Celebratory

Steven's work just had its snazzy office party yesterday. It was pretty snazzy indeed. I've been to one or two of my parents' office parties. Those were nothing like this. I'm shocked they were able to set it all up for Saturday given people were working there into Friday evening. It was pretty huge and the decorations were pretty crazy. Not all of it was crazy I suppose. The dessert room was the only really crazy one.

But enough of this. I should go in order.

So there were 4 areas each with its own theme and decorations. The first one was The Vinyard. It was the most traditional by far. It was the sort of thing you'd expect from an upscale place. There were pretty plants, heat lamps and fire pits for the outside area, and traditionally classy foods. There was stuff like steak skewers, pickled mushrooms, turkey and carmelized onion torta, an olive oil bar, roasted figs with chevre in a balsamic honey reduction, among others. Just to brag a little (only a little), I am reciting all the food from memory because I don't have my program anymore. I just have a good memory for food. :) Anyway, it was all delicious. I haven't even mentioned all of it yet. And I think perhaps it's best if I don't. But there were these little foccacia bites and this delicious cheese and mushroom on bread thing... Ok I have to stop. And there was live music. It was a guy playing the guitar and it was really nice.

Then we wandered into the next area (this one was my favorite). It had all techno music (with a dj) and all the lighting was blue (each place had a different colored lighting scheme). It was the Wall Street themed building. You could get your picture taken by a professional photographer (think prom pictures) in front of a green screen and the final product put us in front of Wall Street on the day VMware went public (it was such an anticipated IPO that they put VMware banners all over Wall Street). This place had all leather chairs and blue tablecloths (to match the lighting) and the food had more of a seafood theme. There was a dungeness crab risotto, a seafood souptini (soup in a martini glass), a carrot ginger souptini (my favorite!), an oyster bar (oysters are like $3 each and they had a LOT of them!), a pasta I didn't care for, and probably some other food I don't remember. Oh wait- was this where all the fondue was? No that was the dessert building. We'll get there. :)

The chronologically next room (though the one we went to last) was The Spice. I couldn't help but think of Dune. It was a sort of Indian fusion theme. All the tables had an assortment of colorful spices on them. They had this exceptionally delicious chicken skewers tandoori style (not very traditional but soooo good!), and some lamb skewers (take that, county that worships cows!), and this tasty Indian crepe, and a delicious potato samosa, and that's all I can rmember for now, but those were definitely the highlight, especially the chicken skewers. It is rare that I have had such tasty chicken. The chicken was really nothing special, but the spices on it... yummmmm. There was live music here too. There were two people playing stringed instruments I didn't recognize. All the chairs were made out of what looked like bamboo and the tablecloths were orange. They had what looked like an authentic thai carved bench by the entrance (looks like what I've seen in a lot of thai restaurants, which doesn't mesh with the indian theme inside, but it was all fusion anyway).

The final room was also lovely. This was the dessert room. Its decor was the most fantastical. I didn't really care for it. The theme was Artisan. They had a human statue. He blinked every so often, but he was just standing there... the whole night. Wearing a turban and little shorts. And painted purple. Yeah it's weird. There was also an artist painting a man. Literally. There was a guy sitting in front of that Dali painting with the melting clocks and the painter stood in front of him and painted the painting on the man so that if you looked from the right angle, you should see the guy blend in with the painting. I hope it was water soluble. And it seemed a little degrading to me. I would have itched to join the party and punch the guy getting paint on me. Anyway, onto the important part: the food. There was a bean dip with some veggies (I guess for if you weren't into sweet things... like a weirdo) and there was fondue with veggies too. Steven liked the fondue more than me. I liked it too, but it just sorta tasted like cream of broccoli soup to me so I didn't think it was too special. I'll tell you what I did find special: the handmade truffles! They had orange chocolate and espresso and earl gray tea (it did taste like tea) and caramel (that one was my favorite!) and hazelnut (unless hazelnut was my favorite... can't decide!) and perhaps one or two more I didn't try. There were dark chocolate chips around too. There was also a lot of cheese. I mean a LOT of cheese. There weren't that many different kinds, but let me tell you, nothing ran out. Not even the Humbolt Fog which is like $15/lb. There were lots of crackers to put the cheese on and candied walnuts to put with it. They were so yummy! The truffles were the tastiest part, but the coolest part was the cookie station. They put out a bunch of cookies (short bread, biscotti, espresso, chocolate, all types). I suppose these would all be good on their own, but then there were all sorts of delicious things to put on them. Aside from the ridiculously colorful sprinkles (nice dye jobs), there was a meyer lemon glaze, a delicious caramel, a dark chocolate syrup (none of that Hersey's shit), a sage glaze (which I regret that I did not try), cocoa nibs (not for those who aren't extremely enthusiastic about dark chocolate- however I am extremely enthusiastic about dark chocolate :) ), and a cocoa powder. I made three cookies and I made them with love. They tasted great (except for the coffee one masquerading as a chocolate cookie- I don't like coffee) and the syrups were amazing. It was a lot of fun!

And I haven't even mentioned the alcohol yet! Well I guess that's because Steven and I didn't have any. Mixed drinks man... mixed drinks as far as the eye could see. One or two in every building with at least 4 bartenders in the main one and two in the smaller one (if there was a smaller one). Alcohol everywhere you turned! Most of the alcohol stations were in some way themed to match the food in their section (of course wine was in the vineyard, and other things in other places). Next time Steven's work has a big bash, I might just partake. I didn't really feel like drinking this past Saturday, but if I get it in my reference point for the next one... Oh yeah!

I ate one of just about everything (and had several helpings of some things) and I was so full by the end of the night! I've never filled up on finger food like that before. There always never seem to be enough. There was enough that night, even though there were hundreds of people. It made me happy.

Oh and if you're wondering about the title of this entry, it refers to the dress code. The dress code was "celebratory." Steven asked his boss what celebratory meant and his boss said, "Oh you know- celebratory!" Well we dressed fancy and fit in quite well. I rarely get to dress fancy. It's kinda nice! I got to be Steven's arm candy as he showed me off to coworkers! I'm a trophy wife-to-be! ... Errr... Well I'm still glad Steven got to show me off!

The party was a lot of fun. I wasn't expecting to stay the whole time, but the time just flew (it always does when lots of food is involved). As we were walking away, I had the strongest urge to put a bat stencil on their searchlights (that's right there were searchlights- it was ridiculous!), but I just didn't have the guts. Oh well... perhaps next time after I'm a little tipsy... :D