The last of the birthday meals...perhaps

It's T+4 and I'm still having birthday-related meals.  A couple of friends took me out to lunch at Golden Leaf (金葉庭), and were kind enough to pop open a bottle over this relaxing lunch.

The first item to arrive was the char siu filled pineapple bun (菠蘿叉燒包).  These were good but they were pretty huge... not exactly what you'd want as the first thing to take in.  There were a few more dim sum items, including some steamed scallop dumplings (帶子餃) which basically fell apart as I tried to pick them up.

We also took 2 pan-fried pigeons (炸乳鴿), which were done pretty well.  The skin was very crispy, and inside there was still a little bit of the oil from the pigeon fat.  There were also some veggies and pan-fried radish cake (蘿蔔糕), but the radish cake was a little too thick and mushy for my taste, in spite of the generous topping of pork floss and dried egg yolk.

My friend generously shared a bottle of 2000 François Mikulski Meursault Les Poruzots.  Lots of toast, minerals, popcorn and lemon.  Very nice.

After watching a movie in the afternoon, I traveled to the home of another friend for dinner.  I arrived a little later than expected, but fortunately the two little kiddies waited up to sing me "Happy Birthday".  I also received a birthday card from the kiddies, which was pretty cute.

Dinner in this household is always a simple affair, but always excellent.  We had some San Daniele ham with a flute of 1996 Dom Perignon.  The wine was very nice.  Surprisingly I could taste a little age on the palate, as it was very smooth and a little ripe.

We moved to the table and had some wonderful caprese.  Lots of ripe cherry tomatoes here, along with some fragrant basil and very creamy burrata.  The vinaigrette dressing was simply delicious, and made with aged balsamic.

I was a little disappointed in the 2000 Bouchard Corton-Charlemagne.  There were subtle notes of toast and roasted corn, with some ripeness and sweetness on the palate.  But it was nothing like the bottle I had a few months ago, which was purchased at the same time as this one.

Our hosts had prepared a lot of fettuccine for the veal slow-cooked in red wine sauce.  It was wonderful as always, and did kinda go together with the bottle of 1995 Remírez de Ganuza Gran Reserva I brought.  It was very smoky, a little alcoholic on the nose, with sweet fruit, mint and pine needle.  I would never have guessed this was Tempranillo...  I actually carried this bottle back from the winery, which I visited on the trip we did together a few years ago.

It was a very good evening, finished with some of the low-fat, low-sugar birthday cake my friends baked me.  That was good news, because I really couldn't eat any more food.  It's been a pretty good week, but the eating has gotta stop...