Breakfast in bed for no reason at all - I surprised my girlfriend one Sunday morning with a breakfast of griddle cakes with clotted cream and homemade Meyer lemon marmalade (above), sausages and orange juice. I'm not sure what made me get up early and decide to do it. I think, partly, it was because a large serving tray was left out on our counter from the night before and it just begged to have breakfast in bed served from it. (OK, so the marmalade was homemade, it just wasn't my home.)
[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]Meals in San Francisco - My girlfriend and I spent a week in San Francisco a few summers ago and had several romantic meals at places found totally by chance. The ones that spring immediately to mind are sushi from a tiny (two or three tables, I think) restaurant called Akiko in the Union Square area. Another time, damp and cold, we wandered from Golden Gate Park to a restaurant called The Canvas Gallery to share lunch and a giant bowl of steaming hot Spanish chocolate.
The Beach Bistro - For my birthday last year, we went to The Beach Bistro, a tiny restaurant on the tip of Anna Maria Island, near Sarasota, Florida. The small dining room features floor-to-ceiling windows facing powdery beaches and the Gulf of Mexico. I had, probably, the best bouillabaisse of my life. The Bistro also has an absurdly rich dish called "Food Heaven," a combination of foie gras, lobster, lamb and brioche bread pudding that work amazingly well together.
Blue Crabs - I know what you're thinking: How can anything you have to cook alive and then dismember be romantic? Well, one year, for New Year's Eve dinner we drove out of town to a tiny crab house and brought home a few brown paper bags of live (very live, mean even) blue crabs that were steamed, cleaned and cooked in a tomato sauce for spaghetti and crabs. Slurping and eating with your hands—very romantic, indeed.
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