9. Eat at a restaurant I've never been to before

On Saturday night, in honor of Valentine's Day, ITSam took me to a Japanese steak house to celebrate. I've never been to this place before but I had always heard good things about the food there. I had no idea what all it encompassed, either, so I was a little nervous but excited about it.

Not only did we have a great meal and lots of fun, I also have a chance to cross something off my list- eat somewhere I've never been!

And I had a chance to learn how to use chopsticks... that should've been on that list, too!

Four couples (that we didn't know) were seated family style around a HUGE grill. A woman (in a kimono) took our drink and dinner orders. Drinks first. I just had soda because Sam was going to drink Saki and I was going to drive. Then he changed his mind so I was going to have a mai tai but Sam mentioned something about dessert and I decided I didn't want to "spoil" my dessert.

Meal choices were steak, chicken, shrimp or combos of this. All dinners came with a house soup, a house salad, and a shrimp appetizer. I decided to have the steak and chicken combo.

The waitress brought our soup. I wasn't a big fan; it was very gingery and peppery, neither flavors am I a fan of. The soup was lettuce with shredded carrots on the top and some sort of weird orange dressing. I wasn't a fan of that either. Sam was worried. I didn't complain or make a fuss and I tried everything.

Then we had a shrimp appetizer and I swear I could've eaten about 174 of those. They were grilled and spiced with... good spices. I LOVED the shrimp. Then the main dish was steak and chicken which was grilled to perfection and seasoned impeccably. I was in food heaven. This came with fried rice and seasoned, grilled veggies (mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, zucchini). It was all marvelous! My mouth is still watering over it all and I really do want more- now! While I loved it all, I think next time I go I'm getting the steak and shrimp! Yummers!

What was extra cool was the fact that we had our own personal chef who performed our food preparation! It was so cool. He chopped, sliced, diced, and cut all the meat and veggies in front of us. He tossed the food around. He tossed his knives around. He threw shrimp tails in the air and caught them in his pocket. He tossed a lemon in the air and caught it behind his back on the prong of a fork. He was just fun and creative. He told funny jokes. It was just a neat "cutting" performance, food preparation as performance art.

Next on our food agenda, was dessert. After dinner at the Japanese steak house, we went to a local chocolatier. They had three collections of chocolates they're featuring this winter. It's all gourmet chocolates and just divine. I had never been here either! I looked at the dessert menu and they had tons of elegant desserts with chocolate of all kinds and sorts, along with their homemade vanilla gelato. It's an amazing dessert list. One thing that's on the list is sipping chocolate; this is only on the list during winter while all the others are year around, so I chose something a little different!
I've never had sipping chocolate. It's 3 ounces of liquid. It's 80% melted chocolate with a shot of steamed milk. It's like drinking a melted chocolate bar. It's completely decadent and RICH! I had to finally have a glass of water with it. It was scrumptious. And did I mention Sam bought a box of chocolates and let me pick out a pick out a pounds worth of whatever I wanted to fill it?

It was a lovely, fun night filled with good food, fun entertainment, and a wonderful evening with a great guy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Three down and 37 more to go,
Maggie