens the older you get? hahaa.

 

[cutes814]

Has it been another year already??? Yikes! You''re getting old..... J/K.

Happy birthday!! So glad to hear that you are stuffed. That''s what it''s all about...

Happy birthday to Belle too! I hope you stuffed yourself as much as Mara did...

 

[orangevixen]

sorry i missed it by a few hours.. but HAPPY BDAY!!!!

 

[Lorelei]

OMG...molten chocolate cake!

So glad you had such a fab time Mara!

Happy birthday to dear Miss Belle and Diane too!

 

[UCLABelle]

Happy Belated Birthday Mara!!!!

 

[anchor31]

Happy belated birthday!!

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Happy 40th Mara...(lol

)..Just Josh'in Ya'...

Happy Belated Birthday...What...? No More Upgrades?

 

[dani13]

Happy Birthday Mara and Belle!!!!

Sorry I am a little late!! Hope you enjoyed your day!!!

 

[diamondsrock]

Happy Birthday to you both!!

 

[lizz]

Happy birthday, gals!!!

You are just 3 days away from my darling husband. I love Scorpios!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Hope you''re having a great birthday weekend!

 

[sevens one]

Happy Birthday Ladies!!!

 

[luvsdiamonds]

Happy Birthday to you both!!!!!!

 

[luckyhonu]

Happy belated birthday, ladies!

Mara.....since you and I are foodies, please describe to me the food you had a Cascal!!! What did you have at La Fondue? I went with DH one time and we didn''t know that they''d take away our cheese fondue when the entree came and we were so sad! They took it away so fast we didn''t have time to tell them to keep it.

OK....what did Greg give you?!!!

 

[moremoremore]

Oops! Happy belated

 

[Mara]

thanks everyone for all the extra birthday wishes!!!

it's been a fun weekend!

LH...lol re: foodies...man this weekend was a foodgasm. at cascal we had white sangria which was super yummy...and then we had the following (much mouth watering to ensue esp from me since i am actually starving right now!): trio ceviche for appetizer which is basically ahi tuna tartare with this spicy curry sauce drizzled on it and chips for scooping it up; as well as halibut and shrimp ceviche in their own little plates with yummy ceviche pickling kind of sauce. i really love the tuna. and we had calamari for an app since my sister loves it. then greg and i ordered a bunch of small plates to share, we got their curried mussels (yum); the wild mushroom empanadas (yum); a trio of truffled scallops in a butter wine sauce (surprisingly only okay); an arugula and frisee fresh salad with baby tomatoes (yum); albondigas meatballs with a chili verde sauce on them (yum); and tried something new, the potato and shrimp taquitos with cheese on top (again only okay and i was prepared to love them and just didnt). then for dessert we shared a molten chocolate cake with caramel ice cream (YUM) and had a coffee....super divine dinner and we left stuffed. i love tapas because you can try a bunch of diff plates and flavors and you don't get married to a big entree and that's it.

then at la fondue last nite...we are experts since we go 2x a year so we already knew what we wanted when we sat down (we asked to be seated in the blue room, the side big room as we love it there the best and we got this table we have gotten like 4x in the last 3 years, so funny!!), which is the stinking rose cheese (DIVINE) with lots of roasted and fresh garlic, white wine, pepper and i think cumin; we share a spinach salad because their salads are huge and we aren't there for salad...hahaha; then we get the surf and turf on the grill cooking style (oil is yucky!) which is 2 lobster tails, filet mignon and shrimp with bunch of veggies; we always get extra sauces too for dipping, love their sauces; and the crowning glory is the bittersweet chocolate and kahlua mixed fondue with extra bananas, rice crispie balls, and cookies for dipping as our faves. i also love the cheesecake balls and the apples, and pound cake. and greg loves the snickers.

so last nite we felt like rolling out of there literally. but it was SO GOOD. we have made fondue at home and it's good but there's something about LF that is just MAGICAL. i have eaten at the melting pot in 2 diff states and it's okay...if you don't have a la fondue. hehehe. LF ruined me forever. lol about them taking the cheese, that sucks!!! but man it's so hard to fit it all in, i typically want to eat way more cheese and i have to stop myself because there's a ton more food coming!

we HAVE to go to that dim sum place in daly city soon!! ! i have been thinking about it a lot lately since it's been forever since i have had dim sum....so we should schedule something. hehe.

oh and by the way greg tried that pizza place in san carlos and said it was WONDERFUL. he's got a new hangout for lunch now. haha. thanks for the recommend!

what did greg get me...well he tried to get me these white gold hoops from nordies that i wanted but they didn't have them!! they had the YG but not white...boo hoo. and he didn't really have a plan b since i had kind of sprung it on him 2 days before that i wanted them (i was supposed to give him ideas but i kept zoning out), so he got me an interim set of silver ones and i am going to find a pair online that i like and he'll get them for me. and he got me some small fun things, one of which are sanrio chococat slippers that we torment portia with, they have faces on them, it's hilarious. and he got me two really sweet cards and left one for me with his train pass so i'd find it on friday afternoon when i went to grab the train to meet the family.

not too shabby of a birthday though i didn't get a cake this year ( i wanted molten choco cake at cascal too badly so i told my Mom to nix the cake!! ) and greg was saying 'well this IS an interim birthday'...lol 32. he said maybe 33 would be better since it's a double digit. wonder what that means hmm. hehe.

oh but i am still working on my b-bag!!! i think spring is when i will be able to get it, he is amenable to that. so i can wait. woo hoo.

 

[msb700]

I''m so very very very late here but was out of the country and just got back last nite..

so happy birthday Mara and Belle and may you have an AMAZING year...

 

[pyramid]

Happy belated birthday Mara, Belle and Diane.

 

[luckyhonu]

Oooooh.....thanks for the food descriptions, Mara! I want to check out Cascal now. Is it on Castro St. in Mountain View? I love Sangria!

La Fondue sounds divine, I love the stinking rose cheese! I want to go again, I don''t think I''ll be getting an entree, just the appetizer and dessert! I wasn''t impressed with out entree the last time.

I''m glad that Greg liked the pizza place in San Carlos! I''m sure I''ll bump into him one day....the thin crust pizza is TDF! I usually go with my coworkers once a week

Let me know when you want to do Dim Sum in Daly City! I know that we''d have to get there early to avoid waiting over an hour for a table.

I love Chococat! He is one of my fave Sanrio characters along with Hello Kitty of course (still wanting the Kimora Simmons Hello Kitty diamond pendant). Does Portia attack your slippers?

Maybe you can trade in the earrings for a B-Bag?!!!

 

[KristyDarling]

I''m SOOO late to this thread....blame it on jet lag, hehe!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS MARA!!! I''m glad you had a wonderfully food-filled birthday with lots of cute presents. Yay for Greg! I hope you''ll end up soon with the hoops you wanted.

If you guys are ever up for Daly City dim sum on a Friday, please let me know cuz I''d love to crash your meal!

(were you thinking of the HK Flower Lounge? That''s where I had my rehearsal dinner! The dim sum there is food coma-inducing!)

 

[luckyhonu]

Welcome back KD! I think Mara was thinking of Koi Palace.....but the wait there is super long so I think we''d have to get there early. The food at Koi Palace is really good!

 

[flopkins]

oooh I''m going to have to take my friend to la fondue for her bday now.

I was looking at their website and your dinner description- I don''t get it, so the fondue part is sort of an appetizer thing? and the main course is the grilled dish that isn''t fondue related at all? just sauces? or do you dip the shrimp and stuff into the cheese also?

 

[Mara]

thanks gals!! for dim sum i was thinking a sunday brunch could be fun. maybe with the guys.

lol flopkins. traditional fondue is actually cooking the meal part in oil or a wine or something as well...aka you dip it into a really hot vat of oil (think tempura) or you can do red wine and spices...and it basically boils the meat. to me that tastes sooo gross. i have tried both the oil and the red wine version. the oil is okay if you like tempura, but i don't like EVERYTHING tempura, and who wants to boil a great piece of filet mignon or lobster?? so la fondue actually offers a 'table grill' option where you get this big grill and garlic butter and you melt it in the grill on the table and then cook your meats and fish in it. then they have a bunch of dipping sauces.

so the fondue part is the cheese and then the chocolate if you get the grill method. some people do the oil since it's traditional. when greg came to CA he was like what? you grill on the table? That's not fondue!! but now that we have tried oil and done wine and we have gotten grill too, he is totally sold on the grill and it's not as heavy either. the cheese and choco itself is heavy enough!

so when we order we basically say the following:

surf & turf for two, grill style
--stinking rose cheese fondue
--one spinach salad to share (with sweet and sour dressing which also has bleu cheese in it..yum!)
--surf and turf main which is lobster, shrimp and filet mignon but you say that already so you don't have to repeat it
--bittersweet chocolate with kahlua (kahlua is no longer on the menu but the 'insiders' know they still have it, haha)

mmmm!

and they basically bring each course and take the first one away. so the salad comes first, then they take the plates away...then cheese comes and then you eat the cheese with breads and veggies, then they take that away and bring the main, and then take that away and bring the chocolate!! and dyou can ask for extra sauce for dipping anything AND if you have favorites for chocolate dipping (aka rice crispie balls) ask for extras and they will bring them.

 

[divergrrl]

Happy Belated Birthday!! May you run smack dab into a martini & enjoy it wholeheartedly!

Jeannine

 

[flopkins]

Date: 10/31/2006 7:04:55 PM
Author: Mara
traditional fondue is actually cooking the meal part in oil or a wine or something as well...aka you dip it into a really hot vat of oil (think tempura) or you can do red wine and spices...and it basically boils the meat.

ooooooooooooooohhhh..... so traditional fondue is almost like frying food! haha.... and here I was thinking that it was only cheese and chocolate... two of my fav things, btw. ok that makes a lot more sense now. I guess I had the 'stupide american' idea of what fondue is like.

anyhoo it definitely sounds intruiging, I will have to try the 'real' thing someday, although it sounds really fatty and oily.... hrm.

thanks for explaining!

 

[sunkist]

Hope you had a happy birthday Mara!