Graduation yesterday was… underwhelming. A combination of reasons, really—only a few people who I really cared about at the Plan II ceremony, not feeling all that different after finishing college, all this emotion and excitement I’m storing up for Africa… who knows.
The main event so far, actually, has been the long string of incredibly good meals I’ve been having with my parents: Mother’s, P.F. Chang’s, Wink, Eastside Cafe…
Dinner last night at Wink was especially exciting. It’s this tiny little 16-table restaurant behind Whole Earth Provision Co. on Lamar that has a rotating menu of fresh / organic / just plain weird food. We didn’t sit down until 9pm or so, but they greeted me by name, congratulated me more times than I can remember, and managed to spell my name incorrectly not only on the personalized menus they printed but also—in a different misspelling—on the envelope they gave me to take my personalized menus home in after they had been signed by the chefs.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Our appetizer was “bison carpaccio with day lilies and colendulas,” which was a paper-thin slice of raw bison with flowers on top. Kathryn and my grandmother had sauteed fluke, Bryan and I had skate wing, my mom had marinated lamb loin, my dad had crisp duck breast, and Leslie had rabbit rillette, which was very tender rabbit smooshed into a cake. Rabbit spam.
All the entrees had strange combinations of exotic mushrooms and local veggies and rice or lettuce or other unidentifiable green things. Fun presentation and just the right amount of food to fill you up but leave you thinking, “Hell, I could totally fit in some dessert and coffee.”
Which we did, of course—el rey chocolate cake, chocolate soup with milk chocolate-ginger mousse, creme brulee, and lemon meringue pot—all rich and tasty.
Two hours later, “opulent” was really the best word that came to mind, other than “ohlordi’msofullican’tmove.” It was amazing. Pictures here.
Other pics from graduation weekend so far are up as well. Plan II grad, Matt’s picnic, Noelle’s party, etc.