celebrations

Thanks to everyone who called, emailed, texted, gchatted, and sent a card on my birthday! I felt very blessed and loved.

I was a lucky girl. I got to celebrate my birthday three times during a span of one week. Three days of great friendship and great food. My favorite way to celebrate! :)

Joyce and Grace came up to visit from LA the weekend before my birthday. We spent it in Berkeley on Saturday, doing our usual girly thing: brunch at La Note, shop at Sway, Cheeseboard and Love at First Bite run...

yummy brioche french toast

goat cheese and chive omelet

At night, they were really sweet and treated me to dinner at La Strada, an Italian restaurant in downtown P.A. I had never been there before. The food was pretty good--Grace and I shared a really tasty fish--but the best part was the panna cotta we had for dessert. It came in three different citrus flavors (I love citrus)--blood orange, grapefruit, and lemon.

On my actual birthday, Byron took me out to eat at Le Papillon, a French restaurant in San Jose. I looovvveeee French food, and this place was really great-- good service and excellent food. My only (tiny) complaint was the ambiance. Maybe it's us, but it was a bit too dark and "romantic" for our tastes. Our waiter spoke barely above a whisper. Everyone else around us was dressed in suits! But the food was delicious.

my duck breast in huckleberry sauce

byron's spiced pork tenderloin with poached pear

My birthday celebrations finally came to an end on Saturday, when sweetie Byron threw me a party at Kittoe. I was really touched and excited to see all the different people who came. It was a pizza and dessert theme--two of my favorite foods. :)

Of course, being a Byron-organized party, we did some "sharing"--people went around and shared encouragements for me, things they appreciated about me. I was really embarrassed at first (didn't like being the center of attention), but it actually was a very encouraging time. I definitely felt blessed by everyone's words.

And that's how I celebrated my 30th birthday! I have officially crossed into a new decade. I'm looking forward to all the things this 30th year will bring--hopefully both closing old chapters and starting new ones...