Friday Food 08-31-18

My birthday is September 1st and this year I will turn 80 (in just an hour and 15 mins, in fact).  EIGHTY!  I can't believe it, inside I still think I am 24.  But my body and my mind tell me the truth.  It seems that this year I am going to spread out the "celebration" by eating out with friends all month.   Last Friday was the monthly meeting of a small quilting group I belong to - there are only four of us, with one member unable to attend.  We seem to do birthdays very well and this time we went out to Black Marlin, a seafood place in Tustin on El Camino Real.  It has been around for quite a while, but I had never  been there - it is a place for "guys who lunch", rather than "ladies who lunch". Although there were three tables of ladies, all the rest were guys.  

Bonnie always provides the birthday hat and I was quite comfortable wearing it the entire time.  Guess others noticed because as we left about a half a dozen different people wished me a Happy Birthday.  I resisted bragging about how old I am.

Of course we ate fish, since that is the specialty of the house.  Bonnie and Patti each had the shrimp Cobb salad.  It also had a piece of grilled salmon and I had a nibble of that. 

But, surprising everyone, I didn't order salmon, but had the Baja style fish tacos.  Very good, but not as good as the shrimp tacos at Chronic Taco restaurants.  It is surprising how filling these little guys can be and three really filled me up.  However, there was dessert to face.  

 In this group we each bring our own birthday "cake", something we really like; we have had cake, cupcakes, bread pudding, and now pie.  I never eat pie at home, what would I do with a whole pie?  So, I had been thinking about a peach pie from Polly's Pies.  Imagine my disappointment when I stopped at Polly's and they had NO peach pie!  I settled for boysenberry.  Bonnie added the candles, but we couldn't get the matches to light, so I pretended to blow out the candles and made a wish.  

Patti did the honors and gave us each a slice.  She has such pretty hands. 

The restaurant kindly provided plates and utensils.  It was one of the best pies I have ever eaten and I was thankful that Polly's didn't have peach.  Yummy stuff.  Patti took home an extra piece and I later gave a huge piece to my bachelor neighbor.  And, of course, I had the last piece with vanilla ice cream.  Sooo good.  We won't have another birthday in this group until next summer, but there are several other birthday lunches for me coming up in September.  

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