Happy Birthday Camie

One of my nearest and dearest, the person that I have been friends with the longest, just turned 29 today!

And I got to help her celebrate, due to the fortunate timing of my business trip to NY.

As it was the birthday girl's choice, we headed to Sidecar, which is located in their neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Sidecar had a pretty straight forward and simple menu, which made our meal selections relatively easy. They also had some interesting gin-based drinks, which Camie and I had to try.


That's my Ramos Fizz on the left (topped with egg cream!) and Camie's Gin Daisy on the right.


The Ramos Fizz was quite tasty - the gin would hit your mouth first, and the aftertaste reminded me more of Asian milky-type sodas like the Japanese Calpis or the Korean Ambassa. It consisted of gin, lemon, egg white, cream and orange flower water.

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Russ:


Camie (who always has the greatest haircut each time I see her) and me - excuse the shiny face, I had come straight from the airport and an hour long car service ride - more to come on my travels tomorrow.



We convinced Camie to go for the burger (what she really wanted) as her birthday meal as opposed to the salad she was considering. James and I both went with the Bahn - De. Here's James enjoying the cucumber dipping water/syrup that comes on the side:



Here's a close up of the sandwich - we both went for the spicy version and it was soooo good. I'm too tired to Google this, but I believe Bahn is a traditional Vietnamese sandwich (I just realized that the menu I linked to calls it a traditional Vietnamese sandwich, but I swear that the menu we looked at last night didn't mention it!) that I've read about and always wanted to try.

It consists of marinated, grilled pork chops, pate, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro and mayo on a baguette - yummy! The waiter called the green shot on the side a cucumber "simple syrup" and suggested sipping it with each bite of the sandwich or pouring it on. I didn't think it had much flavor, but spread a little on my bread with a knife while James tried the sipping method (see photo above):



I think a good time was had by all and I was so glad to be in Brooklyn to help Camie celebrate!

So for one final time today, Happy Birthday Camie!