So yesterday was our second anniversary, and we celebrated by using up a bunch of gift certificates. I had two AMEX cards eft over from a work bonus a couple years ago, and so we went to one of the more upscale places in town, the Epic Bistro. We can usually only afford this place once in a blue moon, and so we always look forward to it.

Now, I'm not the kind of person who automatically equates high prices with good food; just the opposite, in fact. I'd ten times rather get good takeout from a cinderblock ethnic joint (say, perhaps, J Gardens; still the best Middle Eastern food in Ann Arbor) than a foofy restaurant with fancy decor and so-so food. Epic Bistro puts the lie to that equation, though. You pay handsomely for your dinner, but a handsome dinner it is. The food there is some of the best I've ever consumed, ever. Each mouthful is a delight, beautifully plated and excellently prepared. All the little touches are evident: plates are chilled icy-cold or heated rip-roaring hot as the dish requires, sauces are delicate and not overdone, and each item in the entree is carefully flavor-balanced against everything else.

Now, when I go out for a meal like this, I uaually want something I can't prepare at home... what's the point of paying $25/plate for salmon when I could use that same money to buy two pounds of wild-caught fish and grill it up with my own chili-lime butter? Makes no sense. But ah, duck breast. I am such a sucker for it. I've ordered it the last two times we've gone there, and oh me oh my, what that chef can do with duck. Medium rare, like duck sushi, seared on the outside with a rosemary crust and just the right amount of fat left on. Served with pencil-thin asparagus, a halved poached plum, port wine reduction and a mushroom risotto so creamy and fluffy that it made your toes curl. Dessert was a shared pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake and a half-glass of 10-year-old Taylor Fladgate Tawny.

Yeah, that's the kind of dinner I want from an expensive restaurant. Too bad the gift cards both bounced. ARGH. I must get that straightened out today.

Post-dinner was a trip to the Oasis Gardens, also on a gift certificate from Paul's work. Then we both crawled into bed early and slept like the dead.

It was wonderful, and even better was sharing a night out with my wonderful husband without any obligations, distractions, or deadlines. Case in point: He called me from work right at three yesterday. Who's the mushiest mudskipper of them all?