This year, however, was different. Although my day wasn’t all that great because of some work annoyances, my evening was perfect. About two weeks ago, my best friend Stoyan called and said he and Alex would be in LA over my birthday and were wondering if I’d like to have dinner with them. Since I often can’t think of good places to eat, I entrusted a friend to help me decide. She chose Yuzu, which I’m pretty sure is her favorite restaurant, and for good reason.

After that, she took care of everything. Thank god for that, because my birthday dinner was perfection at its best! The food was amazing, the atmosphere was cozy and romantic, and absolutely no complaints having spent the evening with some of my favorite people.

My friend arranged chef no osusume (“chef’s recommendation” and sometimes called omakese) for us, which was several courses and featured yuzu in almost every single dish. We were started off with a big bowl of sashimi on top of fresh shiso on top of ice. I didn’t even know 1 or 2 of the fishes used for the sashimi, but it was good, especially the albacore which melted in your mouth. They brought Alex a special sashimi shabu shabu (you cook the sashimi in the hot pot) since she can’t eat raw fish at the moment (she has a small monster growing in her belly who should be gracing us with his presence in 2-3 months). Our next course was aona to age no nibitashi (boiled greens and aburaage in soup). I’m a big fan of aburaage and I love veggies, so needless to say this was good. Next we were served nori de maita hokkaido san kaibashira wasabi soe (wasabi topped Hokkaido scallop wrapped in nori). The taste was great, but the chunk of wasabi on top got me on every single bite. I think all of our eyes were watering from the wasabi burn, but it was all good. Our next course was agedashi tofu with shrimp tempura and bell peppers. By this point, my stomach was reaching it’s burtsing point, so I wasn’t able to finish it all, however it was very tasty! Thinking we would never make it to the end, our final course was kani no takikomi gohan and miso soup (miso soup and crab and bamboo rice pot).To top the evening off, my friend arranged a rare cheesecake from Bonjour, a Japanese French Bakery I frequently visit for sweets and ice tea. Even being stuffed to the gills, I had half a piece, as did Stoyan & Alex, and I’m glad I did since it was delicious! I’m already looking forward to eating another piece when I get home from work tonight.

I think Stoyan & Alex really enjoyed the meal, especially since they’ve never eaten Japanese food or been to a Japanese restaurant other than sushi. The real star of the night, though, was my friend, and my heart goes out to her for arranging a wonderful birthday dinner! I will forever have a smile on my face whenever I think back to the last birthday of my 20s.