Bars

Birthday 2018

5/20/2018 10:03:00 PM

Chocolate Marquise at Amaru

Birthday post! As you may know, I love celebrating my birthday, but this year I didn't have loads of activities meticulously scheduled in advance. I was a bit more chill about it than usual, just arranging things with short notice, but I still ended up fitting in quite a few fun celebrations over the week. There was lots of good food and fun with friends. Let's take a look!

The Friday before my birthday, my buddy Jimbo took me out for drinks at Romeo Lane (1A Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000)...

Romeo Lane - Bellini; Dubonnet Fizz

...followed by dinner at Annam (56 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000). When we worked together we used to go to Chef Jerry Mai's Pho Nom for lunch all the time and loved it, so I was really keen to try her new, more upmarket offering. It was great! Their Vietnamese coffee espresso martinis were so delicious, and the young coconut jelly dessert, with grilled corn and coconut sorbet, was incredible!

Black and White Swordsman - Vodka, amaretto, Vietnamese coffee, chocolate bitters, coconut condensed milk. The Vietnamese espresso martini - $9 during happy hour

Young coconut jelly, grilled corn, coconut sorbet - $14

The highlight of the "Sarah birthday season" is, of course, my annual Slumber Party - a group of girlfriends, PJs, lots of delicious charcuterie, cheese, and wine. Such fun! In previous years I cooked or baked a lot for the party; this time I took it really easy, just doing a big shop at Prahran Market earlier that day. We bought sourdough baguette from Q Le Baker; charcuterie and olives from Chaso's Gourmet Deli; and ridiculously good cheeses from Maker and Monger. (I can def recommend buying cheese at Maker and Monger - we basically just went to the stall and asked for help choosing cheeses, and the person working there patiently talked us through loads of different options, and gave us heaps of tastings so we could put the perfect platter together).

Cheese and Charcuterie

FYI the cheese we ended up choosing were Brillat-Savarin, a gorgonzola dolce, Marcel petite comté & an Annie Baxter Shaw River buffalo pecorino, as well as some Meredith marinated feta that we already had at home.

I still baked my own birthday cake though! I made mini burnt butter carrot cakes with cream cheese icing. (Recipe adapted from Joy The Baker). They're gluten free too! They were awesome! I'll share the recipe shortly.

Burnt Butter Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Icing

The next morning, feeling a little worse for wear, I made the most epic toasties for breakfast from the leftovers of the charcuterie and cheese platters - sourdough baguette, jamon serrano, fresh fig, grated Shaw River buffalo pecorino and comté. I may have even fried the toasties in a little butter. Oops.

Epic toastie is epic

Later that day, Sandra took me for chicken and waffles at Belle's Hot Chicken (107 Swan St, Richmond VIC 3121). BEST.

Chicken and Waffles - $20

Ok, so my real birthday was a Monday, so it was a regular old work day. But I got my free birthday Nando's for lunch!

Free Birthday Nando's

And I had dinner with my family at Entrecôte (131-133 Domain Rd, South Yarra, VIC 3141). All the steak! All the frites!

Entrecôte Steak Frites

The week after my birthday, my friend An took us out for dinner as a birthday gift - the full degustation at Amaru (1121 High St, Armadale VIC 3143). It had been a long time since we'd done a high end degustation, and Amaru was an absolutely stunning experience! Full blogpost to come. Here is the beautiful Meredith Cheesecake dessert.

Meredith Cheesecake

I was also extremely lucky to receive lots of wonderful gifts for my birthday! (I mean, in addition to the lovely dinners).

Gifts

I am so excited to now own a copy of the Bravetart cookbook! Stella Parks is a legend and I can't wait to start baking from it. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous salted pretzel earrings? TOO CUTE.

Bravetart and PRETZEL EARRINGS

And that was my birthday! At milestones like these, it's always nice to take a little time to reflect, and I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful and kind friends and family. Hooray!

Do you like spreading out the birthday celebrations? Have you tried poppycock? Would you choose pretzel earrings or donut earrings?

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2 comments

  1. Happy Birthday! It looks like a delicious one too. And a slumber party sounds so fun. I'm having a pyjama party soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah, you really know how to celebrate! Happy birthday.

    Those pretzel earrings are so cute. I was the delighted recipient of some Iced Vovo shaped studs for my last birthday.

    ReplyDelete

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