Birthday Weekend & Chef Roberto Donna

I had planned to do this earlier in the week…actually closer to my birthday, but I’m just now getting the time.

So I gave you the rundown of what went down on my actual birthday (March 18), but the weekend was packed, so here are the highlights. Friday night we met up with Dave and Jo at this spot called Cabana’s in Georgetown on the waterfront (on the boardwalk). The place was terrible (IMO). The food was cold and they had the windows open like it was warm…but it had to be low 40′s. It was good seeing the peeps of course, but I don’t feel like I’ll be going back to that place anytime soon.

Saturday, the fellas had a dinner for me at OYA in Chinatown, which was actually very nice. Good fresh sushi, and some of my boys that I haven’t seen in a while showed up which was cool. We hopped over to the U St. area and passed through a couple of spots….eventually landing at Tabaq. Of course since we were in the area and a couple of the guys hadn’t been there, we stopped by Ben’s Chili Bowl…not really for the food because its just OK, if you’re looking for a greasy bag of food and a trip to the bathroom…but really for the history right? LOL…well anyway, it was a great time.

Last, but certainly not least my thoughtful wife had a final surprise for me on Sunday. We actually spent the evening cooking with acclaimed Italian Chef Roberto Donna at his home in Virginia. This turned out to be the very best gift, and really an opportunity a lot of people aren’t afforded. So here is the menu we prepared:

• Vegetable & Bean Soup
• Fettuccine w/Artichoke Pesto
• Chicken w/Almonds
• Sicilian Zucchini w/Raisins & Pine Nuts
• Sfinci

We prepared the food in the courses mentioned above, and I don’t know if its just a cooking thing or an Italian thing, but between each course we had “wine breaks” LOL. I think the highlight of the food was the fresh pasta that we made. There were five of us, and everyone had to work together to keep the dough from breaking and folding over. Once it was all done, we tossed it in the pesto sauce and when I tasted I thought I should have my own cooking show. Of course everything tasted ridiculously good, but working with a Chef that’s been on Iron Chef….at his house…was great