June 17th. Plum Tart. Gjelina, again.

Yesterday was so packed full, very content to have a long quiet (though phone-filled) birthday morning. I did make myself a proper breakfast--eggs, toast, fruit and yogurt.  Mid-afternoon, just before Elena and Christian were scheduled to arrive, Jamil called.  He was biking in the neighborhood (didn't know it was my b-day).  Of course, I invited him to stop by.   
He got a proper serving of the rapidly disappearing plum tart.  None for Christian and Elena (or me) as we had a 5:30 reservation at Gjelina's.  In an unusual moment of advanced planning (necessary as in addition to my birthday, Sunday was also Father's Day--maybe not traditionally an eating out night--but traditions are infinitely flexible these days--and reservations on Abbott Kinney are difficult, special days or not.  When I called--on Monday--the only seatings available on the patio (it's so noisy inside, the patio is really the only place that's pleasant to dine) were at 5:30 and 9:30.  But 5:30 was fine for us.
We headed out into the splendid California day, admired the blossoming duranta flowers falling over my garden gate, walked a few blocks of the crazed visitor-packed Ocean Front Walk, and

made our way to Abbott Kinney, where we were soon seated at a coveted patio table.  We had one splendid dish after another--many many little plates, vegetable dishes and one pizza:  maitake mushroom toast (a long time favorite, very delicious with cream and truffle oil), grilled peaches with burrata, la quercia prosciutto and arugula, lamb sausage pizza, grilled kale with hazelnuts and a mint yogurt sauce, braised sweet corn with feta, chile and cilantro and  wild boar sausage with flageolets.  After we cleaned our plates, the brought us a dessert menu.  I'd thought we'd had enough, but bless their hearts, Elena, Christian weren't quite finished.  I agreed that I could manage a bit more myself--so we had another small round of sliced grilled king mushrooms with tarragon oil and lemon and salt and grilled fennel with blood orange.  Then on  to dessert.  The only dessert I ever get is the butterscotch pot de creme with salted caramel and creme fraiche---which we ordered to share. It never disappoints. Just as we were carefully dividing the last tiny spoonfuls, our waiter appeared with a scoop of chocolate ice cream with a candle(they'd forgotten the candle in the pot de creme--so, as if we needed it--one more dessert).  Praise Be!!
We had thought we'd take a sunset walk after dinner--but we'd dined for so many hours, the sun had already set on the almost longest day of the year by the time we emerged.  Though vision was a bit impaired, we did have a night-time walking tour of the walk streets, the Canals and the quieting boardwalk.  A fine day indeed.