My last few birthday dinners have been at 4th Street Bistro because they have foie gras as an appetizer and I looooove foie gras. Ralph got me some to try cooking with and when I go to 4th Street, I can find something I want to try, but it’s usually just the one thing on the menu that caught my eye. However, our beloved Sezmu usually has numerous things I want to try, and sometimes a selection of goodies is just what you want for your birthday, so that’s where we went.

I was prepared to pick á la carte, because I had been perusing the menu throughout the day. However, after hearing the Chef’s Choice, both Ralph and I had to order it.

My first cocktail was the Alley Cat Love Potion and Ralph got the Pomegranate Manhattan. The Alley Cat consisted of a variety of citrus juices, ginger beer and champagne. Delicious and refreshing without being too tart. Ralph thought his drink had too many flavors that he liked, but wasn’t sure if he liked *that* many all at once. I thought it tasted very spa-esque. Not only like what you would drink at a spa, but it also smelled like a lot of the essential oils you’d pick from for your massage.

The taster was cauliflower vichyssoise with a dollop of lobster oil. This was light, not too fishy and would be ideal for a hot summer day as a full serving. For a cold February night, a taste was just right.

The first dish of the Chef’s choice was sushi-grade raw hamachi (my favorite sushi fish) wrapped around avocado and sprinkled with hearts of palm and, I think, young sage leaves. I could have eaten a full meal of just this. The hamachi melted in your mouth like butter and the nutty tastes of ripe avocado and crunchy hearts of palm balanced the texture without over-powering the fish.

Our second dish was a dairyless razor clam chowder with prosciutto hash. To give the soup the texture of chowder, a bean purée was used. Ralph said a bigger bowl of this with some bread would have been a complete meal in and of itself. The presentation of the prosciutto and some of the clam in the shell was nice and actually useful (I had to use the shell to push the last of the bite-sized pieces onto my spoon).

By now I’m starting my second cocktail, the J D’anjou. It consisted of pear liquor, vodka, pear purée and pinot gris sweetness (or something), garnished with a thin slice of pear. Ralph ordered the tried-and-true Thai Heat. No chili garnish this time, but it was definitely hotter and just as tasty.

Main course was tempura snowpeas, “forbidden” black rice and snow grouper with some sort of savory sauce on the side. This dish was very good, but larger servings of the previous dishes would have been just fine. That’s not to say that I was unhappy or disappointed with this in any way, it just…would have been nicer to have more of the other stuff :)

For dessert, I went with the Medjool Date cake, with brandy foam and cardamom ice cream and a glass of sauternes. This was absolutely delicious and the ONLY reason I hesitated in diving in right away is that the presentation was very phallic. Yes, I’m immature, I don’t deny this, but I’m not exaggerating. There was a long line of brandy foam (ribbed with date slice…penis thorns) and the smallish cylinder date cake was at one end…nestled by two little scoops of cardamom ice cream balls. The jokes are just too easy, which is why I made sure to rate it before describing it. Ralph, of course, had his cheese plate with a mediera. Seemed a little light on the serving sizes compared to previous times, but Ralph was still very happy with it.