The pandemic has cramped our out-on-the-town celebration style, but Suzanne decided our masked and vaccinated selves were finally safe enough to go forth and eat fancy food in an actual restaurant in Salt Lake City. Of course, she didn’t tell me exactly what we were doing or where we were going to do it. All I knew is that she had made secret reservations for something somewhere, but she told me nothing more than when to have my goin’-out duds on. I just did as I was told and got in the car. Off we drove to the bigly city o’ Salt. When the car was safely stopped in a parking stall, I finally knew we were going to dine at BAMBARA. Well played, Suzanne.
I had a superb meal of grilled asparagus, a perfectly fried egg, and a pork chop the size of a pork roast—all smothered in a cherry tomato vinaigrette and a tomato hollandaise sauce. I’ll be eating what’s left of my pork chop for lunch for the rest of the week, and probably the upcoming weekend. Suzanne ordered the salmon Caesar salad, which had garlic croutons the size of popcorn balls. The waiter brought us a piece of chocolate cake with strawberries and cream to share—and a lighted candle—when he found out we were celebrating my birthday, among other things.
Suzanne surprised me with not one, but three different special occasion cards. With this one Easter brunch, she was handling three separate and distinct celebrations. We hadn’t been able to go out to eat for Valentine’s Day or my birthday this year, so Suzanne says we were celebrating what she calls Valenbirtheaster. After Easter brunch, Suzanne took me on a drive to celebrate a fourth “holiday.” Valenbirtheaster morphed into Valenbirtheasterversary. I’ll tell you all about that in this afternoon’s post.