25 replies to this topic

[stefanyb]

Since 1988 I have spent my birthday eating for 12 solid hours.  I also do not give any consideration to possible nausea, amount of calories or fat, or anything at all other than the pure pleasure of eating anything and everything I want for 12 hours straight. I do not stop at all.

I make mental notes for the entire year.  Sometimes I prepare some dishes myself.  Other times I buy treats from various specialty stores.  One year I ended off this blowout with a malted at EJ's and nearly gave back the entire day's effort.

I usually start the day with bacon and hotdogs and finish with icecream and whipped cream.  I have to confess that I always get a can of Reddi-Whip to squirt  down my throat(no remarks here!)  Also, I don't spend a lot of time in restaurants because I only want to eat small amounts of all the great things I have planned and a restaurant is usually too limiting and "eats" up my time.  

The idea that every minute can be another moment of pleasure and it never stops for the whole time is exciting all by itself.

My whole family does this with me but doesn't eat the whole time.  The togetherness makes it even more special.

What are your birthday traditions around food? (Liza, you started me thinking about this).

[Liza]

Wo. That is impressive.
I'm lucky, being a June baby, I can usually get what I want and do try to get a reservation at a favorite or new restaurant. Debating Union Pacific and Nobu for this year.

[stellabella]

stefanyb

yours is perhaps the most beautiful post i have ever read here

tears in my eyes

i have thrown my own party every year since i can remember.  in the last however many years my birthday parties have been dinner parties over which i have obsessed for weeks beforehand.

this year [i'm a pisces] we had friends from out of town.  my husband is a good man but he doesn't give me cakes.  one of our guests stepped in and furiously whipped up the red velvet cake i ahd requested, telling me making my own cake was bad luck.  red batter flew about the kitchen.   she and i consumed many glasses of fine wines.   later that evening i spilled thick melted hot chocolate all over my custom ethan allen arm chair and my husband's mexican rugs.  had to schep all of it to the dry cleaners.  it was divine.

[stefanyb]

yours is perhaps the most beautiful post i have ever read here

tears in my eyes

stellabella,

I'm really touched by your response.  Its so nice to have a community, even a virtual one, where people can be on the same wavelength.

If you need anything while in NYC, please don't hesitate to ask.

SB

[franklanguage]

Yeah, it's funny: I've almost never had a birthday party, and even this year (which will be the big 4-oh) it's likely I won't - unless you e-gulleteers throw me a surprise party.

I feel awfully funny about birthdays anyway. I've actually been thinking of having a 45th birthday party this year, because people always seem to guess I'm already in my 40s; ever since I turned 35, it seems I've been on the cusp of 40. I even bought a stack of 45 RPM records (remember them?) to hang from the ceiling in the event I rent a party room with a ceiling to hang them off, but I'm already getting cold feet about that - plus I have no money to throw a party with.

As for food, I generally go to some place with outstandingly good cake and get a piece to unapologetically eat all by myself. (The past couple of years it's been Ceci-Cela; if I were on Death Row and had one last wish, I'd probably ask for the chocolate cake from Ceci-Cela. With coffee, goddamnit.) And I never heard the thing about it being bad luck to bake your own cake, so in past years I've baked myself a chocolate cake, sometimes with orange or lemon icing. Sometimes I've baked myself a blackberry pie, because as luck would have it, blackberries are right in season around my birthday.

I also smoke my only cigar of the year, in honor of Fidel and Alfred. I don't know if I'll do that this year, because I've been wheezing from World Trade Center syndrome, but the upshoot of all this is that, like most people, the older you get, the less you want people to acknowledge your birthday anyway; I'd just as soon celebrate alone. My perfect strategy is to lie about my age, but to lie up, so people won't say, "You're not really 38; you look much older!" but instead will say, "48? I would have guessed you were more like 40!"

[Liza]

I used to say I would never get older than my bra size. But odd-numbers are tricky.

[=Mark]

I used to say I would never get older than my bra size. But odd-numbers are tricky.

So how old are you, B or C?  

[suzilightning]

i'm lucky my bday is in august and i'm on the east coast.  my favorite meal right now is:

baby greens
sliced fresh jersey tomatoes(both red and yellow) topped with crumbled blue cheese and drizzled with
       catalina dressing
fresh silver queen corn or, if the queen isn't in, butter and cream on the cob
steamed lobsters

serve the above with several bottles of marquis de la tour in the backyard on a table spread with newspaper

i'm not a sweets person so i'll finish with a glass of la grande dame

when i was about 9 it was the tomatoes, succotash and cube steaks or lamb patties on the grill - go figure



"burgandy makes you think of silly things; bordeaux makes you talk about them and champagne makes you do them" - The Body in the Cast

[Rachel Perlow]

In my family, the tradition has become that the birthday person gets to choose whatever restaurant they want to go to.

[col klink]

Yup, me too. This year I dropped a pretty dime on some really good sushi.

Though in years past I've gone bowling (with plenty of booze to go around).

[Basildog]

My wife and I share the same birthday(different years). This year , for her BIG 30 and my 34 and for the new baby (when it gets here), we have booked our own place for a celebration evening, birthday party ,baby bash.Will report back when it happens, hell some of you might even get an invite!

[stellabella]

FL

I didn't know baking one's own cake was bad luck , either, but now I think it makes a great excuse

Were i your neighbor I'd bake you one, too.

Stellab

stefanyb,

thanks, doll--you may hear from me--wish it was your birthday so i could join you for bacon and hotdogs!!!!!!!!

[Jim Dixon]

Since I do all of the cooking in our house, on my birthday I usually get a break from the kitchen (unless I feel like making something that I really like). In the past I’ve asked my mom (who, fortunately, lives just down the street) to pan-fry a couple dozen oysters. If we’re having a small celebration on a week night, I like to get a couple of good pizzas.

But this year my wife planned an actual party (my birthday’s in April). I can’t remember the last time I actually had a real party with more than just the kids and maybe a couple of close friends. Judith booked an evening at our neighborhood wine shop (Great Wine Buys on NE Broadway in Portland), and I asked people to come with a chunk of good cheese and enough cash to buy a bottle or two when the case I bought ran out.

It turned out to be a great concept. We had all kinds of fabulous cheese (one of my mottos: I live for cheese), and I toasted some walnuts (bake at about 350 until slightly browned, stir in a hunk of butter, grind a little sea salt...really good), sliced up a few apples and pears, and put out a bottle of olive oil with some bread.

Folks could wander around the shop, pick out a bottle that looked good, and we’d open it up. Judith had baked some cantucci (a Tuscan biscotti that’s mostly eggs and flour with nuts...not much fat, so after the double baking the cookies are nice and crunchy), so we cracked some vin santo for dunking at the end of the night.

An added bonus was all of the leftover cheese, mostly unlabeled. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been taking out the little chunk and guessing what they are (other than delicious).

But I like Stephany’s 12-hour eat-a-thon....maybe next year.

Jim

[abagail]

Since it's just past midnight, it is now my birthday. Having just moved from Washington State to Florida, this will be a relatively quiet birthday. I just discovered egullet, and, as a "foodie" from way back, I'm hooked. This is my first post, and I'm not sure I'm doing it right. Happy Birthday to me!

[Kristian]

Happy birthday to you, abagail!

So, what are you going to do on this quiet birthday? Go to a restaurant or decorate your new house instead?

The way I spent my birthday a week ago was to visit a restaurant of my own choosing and by eating their giant stake with potatoes in creamy blue cheese sauce... excellent, even if simple! I was very full after that, but since my girlfriend had baked a caramel cheese cake (not oven baked - that other, gelatin, version!)... Well, the evening progressed very well...  

It is my working theory that overeating doesn't hurt if you do it rarely enough, and one's birthday is the best excuse there is! The runner-up is definitely Christmas...

[jaybee]

Wednesday is my b'day.  I plan to go to Shopsins General Store with two eGulletiers for early lunch and will probably be joined by my family for dinner.  However, I don't think I will follow StefanyB's 12 hour eatathon.  I just can't do that any more (unless.....

hmmm Petrossian, D'artagnan, Bouley, Babbo, Murrays Sturgeon Shop, Arthur Avenue, Peter Lugers, Krispy Kreme...hmmm get the car Kato....

[Steve Plotnicki]

Jaybee - Is the 22nd really your birthday? Me and Robert Brown too! Three eGulleters on the same day. How can it be? Are people born on that day particularly hungry? I'm going to Bouley for dinner with two other couples and one of the other wives happens to be born on Wednesday as well. My celebration began at Gramercy Tavern on Saturday, Annissa tonight, Bouley and then Sugiyama to cap off a birthday week. What are you drinking? I started off with a 1954 Cune Vina Real on Saturday and it was splendid.

[jaybee]

Amazing.  Three May 22 kids.  I was born on the Grand Concourse.  Dr. Leff's Maternity Hospital,  In the shadow of Yankee Stadium. I may drink a 1969 Bonne Mares on Saturday.  Bob has a bottle of 1975 Chateau Margaux he promised to open if I make "poulet vin jaune avec moriles".  Maybe Sunday.
Wednsday I'll probably crack a bottle of PJ Yellow Label and finish with some Ardbeg 17.

[tommy]

Jaybee - Is the 22nd really your birthday? Me and Robert Brown too! Three eGulleters on the same day. How can it be?

i forget the exact math, but if you have 50 ppl in one room, the odds are extremely high that will will share the same birthday (not year of course).

i'll try to find it on the web.

[tommy]

ok, that took about a second.

click me for an article on these odds

[robert brown]

Steve and Jaybee, happy birthday. I may as well chime in. My wife and I spent hours for days deciding between having a party for 20 friends at a restaurant (probably Eli's); having a catered dinner in our gallery; or going out for dinner just the two of us. What clinched it was my asking Lizziee what she felt. She said having a lot of people was unappealing since it would be a situation of forced gaiety akin to New Year's eve. I also felt that I would be so concerned that a group of people, most of whom didn't know each other, were not enjoying themselves that I wouldn't enjoy myself either. We decided to take my brother and his wife to Ducasse instead.

[yvonne johnson]

Stefany, I missed this thread till now. I can't get over it. Eating for 12 hours straight?  You do say the helpings are small, but still. Where did you get this idea? Do you feel horrid the next day?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Gee Robert, why wouldn't people who didn't know each other not enjoy themselves? Last time I was at Ducasse they had 1990 Jayer Cros Parentoux on the list. It was $700 but that is less than half of what it sells for at auction. If one applies the Calvin Trillin rule of how much you would save when buying it by not having to pay the normal restaurant price which would probably be around $2500, it's quite a bargain.  Could be the best bottle you'll ever drink. Especially if it's a special birthday. They have Coche Perrieres on the list too. Not sure what vintage.

[Sandra Levine]

To give the other side its due, my husband specifically asked me to cancel the reservation I made to celebrate his May 29 birthday dinner at Union Pacific in favor of an evening of cabaret with Mary Clere Harran at the Algonguin.  There's a reason why he's not a eGullet poster.

[robert brown]

Steve, I get neurotic. Everyone would likely have a good time, but I know that I would spend most of the time on my feet going up and down the length of the table  just to make sure. I'll let you know if the Cros Parentoux is still on the list. I doubt it,, and if it is, it probably is no longer the same price.

We had the same notion, just a different restaurant. I'm sorry.

[lizziee]

Steve,

It's not the fact that people won't have a good time, it's the fact that you have to play the host. I must be as neurotic as Robert for somehow I feel responsible when I am hosting a party for the food (over which I have no control), people getting along (also no control), the wine (finally some control) and the over-all general "feel" of the evening. Who needs this much stress on an important birthday?

Also, it sounds much better to me to have a quiet, long, leisurely dinner and be able to splurge on a great bottle of wine like the '90 Jayer Cros Parentoux. You don't order that kind of wine for 20 or do you? If so, count me in.

Happy Birthday, Robert.