We had our anniversary this week, and we wanted to make it memorable. Usually, we go out for dinner together, every year. On rare occasions when its weekend, we try going for a drive together and explore somewhere closeby. A park, or a trail at a park, somewhere we enjoy the outdoors together as a family. If you know me, you know that I love documenting our family and our milestones. So we carry the tripod and the camera in our trunk. This year everything is different. not for one, but for two reasons.
Last year, my husband felt sick just before we were about to step out for our anniversary dinner. two days later, he was diagnosed with a very aggressive form. One year later, he is cancer-free but we are facing a world pandemic. We had spent the larger part of last year, in quarantine as my husband is immune-compromised. And this year, we are staying at home again.
We decided to make the most of the day together. The only good part of staying home is all the time we are having together. So we were lucky that all four of us were home together. It was a day off from my work, which was an added bonus. After my husband wrapped up his work, we got ready to enjoy some time out in our backyard. It is always fun to coordinate outfits for a special occasion/family photos. I had picked out this snake print shirt dress for this day, and I knew I had to wear it. When you are coordinating outfits for the whole family, try out to pick one persona's outfit as the anchor piece. We offset the gold tones of my outfit, with the blue of my husband's. Rii's dress was white with gold accents, and I paired a light blue denim jacket and leopard shoes, for her. We brought it all together with Blaze's blue bandana. Not bad, right!
We did want to keep up our tradition of a family dinner date. As dining options are closed, so we did the next best thing - order a take out from one of our favorite local restaurants -
Waldo Thai! These are tough times we know, and we wanted to make sure, we supported our local small businesses. Waldo Thai is a foodie's delight if you didn't know that already. Early in 2019, I was at the launch party of a new restaurant in Kansas City, and the chef-owner, who is a James Beard Award winner himself, couldn't stop gushing about the new place in town - Waldo Thai. We love going to Waldo Thai to dine in, and every time is a special occasion. Chef Pam Liberda, chef-owner of Waldo Thai knows how to wow every foodie, in town. And moreover, the brilliant team at Waldo Tahi has been providing free lunches for service industry people every single day.
Waldo Thai has a great take out menu. You browse the menu and
order online. The restaurant has a brilliant curbside pick up option, where you do not even have to leave the car.
We enjoyed the drive-through town, to reach the restaurant to pick up our dinner order. And guess what was waiting for us. Chef Pam had picked out some bubbly for us, as a gift, so that we could celebrate at home. I cannot tell you what a big surprise that was!
Let's start with the yummy spread, shall we! Welcome to our anniversary dinner table. While we love spicy food, Riona takes the opposite route where spice is concerned. So it was
non-spicy noodles, with shrimp and eggs for her. We are so grateful to the chef, for creating something for our daughter, which was not necessarily on the menu.
Out first course was "
Tom Kha Goong," - coconut-based soup with s shrimp, onion, galangal, lemongrass, mushroom, lime, cilantro, and scallion.
Our second course was "
Gaeng Phed Gai Yarng," - roasted bone-in chicken with coconut red curry, pineapple, cashew, Thai basil, bell pepper and served over Jasmine rice. I loved the balance of sweet and spicy, with the cashew and the chili heat. The bone-in chicken was juicy and moist and lip-smacking. There are red curries and there is red curry by Chef Pam, which will surely make you go for second, and third helpings.
Our third course was "
Phad Kee Mow Nua," - stir-fried fresh flat rice noodle with flank steak, egg, onion, bell pepper, serrano, Tahi basil, and gailan. This was my favorite of the tree courses, though every course was brilliant. The beef was juicy and tender, the fresh noddles were al dente, and it was hot, hot, hot! And I love a good spicy dinner. A huge thank you to Chef Pam and the whole crew at Waldo Thai for making our special day extra special.
If you were wondering what for dessert, well, we went to old school, didn't we. Having grown up Cadbury's, it was but natural that our dinner was Cadbury's Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut! It was a perfect day, even in the most imperfect scenario, that all of us are facing across the world! Cheers to another year together!
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