Amoosh What?

"Yay! We're here...I am ready to EAT!"

"What? No bread? I'm STARVING!"

"Stoked my food is here! And they're FRENCH french fries...delicious!"

Gnocchi with hazelnut oil, champignons, etc.

"It's our anniversary and we brought the camera. Would you mind taking a picture?"

Yesterday, Matt and I celebrated our FIFTH wedding anniversary. We both feel like it's been a loooong time that we've been married, okay just kidding...it's gone by so fast! Mark and Brenda came down to babysit, which was awesome for Claire and for us! Matt and I were gone from 4 to 10...that's a long date and we don't usually even go on short dates! Let me detail it a little more...

The evening (okay late afternoon) started out with an "are you serious?" when I asked Matt to grab the camera. We have a big DSLR which is a little annoying to haul around, but captures Claire instantly unlike a smaller camera. We've been pondering also getting a pocket size camera to take out on occasions like this, but for last night, it was the big honker.

First, we to the movie Super 8. Matt loves going to movies. I don't. It's not that I don't like seeing movies, I would just rather rent them because I'm stingy and would rather spend $8 on a really good lunch from my favorite cafe, La Mie. But, I went to the movie with Matt out of LOVE. (Cheesy, I know! And hey, it was a good movie that I'd recommend...and, they wouldn't have taken my theatre gift certificate at La Mie anyway.)

Next, we were suppose to go out to eat. We tried to make reservations for about 45 minutes after the movie ended, but alas, they were already booked. Who are these people that call and make a reservation so early? I mean c'mon, we made them on our way to the movie theatre...that should have been early enough!

So, since we had to wait another two hours, whiny Matt showed up. But, he went to the Arts Festival with me out of LOVE. And, after a few minutes even had a great attitude about it! We walked around and admired art that we can't afford, he got a beer, I got a sugary refreshing lemonade, and we had a great time. We both agreed that this kink in our plans...i.e., the Arts Festival, was much enjoyed!

So back to next, we are heading out to eat at a fancy pants newish restaurant in town! It's a place we'd not normally go, but we had a "Merry Christmas!" gift certificate from Aunt Chris. She does a great job getting us gifts that we would never splurge on for ourselves! We ordered what we thought looked good off the menu, though we didn't completely understand it. Cranky Matt was back now, because this guy gets that way when he's hungry and has nothing to eat. My friend Theresa is the same way. :) Her husband and I have been known to tease them both about it...just a little. All Matt wanted was a basket of bread, but I guess they don't serve that in fancy French restaurants.

Much to our relief, food showed up! It was our "amoo(insert jibberish here)"...our amoo what?, we thought. "Salmon tartar" (with some sort of white creamy condiment that I didn't catch again), announced our waiter proudly. It looked raw. I asked the waiter. "It's salmon TARTAR" he repeated, this time more clearly. (Translation: Didn't you hear me the first time?) We understood at this point that tartar must mean raw. I went to the hostess, who had menus to look at, and, thinking she was a little less intimidating (20ish year old girl), showed her what I ordered, and asked her to double check to be sure that this was not my appetizer. Pregnant women cannot eat raw seafood, I explained. It was not my appetizer...whew!

For those of you who are as confused as were were with the "amoosh boosh", here's what Wikipedia has to say.

An amuse-bouche [amyzbuʃ] or amuse-gueule [amyzɡœl] is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre.^[1] Amuse-bouche are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are done so according to the chef's selection alone. These, often accompanied by a complementing wine, are served as an excitement of taste buds both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

The term is French, literally translated to "mouth amuser". The plural form is amuse-bouche or amuse-bouches.

There's a little glimpse into our evening celebrating five years! Our meal finished off wonderfully...the server even brought me delicious carrot-ginger soup once he heard from the hostess that I couldn't eat the original amuse-bouche. For the main course, I had the gnocchi and Matt had a steak with fries. We finished it off with a dessert amuse-bouche (probably actually has a different name) and rich molten chocolate cake and ice cream with caramel. It was fun being out of our comfort zone and treating ourselves to an extra special date! We had great food and fabulous converstion. Happy five years to us! Thank you to all those who made this marriage and this evening possible. :)