Happy Anniversary Keao!!! Today Keao and I celebrated our one year anniversary. We actually celebrated last night with a night in Waikiki, but since it’s a leap year this year, a full 365 days did pass and today is actually day 366 (but who’s counting?). I can’t believe this year has gone by so quickly. It just seems like last week we were buying our first Christmas tree (Keao wrote about it here) and then heading to N’awlins for the Sugar Bowl! But seriously our first year was filled with so many highlights and absolutely zero lowlights. It’s been a wonderful year.

So last night we decided to go to Alan Wong’s for dinner. My classmate, Dr. Janel, and her husband, Dr. Matt, gave us a gift certificate as a wedding gift so what better occasion to use it? When I made the reservations they asked if we were celebrating any special occasion. Of course, I told them we were celebrating our wedding anniversary (I was kind of hoping they would give us a free dessert or something, but no such luck) and asked if they had a dress code (gotta ask right?). They asked me to wear a dress shirt, slacks and a dress shoes and they just asked Keao to look pretty (no problem there). So we arrived at the restaurant and I thought, “so this is how the other half lives…”

When we sat down and got our menus, I figured out why they asked if we were celebrating anything special. Can you figure it out as well?

They put our names on the menu…how cool is that?

The restuarant was really nice and well set up. It was busy yet relaxed (and it was quiet enough to have a nice conversation). I always judge a restaurants service by the water test. If my glass ever gets empty then they fail the test. Alan Wong’s did not fail. They kept my water full and my bread dish (they literally had a waiter walking around giving us hot rolls as soon as we finished the one we had).

The bread was great, the chili-pepper butter was better (but the company was the best)

The menu was a little overwhelming because they had so many great sounding selections. I wanted to try a little of everything, but I didn’t think I could finish everything so I decided against ordering multiple items. We did, however, order an appetizer to share and then an entree each.

The Char Siu Quesadilla was the perfect blend of sweet and savory

Keao ordered the Seafood Bowl (look at the lobster, crab, shrimp, scallops and clams!)

I had the Surf ‘n Turf (which included lobster bisque and a lobster tail on a the steak)

We were so stuffed we couldn’t even order a dessert! It was okay though because I had a little dessert planned for later in the evening (it’s not what you’re thinking sickos). When Keao and I got married, we had our reception at the Officer’s Club on the Marine base. But, because we had a lunch wedding reception we had to leave by 3:00pm and we never got to eat our cake (or cut or serve it). Thanks to our friends Derek and Kristie our cake (the whole cake) has been patiently sitting in our freezer waiting for the day that it would finally be eaten.

So being the traditional guy that I am, I brought the cake with us. Keao didn’t want to eat it, but I kind of forced her to eat some. It is, after all, tradition.

Even after a year, it still looks delicious

Well, one year down and a lifetime to go. I’m totally looking forward to it!