A Simple Birthday Meal

Date:  May 3, 2014

This week, I had to go to Jakarta for a couple of days.  But I came back on Wednesday as it is my wife birthday.

Option 1:  Go out and find a restaurant and buy a bottle of wine and celebrate.  Spent a couple hundreds on the birthday meal.

Option 2:  Stay at home, cook a simple meal, open a bottle of good wine and celebrate.  Spent lesser on birthday meal.

So, I asked my lovely wife and she says option 2.  No a single hesitation.  Wahahaha

So, I bought two pieces of Kobe Beef to cook for her.  And she loves it!

The fatty meat is not as lumped as Wagyu.  The fat is evenly distributed.

Let’s cook it.  Grill it.

One with olive oil and the other without olive oil.

It is a thin piece, so no need to cook for so long.  Remember to use the aluminium foil to wrap it to self heat for another few minutes.

The meat was very tender, and it is indeed very different from Wagyu.

It is much more juicy and tasty!

No wonder she so happy!

For the kids, I cooked the beef bee hoon with tomato sauce.

For a final touch, I added in some mushrooms..

As for the wine choice, non other than the 2005 Amarone Classico.  Nice!

Of course the kids are very happy of the Birthday Cake.

Let’s light it up!

 Kids, let’s sing a birthday song for mommy.

Happy Birthday to Wife Wife.

 Let’s blow the candles.

And finally cut the cake.

So, in summary ….

1)  We had a great meal.  Not cheap for a home meal, but great meal.

2)  This is the first time all of us ate Kobe Beef.  Kobe Beef was banned from exporting until 2013.  So, if you eat Kobe Beef outside of Japan, it is either illegal or it is highly chance of “fake” Kobe beef.

3)  If I took them to high end restaurant to eat the Kobe Beef, I think I need to spent > $500.

4)  We open a good wine for the steak.  If you go out restaurant, the corkage will be extra $50-$100.

5)  The kids and take their own sweet time to eat, to play and setup the birthday cake, takes lots of pictures.

6)  So that night, I spent may be less than $400 for the birthday meal but it brought happy faces to the home.  

7)  So, guys, try it.  Cook for your wife.  It’s cheaper that way.  WAHAHAHAHAHA