Monday, March 10, 2014

Burying elephants in cheese


What is one to do when a Frenchman hates to celebrate his birthday?


Easy!

Buy cheese.


So I zipped down to Zabar's on Broadway and went to town in the cheese department. Maybe I paid the dried sausage department a visit, too. On the way back, goodies stashed in a khaki backback, I stepped onto the wrong train. Of course. And found myself way west and uptown on the darned 1, at 145th Street, with a lot of other angry commuters. Karma for me, as I'd just given a tourist bad directions. Unwittingly. So we all rode downtown together, in order to go uptown again. 


This evening I hoofed it eleven short blocks south and three long blocks west  to The Winery on 116th to get a quick and cold bottle of Champagne, as a birthday treat. Bollinger special cuvée. And it was delicious. Good things birthdays only come once a year. Mostly. And when I got home I was given flowers. Because it was his birthday.


The cheese tasting was fun, the pate and especially the sausage pronounced excellent.

Some small tarts from Le Patisserie des Ambassades on Frederick Douglass Boulevard finished the meal and almost finished us - lemon, coconut and frangipane. Very good, washed down with the last slurp of Champagne.

I think we'll be eating  cheese for a while...

14 comments:

  1. In the next to last photo, the one with the wine bottle on the table, there are two coffee pots on the stove.
    Can I be a bit nosey and ask why two coffee pots?
    Please extend my best wishes to the birthday boy.

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    Replies
    1. Ed - the smaller pot is for when we want less coffee (one big cup or two small cups), and the larger pot is for when we want more coffee (two big cups...etc.). I generally use the smaller pot. Vince likes the bigger pot.

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  2. An excellent way to Not celebrate a birthday! May you have many more, Vince

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  3. Joyeux Anniversaire, Vince! Lovely looking cheese and champagne is always a welcome addition.

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  4. Sounds like a lovely evening. Happy whatever to the Frenchman!

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  5. Many happy returns Vince! : )

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  6. Happy Birthday to you Vince. See that you had a special guest at the table too who feted you in his dinner suite with bow tie!

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  7. Happy Birthday to the Frenchman--a bottle of bubbly makes any day wonderful :)

    Does Estorbo like a bite of cheese, too?

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  8. Warm regards to this good man on his birthday and kudos to to the gracious lady who "insists" that he celebrates his big day. You both deserve each other.

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  9. Best birthday wishes to Vince!

    Keli'i and 'Kaika

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  10. Marie - just reading the awful, awful news now about the building collapse in East Harlem... thinking about you, Vince and Storbie now, hope you three are safe and OK.

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  11. Ginny here in Paarl,hope you are ok

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  12. That's Vince, all right. His birthday, he brings you flowers.

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