Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A birthday

As some of you (to my amazement and gratitude) deduced or remembered, I turned a year older on Monday. Moving from 27 to 28 is hardly a momentous leap, but I am starting to realise what people are referring to when they say that getting older doesn't feel any different. I suspect this really is adulthood and I am not going to wake up one day and suddenly feel different or An Adult!

Musings on age aside, this may have been one of the best birthdays I can remember. It was low-key, but in so being was perfectly matched to me. I don't at all like being the centre of attention, and it's hard to avoid that completely when it's one's birthday. This year, the balance seemed to come together perfectly. The celebrations were at a level I was happy with, and I was left feeling overwhelmingly spoilt, lucky and blessed. 


Because my actual birthday was largely taken up by work, we had a family celebration on the Sunday night, at my parent's place. It was a relaxed evening and every aspect was delightful.

From a food perspective, there was an assortment of main meal options, including tofu veggie burgers, and a double batch of vegan vanilla cupcakes, beautifully decorated, to follow. The cupcakes were complimented by a fruit platter with every fruit favourite I have.

The company was lovely and I received an exceedingly generous selection of presents, which were added to further on the Monday by Mr Bite. It wasn't about the presents, though, or even the food - it was just a wonderful evening and I felt incredibly lucky to have everyone there in my life.







On the Monday evening, Mr Bite and I had planned to get burgers from Jus Burgers and take them to a nearby beach where there's a grassy picnicing stretch. Jus Burgers are a Western Australian franchise that seem to have taken Perth by storm, and they do several vegetarian burgers, including a vegan tempeh burger, which I have yet to try.

As it turns out, Jus Burgers were closed for their Christmas party. Fortunately for us, we were able to switch to Grill'd Burgers instead, which have been reviewed favourably elsewhere. The menu states that they are happy to make modifications, and they list ingredients to avoid if you want vegan or gluten-free options.

I went for the Field of Dreams veggie burger ($11.50; grilled field mushroom, roasted peppers, basil pesto, tasty cheese, salad, and herbed mayo) on a traditional bun, only without the cheese, pesto or mayonaise. This could have been a bad decision - I generally try to ask for only one menu change! - but the burger was delicious and definitely moist enough without sauce or cheese. Highly recommended.


Please excuse the bad night time photo. I was trying to highlight the mushroom, but now realise that grilled mushrooms in dark lighting doesn't look as attractive as one might hope.

Mr Bite ordered the Tuscan Delight chicken burger ($12.50; grilled chicken breast, roasted peppers, basil pesto, tasty cheese, salad and herbed mayo), which on typing up I realise is exactly the same as my burger but with chicken instead of mushroom. He had his on a panini roll with no substitutions, and gave it very high marks.



Our evening was complemented by offshore lightning displays, which were leading in to a series of storms that hit yesterday. After a very hot weekend, the cool change and cloudy skies were a nice change - and meant that we had the beach almost to ourselves.


It was a lovely night. I couldn't have asked for a better one, or for a better birthday, and I am very grateful to everyone who made it so (including all of you who left comments!).

What would your ideal birthday involve? 
If you have already reached or passed 28, do you recall what you did that year?

25 comments:

  1. Great to hear that you had some enjoyable birthday celebrations with your family and Mr Bite! My ideal birthday would involve being on holidays in a nice location, I can't think of anything better than that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh darling! Even the skies were celebrating your arrival on this earth! So glad you have loved ones who know who you are and the kind of celebration you can glow in, and gave you precisely that. I wish I could've flown the 8 (is it 8?) hours to give you a birthday hug, but I'll have to settle for.... *GREAT BIG SQUEEZY BIRTHDAY HUG OF WONDERMENT*

    ReplyDelete
  3. happy birthday - glad that it sounds just right - love all that chocolate - and I love your focus on enjoying the company rather than the presents - it is really what birthdays are about - also glad you enjoyed Grilld - will look forward to hearing about Jus Burgers when you get there - I must try the grilld mushroom burger - Cindy of where's the beef also spoke high of it

    ReplyDelete
  4. That beach shot is beautiful!! I wish we had places like that where I live.. it's nice here in the summer/ spring but right now it's just cold. And wet. And miserable.
    I'm glad you had such a good birthday... low key IS the best. I also dislike being the center of attention!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy birthday! it sounds like you had a wonderful time :)
    my ideal birthday is something low key with friends & my boyfriend. this year I did a boozy brunch. casual and everyone had a great time :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy belated birthday! It sounds like quite the perfect day x

    ReplyDelete
  7. nomnomnom I missed grill'd terribly. I've tried to find a replacement but they all pale in comparison. Happy Belated, sounds like a good day!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That looks like a gorgeous birthday! Burgers on the beach sound amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Mel :) And I agree - being on holiday would be a nice birthday option! Any chance of that happening for you this year? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love that you interpreted lightning as celebrations rather than something more ominous :P And - thank you. Thank you! Very much :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks Johanna - I'm loving all the chocolate too! And you're right, birthdays (and Christmas, and all celebrations really) are about company; this year was a real reminder to me of how much that counts.

    I'm looking forward to trying the other Grill'd burgers too, it's wonderful that so many vegetarian options are suddenly popping up.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Eleah :) I hope your day is equally good when it comes around - better, in fact, because 21 is much more significant than 28! Hopefully the wet and miserable will hold off a bit for you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It seems we're in agreement on low key :) Definitely the way to go!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Truly? I always thought Australia was behind the times with vegetarian food, but perhaps we've found our niche in burgers :) And thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks Lisa :) It was pretty delightful.

    ReplyDelete
  16. PS. 8 hours via Sydney or 4.5 hours direct :D

    ReplyDelete
  17. Many Happy Returns Kari - when I was 28, Mr Lucy and I were buying our first house!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Excellent. Sounds like you had a lovely few days surrounding your birthday. There is something quite lovely about eating burgers by the beach on balmy evening, (watching a storm even better!)
    28, I had my first bubba :-)

    ReplyDelete
  19. That sounds fabulous! My ideal birthday would involve getting my ideal present - my own island. (And my birthday is also this week - birthday week twins!)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks Liz :) And your house buying would certainly have made for an exciting 28th!

    ReplyDelete
  21. The storm certainly added to things :) Thank you Brydie - and I'm amazed at Monkey Boy being born when you were 28. Despite more and more of my friends having children, I still feel completely ill equipped for parenthood! Although perhaps that never changes...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Ooh, that does sound good. Have you planned out your island, or are you happy to take whatever comes your way? :P

    Happy birthday to you in turn! Clearly this is the best week ever to be born :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Belated Birthday wishes Kari.
    I can't imagine anything better - a good veggie burger eaten on the beach with someone you adore. MMmm. don't remember much about my 28th Birthday, except that most of it was spent at work. What I hunger for these days when birthdays come, and it did arrive in mid November is the company of family and friends - who i so miss.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you Shaheen :) And you're right, family and friends are what matters - definitely.

    ReplyDelete

I genuinely appreciate all comments and the time taken to post them. Occasionally, I may need to restrict commenting to registered users in order to halt large volumes of spam. If that happens, I will lift the restriction within a week.

Want other ways to interact? Bite-sized thoughts is on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/bitesizedthoughts) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bitesizethought).