Wild and crazy

[pjthompson]

Lynn and I took Mom out for a birthday dinner last night (the big day was Friday). Being the wild and crazy women we are, I was home and in my jammies just after nine. Woo doggies can you stand the excitement. But actually, I drank some beer and a my tai bigger than my head so I felt pretty good.

The place we went specializes in ginormous drinks and desserts and appetizers. Seriously, these folks are out of control: Gladstone's For Fish, on Pacific Coast Highway just at the foot of Sunset Boulevard and literally steps to the beach. Although if you did step off onto the beach you'd have about a twenty or thirty foot drop onto some rocks. Still, awesomely beautiful locale. If you've watched much TV at all, you've probably seen Gladstone's. Any time TVland wants to show a California beachside restaurant, it usually winds up being Gladstone's--or, at least, their wooden deck with the colorful international flags and big, blooming umbrellas. (I think every other episode of The Rockford Files was filmed there.) A real SoCal institution--and good fish, too. An amazing gaggle of people fighting to get in--locals and tourists alike.

http://www.gladstones.com/

We, being naive, ordered dessert after the enormous dinner we ate, thinking the three of us would share a nice piece of coconut cake. It turned out that their coconut cake consists of three pound cakes cemented together with cream filling and topped by a creamy coconut frosting. It was literally about 8 inches long, maybe four inches high and wide. And with lashings of whipped cream and fresh strawberries. We made only the smallest dent and decided to send the rest home to Lynn's hubby and the kitties.

Oh, and one of the specialitas de la casa is they do these elaborate wrap up jobs for leftovers. They make the copper-colored tin foil into mostly animal and fish shapes. Lynn's ahi was wrapped up to look like a crab (with cocktail olives on toothpicks for eyestalks); my shrimp was wrapped up to look like a stingray; the ginormous dessert went home looking like a designer handbag. Next stop Las Vegas, ladies and gentlemen...

Comments

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

Isn't that leftover wrapping fun? I ate somewhere once where they that sent you home with stuffed tinfoil swan.

[pjthompson]

The table across from us got a swan. It was lovely.

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to imagine how they made the other ones you described. That must have been so neat.

[pjthompson]

For the crab: They put the food in a piece of regular foil and mounded it into a flat-bottom mound about 3-4 inches across. Then they took a long piece of the coppery foil, maybe 3-4 feet and placed the other in the middle. They folded it up until the ends met, then did a small roll-down just in the middle over the mound. They twisted out from the mound on either side to make arms until there was maybe 4-5 inches left, then they tore that down the middle maybe 2 inches (halfway) and rolled the separate pieces over until they looked like claws, then rounded the arms to a crab-like arm attitude. Then they took the olives and speared them with cocktail screwers and jammed them into the top of the mound the so the pimentos looked like eyes on stalks.

The purse was a similar process except the mound was much large and longer and when they twisted the arms around they bent them over on top and twisted them together in the middle.

Unfortunately I didn't see them make the stingray. :-( It was fun watching them do it.

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

Wow. There must be a class on making leftover foil animals somewhere.

[pjthompson]

We had two servers, one a trainee, so the experienced waitress was showing her how to make them. That was fun, too.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say, getting that job is worth it just to learn the foil-oragami. :-) Sounds like you had a great time at dinner, though! Very cool... I've never had a mai tai. Any good?

[pjthompson]

Yeah, and the food was good, too. :-)

I've never had a mai tai. Any good?

I knew I was spelling mai tai wrong. And yes, they're good. Fruit juice with a potent kick. Actually, one of those sweet-sour drinks. Usually served with cherries or a pineapple slice or both and often (though not Saturday night) with little paper umbrellas. Which is why, I guess, it takes a manly man to order one. ;-) (Though I suppose you could order one without the umbrellas.)

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Most definitely would be ordered without umbrellas! :-) Actually, the closest i've ever been to one is, I think, in watching Office Space with that guy who always says he could be sitting on a beach somewhere after burning down the office.

At least I think that's where I heard it...
I'll stick with beer for now. :-)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely! And fun. I think I'm going to let you take me to a super-cool place for my next birthday. :P

[pjthompson]

They are good, despite the frou-frou. Lots of yo ho ho rum, ye know.

[pjthompson]

I'd love to! Of course, you have to pay your own way to LA. >;-)

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Why, shiver me timbers, that be all ye need!