Homemade macaroni and cheese with sliced homegrown tomatoes on the side. The childhood birthday meal also included an angel food confetti birthday cake.
Is the place down towards the station that used to do the best freaking duck in the universe still open? I can’t remember its name for the life of me. Not the one opposite the Welsh Pony (which probably isn’t the Welsh Pony any more) but further down towards the station…
These days my parents make us their amazing secret-formula dosas, but growing up it was chole-batura or chole-puri for special occasions (birthdays and their anniversary). With homemade spiced mango pulp on vanilla ice cream for dessert.
YES!
But don’t forget the baked beans, too.
Mine changes from year to year: my parents take me out for dinner. This year we went out for Vietnamese. I had a bowl of pho with tendon, meatball, fatty brisket, and flank (I wanted tripe, but I’m not sure which Vietnamese places around here have both a pho broth I like a lot and tripe, so I went with the place that has a broth I like but no tripe) and split a lemongrass chicken entree with my mom.
My cake was just a chocolate cake leftover from when I’d made chocolate cupcakes with some white frosting, nothing fancy.
Usually something spicy… curry vindaloo, buffalo wings, enchiladas… I love spicy, so that’s usually what I go with. My husband makes great Indian food… mmmm… now I want some of his absolutely fabulous curry…
Both sides of the family show love through food so I get a birthday dinner at my parents’, my in-laws’ and at home (usually spread over the course of a month.)
Parents’ meal: Either full English roast dinner with roast beef, potatoes, gravy or beef and veggie kebabs.
In-laws’ meal: Shrimp scampi and blackberry cobbler for dessert.
Home: Fondue
Lobster, and steamers, and mussels, and maybe a few shrimp. Not those commie, pinko, “Tiger Shrimp” but real honest-to-God white shrimp.
And butter, lots of melted butter and ohnoyoudon’t! I like the white fluffy bits in my butter, thank you.
And some broccoli, lightly steamed but still crunchy.
Steam it all in a big pot, and spread some newspaper on the picnic table out back.
I make (and used to request from my mom) a pasta dish with a really simple sauce.
It’s made with a beef roast cut into cubes boiled in just enough water to cover the meat, salt, pepper and a ton of garlic. After that’s boiled for an hour or two, add tomato sauce and a ton of grated parmesan cheese. Let that simmer another hour or two and serve it over rigatoni. So good.
I used to only eat it on my birthday, then I realized that’s dumb and I make it at least a few times a year.
I haven’t exactly started a tradition, but usually it involves beef or sometimes a big chunk of seared tuna. (Which is somewhat odd, as most of the year I’m a pork person.) This year, I made a barbecued brisket for myself and close family members. The last two years, I bought myself a nice ~$40/pound dry-aged prime ribeye steak. The year before that, I think I got two pounds or so of ahi that I seared on the Weber. I may very well just continue the birthday brisket and make that the tradition from now on.
My favourite birthday meal (in fact my favourite meal full stop)
Anything where I don’t have to pay for, cook or do the dishes afterwards.
Sushi usually. Last year it was Brazilian food. The year before was Cuban. There’s always a lot of alcohol involved.
Tony Roma’s.
Sushi is my new tradition. This is the only time I eat any kind of animal product, so I only do sushi about four times a year, and on my birthday I go all out.
Then I have a cupcake.
This year I’m getting someone else to cook…in this case, a transplanted Southern barbecue master. I didn’t grow up in a great barbecue area, and I don’t live in one now, but for some reason I’ve really fallen for it.
I have something different each year and sometimes I don’t even really celebrate or have a specifically designated “birthday” meal. Standing up over the kitchen sink eating cereal counts, in other words.
Because my birthday was last week, I think I can remember what I had. I invited a bunch of friends to a Thai place that also serves sushi. I ordered a huge plate of one of the sushi specials to share with the table. That was the appetizer. I can’t remember everything that was in it aside from some crab and eel or spicy tuna. There were several swimmy critters in that sushi, which was delicious. My entree was a mung bean noodle dish, the name of which escapes me. I’d just had the Panang curry a week before and that’s what my date had.
Then my best girlfriend had ordered a peanut butter cake with peanut butter and fudge frosting. It was to. die. for.
In general, I’m going to go for some form of seafood. Or, my Latin lover will make a kick ass paella, which is also chock-full of seafood.
Tomorrow is my birthday and since I’m in a new place and don’t really have any friends in the area yet I’ll probably have pizza delivered… <sob!>
For years it has been Sushi. Lately though, we have gotten into the habit of going for Sushi once a week, so my BD dinner is probably gonna change. Maybe fondue at The Melting Pot, since it is my daughter’s favorite place on earth.
Something with goat cheese melted over it would be nice - Carabba’s has a pretty good Chicken Bryan. That might do - only about 3 weeks away.