::a week of pleasures::

The perfect hangover dinner: grilled steaks, corn on the cob, grilled onions, nopales and seedless watermelon.

This week has been full of amazing meals, thanks to the occasion of a birthday. First, there was Traxx at Union Station. C. and I split the salmon and the tofu steak, and both were equally amazing. The pinot grigio was dry and smooth, and the view from our table, of people lugging suitcases or running to catch a train was pleasant and odd. I'd definitely return. I especially dug the chairs, which looked like something out a very fine thrift shop that I might have found in Olympia or Shelton, WA.

Then there was Blair's, another first for me and my date. From the bread to the parsnip soup, to the trout and the sweet potato gnocci, we were knocked out by the supreme tastes. While nothing will ever beat the trout we had in Mindo, Ecuador (caught that day, steamed to perfection), Blair's was a for sure second place. The bread pudding at the end was absolutely narcotic. Another place to return to!

Then, finally, was the Sunday night-your-birthday-is-long-over-now/hangover meal, grilled in the backyard by boys who didn't have quite the hangover I had. Something about chewing all that fine meat, biting into crispy corn, crunching whole baby onions and sucking down seedless watermelon was wholly satisfying and also exhausting. More grilling to come, as summertime wafts in...