on the interview trail... AGAIN

I'm back in the same monkeysuit that i wore for residency interviews... I'm interviewing at 8 different programs, all either in California, Colorado, or Illinois. So far, I've interviewed at 5 places. I've already ruled out one that I'm not going to rank at all. I have three left and I can't wait for it to be over. I have two more trips to the Bay Area.

Last week while I was in Denver, I had a REALLY embarassing moment. Armand's parents had invited many of their friends over for dinner. Right before dinner was about to be served, I felt this overwhelming sensation of nausea. I rushed to the bathroom, and felt like throwing up but didn't... so I join the party again and then start getting really dizzy and light-headed. I had just enough time to tell Armand's mom that I wasn't feeling so well, before I turned around, banged my head on the pantry door and crashed to the floor. I totally blacked out. All I remember is waking up, completely on the floor, hearing Armand's dad call 911, and people asking me if I was in pain anywhere.

My hands were really tingly and I was hyperventilating. They got me up to the couch and I felt much better by the time EMS arrived. But they checked all my vitals and found me to be orthostatic. Which basically means my blood pressure dropped when I stood up. I was totally dehydrated and with the altitude, and the heat in the room from all the cooking, I think I totally had a vasovagal reaction. Mortifying.

Luckily, I was fine and the dinner party went on and we enjoyed the most amazing cuban pork that Armand's dad had prepared. YUMMM. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Moral of the story: drink lots of water!

deja vu

i can't believe that it's already MID-February! It's been incredibly busy... i don't even know where to start!

our visit to Charlie Trotter's to celebrate our 4th yr anniversary:
so the only way we could afford this was because my dear friend from HS gave us a generous gift certificate for our engagement present. i was still shocked at the bill but it was WORTH it. we had an 8-course meal from the Grand Menu. It started with marinated ahi tuna with grapefruit and parsley. This was one of my favorite appetizers, since I love tuna. The next dish was scallop tempura with nori dust and pickled daikon. The scallops were great, but the nori dust and pickled daikon was well... too pickled tasting. Armand really liked this dish. Then we had the trout with mustard seed, trout roe, and spinach. This was the first entree and it was perfection. But the next entree was my absolute favorite of the night. It was the roasted squab with hazelnut, pearl onion, and cocoa nibs. Even though it sounds weird with the chocolate, it was a non-sweet dark chocolate that was really savory and went well with the squab. The last entree I didn't like as much. It was lamb prepared in three different ways. The desserts were phenomenol- we had buttermilk with white pepper, toasted milk ice cream and nutmeg, venezuelan chocolate baba with sherry and spicy iberico chorizo (very interesting combination), and the nigorizake sorbet with pear and jasmine rice (my least favorite because the alcohol component was quite strong and reminded me of a dish we had in France that I also didn't like).

So... that was an amazing night. We drove out in a snowstorm, but had impeccable service. We had a tour of the kitchen afterward and took this awkward picture with an innocent chef.

I'll have to post more later about my interview trail!