Day 211: Birthday Week Marches On

I'm a big believer in stretching out a birthday for a good solid week.  My week-long celebration began last night and carried on tonight at Cafe Maritime.  Basically, my celebration is defined by eating out rather than cooking and  indulging in dessert every day.  I love birthdays.

My dinner tonight started with shrimp cocktail.  At Cafe Maritime, that means five huge shrimp, dangling from the edge of a huge glass which holds sweet cocktail sauce with huge chucks of avocado floating in it.  Yum.

Next, I had the lobster thermidor which is, hands down, my favorite dish at CM.  As you can see, chunks of lobster and veggies are stuffed back into half the lobster shell and a little bit of cheese is melted over the top.  Most of the time, restaurants make this dish way too rich - with loads of cream and cheese.  This one, though, is pretty light and really allows the flavor of the lobster to shine through.  

And, because it is birthday week, of course I needed to have dessert.  "Mark's Mom's Coconut Cream Pie" is THE thing to get at CM.  The crust is so light and flaky and the coconut and meringue are light as air.  The only thing wrong with it is that it's not bigger.

Tomorrow is my actual birthday, but I'll spend the majority of it on an airplane or in an airport, so I'm not expecting the usual high caliber birthday dinner.  But it's okay - that's why I celebrate for a whole week!