disoriented

where are we???
18 degree nights? it just doesn’t feel like home outside. i think cara brought a little bit of chicago with her when she came to visit this weekend! with temps 20 degrees below WHERE THEY BELONG this time of year, i feel that she is not getting a very good feel for the normally milder NC winter.

so, it felt right going out to a very un-NC dinner. a sleek contemporary restaurant with urban styling (and NO hush puppies or bbq on the menu!) does not exactly embody what north carolina stands for, but revolution has been serving up “contemporary global cuisine” in durham for more than a year now, and we were long overdue to try it out.

10 thumbs up
i think we all had a wonderful time out at dinner last night! cara joined jessica, her husband andy, josh, and me. our (fabulously flamboyant) waiter asked us what we were celebrating, and we told him, “LIFE!”. nothing wrong with that, right?

the menu, was very interesting, divided up into “raw”, “small”, “big”, and . . . “second mortgage.” love the lighthearted touch.

clean, modern, and relaxed, the menu fit the restaurant
all of us decided to pick one “small”, one “big”, plus dessert (of course). cara and i opted for the wine pairing option, allowing the restaurant to provide matches for each course (they were tasting-sized pours — nothing too crazy). i enjoyed the variety and would definitely do it again!

my first pour: a spanish albariño, crisp and juicy
the white paired nicely with this rare ahi tuna pile of goodness . . . topped with quail egg. cara and i shared this . . .
because i also really wanted to share the kobe sliders with manchego! these were ridiculously succulent and delicious. AND supercute.
the 5 of us got along famously (i’ve always wanted to say that!)

both phDs, cara and andy faced off on who was the most virtuosic pipetter. “i’ve got a P1 AND a P5000!!!” was the quote of the evening.
SCALLOPS! i used to always choose scallops if it was an option, but it’s been a while since i had them. these lived up to my (high) expectations.
to pair with our dessert, our server brought out something fun. he said, “don’t take this the wrong way . . . but the children in italy LOVE this.”

cara and i didn’t mind being compared to children. not one bit.
and, we both LOVED the sparkly, fruity explosion from piemonte, italy that he brought us!
cross-the-table shot of jessica and andy. how cute are they!?

dessert did not disappoint:

toffee pudding with fig cake and caramel ice cream + lime napoleon with strawberry sauce
we left full (very), contented, and happy!

cleansing breaths
cara and i decided to balance all of that decadence with some yoga this morning! i was inspired by april to give the free class at franklin street yoga a shot — and i’m so glad we did. while i was initially intimidated by the freakishly flexible tattooed yogis practicing beautiful handstands and things before class, the instructor was down-to-earth and the environment was nonthreatening and fun.

despite my inflexibility, i felt like i got a good workout in without feeling horribly tortured (there was just ONE really painful part — a one-legged series with standing splits and then a bent-knee version that was just TOUGH!). i STILL feel like i get a much better glow/mood elevation from running, but it was a nice change. the warm studio was also a bonus in 20 degree weather.

off to the UNC surgery holiday party (maybe) and beyond . . . hope everyone had a wonderful saturday!

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1.8.10

workout: 4 miles before work @ 8:57/mi, 0.5% incline.

reading: none. it’s really hard with a visitor! i feel like that’s probably okay, though.