Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Hippo half a century + 1 bathday

Posted by Hippobean at 11:00 PM
The Hippo Princess cake was enormous. I didnt dare cut into it as it was green and cute, with an enormous nose and blueberry eyes. It had a pink bow and ribbon and tiny ears and white square hippo teeth. It sat on a bank of cotton white marshmallows on a blue playdough, making it look like the hippo was having a bath. It broke my heart to cut it but I had to serve. It was quite delicious. M & D went into great lengths to prepare the Hippo Bathday party. The make-your-own-sushi bathday meal came complete with all sorts of sushi materials and trimmings, tuna, yellowtail, inari, ikura (salmon roe), tobiko (flying fish row), shiso (japanese basil), cucumbers, tempura, imitation crab and avocado for California rolls, and even uni (sea urchin) and natto (stinky fermented soybeans). And a special Neri-ume, made with Ume-boshi (marinated dry plum). M even made the sushi rice soaked in sugar and vinegar, in an authentic bamboo bowl. The meal was accompanied by a bottle of sake that contained gold particles. Very smooth. We started with Japanese nuts and jellyfish for appetizer with Kirin Ichiban beer (I had mine with Aloe juice), then miso soup. After the sumptuous meal, we had green tea ice cream and hot green tea on the deck that overlooked into nothing but green trees, under the warm California sun. M & D's beautiful die-for house was in a cul-de-sac, quiet except for the sound of neighbourhood children playing. Then we went for a geocache hike in the Hayward hills. Never knew the East Bay offered such gorgeous deep canyons and bay views. Inside cowland, in Ukrania, a huge ponderosa pine with enormous pine cones and in the shade of the enormous tree, the tranquil graves of the Ukranian priest and his wife. A few meters away, an enormous cacti, overlooking the deep valley, and beyond, the waters of the bay. M did find no4 cache, glued behind a fake rock that looked very very real. We returned to M & D's for cake and sampled the pineapple sparkling wine they brought from Maui. After the sun had set, we had a slideshow of Hippo's journey to Arabia. It was the best bathday the Hippo's ever had. So enjoyable and well fed. To top it all, lots of bathday gifts. A pink hippo painting from the Goose, a basket of hippo bath essentials, a gift certificate for the SF Opera, a GAP gift certificate, a giant balloon, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and other hippo related goodies. Saffy even drew me a hippo bath card. It's good to have friends!


See Bathday photos


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