A girl, a gaucho, and a birthday
As you read this, I will have just turned forty. Yes, forty! I simply cannot believe how many incredibly delicious years, how many truly tasty experiences, I have had in my life and how many more I have yet to come.
By now most of Sonoma has learned that I take my birthday rather seriously and forty is reason to take a birthday even more seriously, don’t you think? It surely deserves a party filled with friends and bubbles, and plenty of amazing food. And more bubbles! Right? For this birthday, this big-deal birthday, I could not think of a more scrumptious way to spend the important evening than with my closest friends (and Mr. B, of course) all cozied up at one very long, candlelit table, digging into the most gorgeous pans of paella at the girl and the fig’s pop-up ‘the girl and the gaucho’ dinner. Birthday plan perfection: show up, drink Champagne, eat beautiful food, and then into my jammies with not a single dish to wash.
Walking into Sondra Bernstein’s special event space on Eighth Street East, coined Suite D, is like being transported to somewhere else, somewhere fantastical. One night, you might appear to be strolling a tiny Provençal village, sipping rosé, and nibbling on stinky cheeses. On another, you might be sitting down to dinner in an Italian villa, a backdrop of faraway Cypress and vineyards, a feast laid before you of handmade pasta and Tuscan salumi. Another evening might find guests competing in a ping-pong tournament, wood oven roasted pizza and beers in hand.
Old cowboy movies played against the wall as we crunched our way through little paper cones filled with delicately crispy plantains, sipping on what seemed like birthday nirvana: a never ending glass of sparkling wine, all while a musician strummed a lovely sounding Spanish guitar and friends arrived decked in festive attire.
Dinner was epic; an abundance of Spanish dishes that started with tapas of miniature pork and pimentón empanadas and bite-sized corn cakes. Bowls full of utterly addictive Marcona almonds were doused in a spice-salt mixture; one of my favorite bites of the night, particularly when paired with a perfectly nutty Sherry served in pretty little mismatched vintage apértif glasses. A salad of tender butter lettuce was passed around, hearts of palm and papaya generously tossed among the leaves, a scattering of crisp pumpkin seeds on top.
The main course paraded in from the kitchen, ceremoniously placed on the table, eliciting gasps from our group. Two-handled steel pans were overflowing with steaming paella that was pulled moments before from the smoke-filled wood-burning oven. Each was an absolutely spectacular arrangement of deep golden, saffron-saturated rice, which was heavy with slow-cooked caramelized onions, and thin slivers of sweet red peppers. Luxurious hunks of falling-apart, roasted duck were snuggled deeply into the rice, along with charred tentacles of squid, and glistening cubes of peppery sausage. Sticking up from the pan were heaping piles of clams and mussels, their shells black from the fire, but the meat inside perfectly cooked, sweet and moist, their brine leaching out with puffs of steam into the chewy rice.
There is simply something special about paella, the flavors of each beautiful ingredient eaten together with the buttery rice, which we all washed down with plenty of house-made Sangria. I helped myself to a too-large — but I couldn’t help myself! — second serving, being sure that I had many jiggly tentacles of squid and plenty of the crisp crust found along the bottom of the pan. It was my birthday after all!
Well, if there is one thing you should have plenty of on one’s birthday, it is squid tentacles. And dessert. It is very much like the crazy-sweet Sondra Bernstein to have not one, not two, not three, but four desserts. Yes, four. A petite, caramel-topped, milky flan was utterly divine, as were the doll-sized dulce de leche cakes, but it was the just-fried and still warm, wonderfully yeasty, doughnuts dusted in cinnamon sugar, a bowl of melted dark chocolate ganache served alongside, that left us swooning, and laughing hysterically, it seemed, from the sugar high.
A key lime tart arrived, candles glowing, happy birthday being sung, and tears in my eyes. There couldn’t have been a more thoughtful gift than to serve my go-to birthday dessert, a piece of Florida here in Sonoma, the thought and the tart, both unquestionably delicious.
I stood from the table with not only my belly ridiculously filled with delicious food, but my heart utterly stuffed with joy. My life is filled with such amazing people, so much happiness here in this amazing town. I love birthdays, I will continue to look forward to every single one, no matter how many years come and go. I believe we all need to embrace each year, simply live it to the fullest, and when birthdays come; use that opportunity to take advantage of a little extra special attention or have that third glass of bubbly or slather a bit more of butter on your baguette. Life is short after all.
Kristin Jorgensen is one of Sonoma’s most passionate, food obsessed residents. In this weekly column, she covers all the delicious happenings, foodie events and restaurants in Sonoma, the rest of Wine Country and beyond. Email her with comments, questions, or your food related events at [email protected].
