Birthday Dinner

Wow, I must describe my birthday dinner in detail. It was awesome.

We arrived at about 6pm at Marrakesh located at 617 New York Avenue N.W. in Washington D.C. The building is a nondescript light orange with no sign save for the arabic lettering on the side. The door is locked. You must knock in order to enter, and the door lady asks why you are there before letting you into a tiny waiting area with 4 chairs. The area is small with barely enough room for 6-8 people to stand. A rug hangs down over a doorway. There's a fountain, but nothing fancy.

When the entire party arrived, we were escorted past the rug. The room we entered was extravagently detailed with bright colored designs over every inch of the ceiling. Low level cushioned couches surrounded low circular tables forming small "rooms" throughout the larger room. The couches were covered with random colored rugs and cushions-- nothing really matched but all matched the overall Moroccan theme. We were escorted to a small grouping of two tables and we filled the entire cubical with our 12 members. My family took up 6 seats, and 5 friends from work (and one visiting friend's mother) filled the other 6 seats.

The hall to the bathroom is lined with pictures of the owner posing with everyone from the pope, to Barbara Streisand, various movie stars, politicians, Yassir Arafat.... all carefully labeled. The owner is very young in some and aging in others-- same guy with all of them. There must have been a hundred pictures. Many are taken with the restaurant in the backdrop. All of these people have eaten here (except the pope-- I think that one was taken while visiting the vatican).

The first dish arrived- bread with 3 things to put on it (pickled carrots, pickled cucumbers, and a great eggplant thingie). Then a second- a powdered sugar covered pastry filled with egg, chicken and almonds (it was strange but absolutely and positively delicious) . During the second dish the lights went out and sappy birthday music played-- glasses of a liquour were delivered to all birthday guests along with a sparkler stuck in a small pastry. Then they set up a stage in the middle and a belly dancer jumped up on it and danced for, gee, I think it was an hour. It was a long time.

Other courses arrived. Each came without utensils and were eaten with out hands-- including whole steaming roasted chickens, lamb with honey and almonds, couscous with vegetables (this did come with some spoons), baskets of fruit and nuts, hot mint tea and last...my birthday cake. :-) This had been brought from home by my folks (yum- think I'll have a slice right now). The dance of the plates was amazing-- each course arrived and stayed just as long as it needed to before we either decimated it or grew bored with it-- then the next course swept in. They had difficulty keeping up with our water intake, but that was the only hiccup.

Anyways, if anyone visits this area, we will go to Marrakesh. The bill per person was $30 + alcohol cost + tax + tip. The total bill for each of us split evenly was $47. It was an incredibly special dinner, with good friends and my family present (wish little bro could have made it- but we'll bond later).

Parents got me a beautiful necklace-- totally in love with it. Big bro got me an experience-- I get to pick a green circle experience. I can pick from anything from survival training, to a massage, to intro to caving, or pottery making. I'm leaning towards whitewater kiyaking, but the segway tour of D.C. is tempting as well. What a cool gift- never heard of this before but I'm going to check it OUT. I've gotten some lovely cards (Ayzairs made me barf a little in my mouth-- it had a black and white picture of children on it that reminded me of a freshman roommate with similar pictures-- Ayzair is such a brat!) I missed many birthday phone calls due to the Cingular issue, but enjoyed talking to everyone who persevered! Lots of gift certificates-- I'm going to have a great time buying books, music and coffee for awhile. All in all, 30th birthday was more pleasant than any I've had in the past (with the exception of the cabbage patch kid sleepover my 8th birthday). It was a blast.

So if in town, call ahead and reserve for Marrakesh-- way cool place with good food. Thanks everyone for making 30 not so bad! I even handled my first "almost" code situation today with a great deal of cool and grace (I've never encountered lips that turned that blue that fast- geesh). My third decade will be fine, I'm sure, with suprises around every corner. Hopefully by my forth decade I'll be a mommy.

Love to all. :-)