Quarter of a Century Birthday Weekend

Birthday Lunch:

Earlier this month, I celebrated my 25^th birthday. Yup, that’s right. I made it to the quarter of a century mark in my life! Hard to believe I am 25…I keep asking myself where the time went.

I’m not one to make a scene, so my 25^th birthday was a very low-key affair. (Also, I was in the midst of preparing for my finals exams and the MCAT).

To kick off my birthday weekend (my birthday wasn’t until Sunday), I met my mother for lunch on Friday. We decided to go to a delicious Japanese soba restaurant in the East Village called “Soba-ya”. The food is always excellent and I always want to eat Japanese food.

For lunch, my mother enjoyed soba with mitsuba and jako fried tempura style. I opted for the “mini don” lunch set that allows you to have a small donburi (rice bowl) AND soba. I like everything, so I always find it hard to choose just one dish. This kind of a combo meal allows me more variety, which makes me a very happy customer. I opted for cold soba and a small pork katsu don.

Pork tonkatsu (without the rice bowl) and katsu don is probably one of my favorite Japanese culinary creations. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s fried pork cutlet! In the case of the donburi, it’s fried pork cutlet that is cooked with onions and egg(s) and then served on a bed of rice. It’s like heaven in a bowl and in my mouth. Absolutely love it!

As always, our lunch at Soba-ya was phenomenal. A wonderful way to kick off my birthday weekend!

After lunch, as we walked back to my apartment, mom and I went for some gelato at Amorino. Although we were full from lunch, let’s face it, dessert has a separate stomach, right? I am soooo glad we decided to have some gelato because it really hit the spot! I enjoyed chocolate, mascarpone, and banana flavor gelato --- all presented as a beautiful flower. Yum!

After gelato, mother and I parted ways. I went to the library to study and she returned to our time share (long story, but when my parents visit NYC, they stay at our time share) to get ready for the opera that evening.

Birthday Dinner Feast:

Birthday celebrations continued Saturday night, when my parents and I visited our favorite restaurant in Manhattan --- Kyoya. We have been going to this Japanese restaurant forever and we have become friends with the executive chef, Chef Sono, as well as the restaurant’s staff members. I believe that Kyoya is one of the best Japanese restaurants in Manhattan, if not THE BEST Japanese restaurant. Chef Sono’s menu captures the truly authentic flavors of Japanese cooking, but his slightly modern presentation is like artwork. He is a culinary genius! Frankly, I couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate my birthday.

Our meal started with an amuse buche from the chef. It was his way of welcoming us and it was a little birthday present to me. We were presented with a gorgeous piece of grilled black cod, glazed with white miso. So delicious!

When we go to Kyoya, we feast like royalty. I’ll admit, the order far too much food for three people, but everything is so delicious and every visit to Kyoya is such a treat!

Left: Special seasonal sake

Right (t-b): Grilled black cod, kinpira, fried scallop with nori sauce

Top: Chef Sono hard at work

Bottom (L-R): Shishamo, grilled bamboo, white fish cooked in a sakura sauce

Gorgeous sashimi platter

Clockwise: fried horse mackerel, slow cooked pork belly (kurobuta kakuni), simmered red snapper head, and spinach ohitashi

Top: Kamadaki rice with anago, gobo, and peas

Bottom: Bozushi with cured mackerel

As our meal came to a close, it was time to order dessert. I ordered my usual --- black bean an mitsu. This is probably my favorite Japanese dessert. Although there are many variations of this dish, it essentially contains: sweet black beans, kanten (agar), and a molasses sauce. Some places will add fruit, mochi, ice cream, etc… Kyoya’s an mitsu is fabulous and I love it so so much!

As a birthday present, Chef Sono also prepared a beautiful monaka-dessert for me. This is a dish with wafer-like cookies that you can fill with whatever you want (fruit, pudding, ice cream, etc…) In this case, I had strawberries, anko (red bean paste), vanilla ice cream and a sakura pudding. It was delicious!

The monaka is the top picture and side picture

The an mitsu is the bottom picture

Dinner at Kyoya was absolutely sublime, as per usual. Not only was the food phenomenal, but the atmosphere was great. Because we go to Kyoya so often and because we have a friendly rapport with the restaurant staff, Kyoya is very homey, in my opinion. I always feel at ease and I always have a great time. It was nice to be celebrating with my parents as well as the restaurant, and I couldn’t think of a better place to turn 25!

Birthday Brunch:

My birthday weekend ended with a Japanese brunch. (Are you starting to notice a theme with all of these meals…haha!) Before my parents returned to New Jersey, we ended the weekend by going to another one of our favorite Japanese restaurants, En.

I like En because the food, in my opinion, is like home cooking-type food. It’s the kind of Japanese food that my mom makes at home, which is fantastic! En models it’s menu on an “izakaya” vibe. (Wikipedia defines an izakaya as: a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. They are casual places for after-work drinking.) I love En and I never get sick of the food.

My parents and I used to only come to En for dinner, until we discovered that they also serve brunch. Since this discover, En has become a favorite brunch spot.

My favorite cocktail at En is the "seppun". It's like a gin and tonic, with shiso leaves

On this visit, my mother and I both enjoyed the “sake teishoku”, whilst my dad order the “steak and eggs.” Teishoku is like a prix fixe meal, whilst sake is salted grilled salmon. It’s so delicious! Our teishoku came with freshly made tofu, miso soup, salad, some cooked ferns, and pickles. Yum! A truly traditional Japanese meal. Honestly, I could probably eat this everyday and never get sick of it!

My dad order his favorite: steak and eggs, which comes with a salad, some vegetables, and a poached egg/garlic shoyu dipping sauce. It’s amazing! The restauartn simply sears the steak, but it’s up to you to finish grilling your meat on a hot stone plate, that you are provided with. This dish is actually a lot of fun and the smell of the cooking steak is mouth watering. (My mouth is watering right now, just thinking about it.) I think the best part of this dish is the dipping sauce for the steak. The poached egg and garlic shoyu sauce is out of this world!

Although this was brunch, dessert never hurt anyone, right? Also, it’s my birthday! I’m going to indulge a bit! I concluded my birthday brunch with a trio of ice cream: early grey tea, fig, and green tea. So delicious!

My 25^th birthday was a small affair, but the food was phenomenal and the company equally wonderful. All in all, a fantastic birthday weekend.