Darin and I had date night tonight. I’ve wanted to use date night for movies, but since there isn’t a damn movie out there right now I want to see, I decided we should go out and have a special dinner together. I picked Spago, because the one time we went there before I was newly pregnant with Simon and sick to my stomach. I don’t remember a thing about the meal other than that Darin, Fernando, and Nancy raved about the food.

So we had date night at Spago, which as date nights go doesn’t suck, and once perusing the menu we decided to go nuts and have the tasting menu.

The nine course tasting menu.

The nine course plus two desserts tasting menu.

Around the cheese course I wrote down what we’d had. I even managed to forget one—Darin remembered it, but we were both somewhat hazy at that point about where that course fit in. So here goes:

1. spicy tuna roll in a Florentine-cookie type hardshell cone—the best damn spicy tuna roll I’ve ever had
2. Jerusalem artichoke soup with two different sides of foie gras
3. sweet shrimp ceviche
4. agnolotti with truffle shavings
5. sea scallop with pad thai noodles
6. sea bass on a bed of parsnip potato puree
7. guinea hen with brussel sprouts
8. duck with foie gras
9. the cheese cart, with unlimited cheese choices
10. pear and fennel sorbet over blackberry and cassis granita
11. two blocks of a chocolate layer cake with a tiny scoop of a chocolate gelato

Now, each course was kind of small—one scallop with a side of pad thai, instead of a gigantic entree. But still…after the first 17 small courses I was like, “I don’t really need the dessert.” My stomach actually hurts right now. That’s why you couldn’t eat like this night after night: not just the caloric intake, but you’d be in actual physical danger of your stomach exploding after a while.

But good God, this was a good meal.There’s a reason Spago has such a great reputation. Yum. Yum yum yum.

I like date night.

Update: It’s around 11pm and instant karma has bitten me on the, um, esophagus. I am having the worst heartburn I’ve experienced in some time, and I’ve been pregnant twice. I’ve opened up the Costco-sized bottle of Calcium Antacids (“Tropical flavors”) that I lived on while pregnant and I’m chewing them like…oog, I don’t even want to make a food-related analogy here.

I hope this feeling subsides soon, ’cause I’d sure like to get to sleep some time tonight.

You want the absolute bar-none best lunch in LA?

Go to Chaya Brasserie, which is near Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Don’t even look at the menu—it’s a good menu, everything’s great, but don’t waste your time. When you sit down, say, “I want the tempura bowl.”

This is the best tempura ever. Darin doesn’t even like tempura, but when I say, “Chay–” he cuts me off and says, “Let’s go.”

The bowl has: a slab of seared ahi tuna; tempura of two shrimp, two stalks of asparagus, two woodear mushrooms, two shiitake mushroom, and two pieces of Japanese eggplants; the best wasabi cream sauce you have ever had in your life; a superlative version of the classic tempura dipping sauce; and perfectly done sushi rice.

It’s the priciest tempura we’ve ever had and so worth it.

Chaya Brasserie has great desserts, but if you want the most total superlative finish to the meal, you get in your car, turn north on Robertson, turn right on Melrose, drive until you get to Sweet Lady Jane. Park. You and your companion should each order a dessert, but don’t worry: you won’t be able to finish both. You’ll take about half of each home.

You will go into a “fabulous food” coma. Which is unfortunate, if, like Darin, you have to go home and work.

Guess what we did today?

ps – The tempura bowl is only available at lunch, which is why this is the best lunch in LA.

The heavens have opened up and we are having a LOT of rain here in LA. (No, I don’t want to hear your east-of-the-Rockies sob stories. I live in California and nice weather is a right.)

What makes this deluge particularly unpleasant is the roads here in the Valley, which for some reason possibly lost to history are convex. So the shoulder of every road is several inches lower than the middle of the road. The shoulders of the road are severely underwater. The middles of some roads are under water, where water came up to the bottom of the door. There were a few places where I thought, “This is it, we’re going to lose traction in the middle of this road, and this minivan is going to float away with me and two kids.”

You can just feel the glee of all the SUV drivers on the road going, “Ha! I have an SUV! This is no problem!” (Which is one of the reasons for the popularity of SUVs—and of cell phones, for that matter. They don’t require infrastructure. You have yours, and everyone else be damned. But that’s an entry for another time.)

I wonder if the preschool is open today. Or underwater.

Update: This is a picture I stole from the LA Times. This is what I was afraid of washing away in this morning.