20 Courses for 30 Years

I think last night took the (birthday) cake for funnest dining experience yet in my 30 years.

We had the awesome privilege of dining in the kitchen at Corner Table, where they happily start you early (6pm) and bring you course after course of amazing food (with matching wine and beer pairings for each course—yes, each course) until you stay stop. Which was at midnight for us.

We were told to pace ourselves. We heard it, and then quickly forgot it after courses 1-13 went down swiftly and effortlessly. Then a grass-fed burger came out topped with an egg and sided with blue cheese on grilled bread. And that would be when I hit my wall. I eeked my way through the last of the savory courses (#14 and #15), struggled through the first two dessert courses (#16 and #17), and then was forced to quit. But by the end of the night, a collective “we” that didn’t include me made it to 20 courses. Quite a bit shy of the record 30!

Now I am left with three photos of three delicious dessert courses that I didn’t pace myself for. Very sad, indeed. I’ve recovered as the day has gone on today. I’m starting to actually want to eat again. And I’m wishing I had shoved those three lovely dessert plates into my purse, particularly the clever take on a sweet potato pie that garnered some groaning and the plate with chocolate and fried pieces of dough.

But that’s okay. There will be a next time for sure. And I have already come up with my game plan for next time: stop at 10 savories and enjoy every last ounce of dessert.

I will leave you to drool over all 20 courses, captured in photos. My favorites: the scrambled eggs with guiancale and tiny croutons, the browned butter gnocchi, the snap peas with crème fraiche, the pork belly, and the Slovenian white wine we had with course #6.

Amazing.