Dinner with mommies and karaoke

Over the break, my family friends and I got together. With people home for the holidays, (some of them live in NY currently) we decided, as daughters, to take our moms out to dinner and a night out on the town in SF. It isn't too often that we can wine and dine our mothers. Best. Idea. Ever. Or, one of the best ideas ever. And some of the best money I've ever spent on somebody :)

First, our moms are completely traditional and old fashioned. None of them come to SF often at all, even though they live a mere 40-45 minutes away in the east bay. All were immigrants into the US and can be a bit embarrassing and "fobby" than your normal embarrassing mother. For example, at dinner, every single one of them whipped out their cameras and took pictures (with flash) of all the dishes. The restaurant was dimly lit and people stared at us. And yes they all took the same pictures...multiple times. Nonetheless, we love them and chuckled at how cute they were amidst rolling our eyes and taking some more sips of our drinks.

Above is all of us at dinner. Look how cute the moms are! Can you guess the mom and daughter pairs?

This past Sunday, we took them to dine at RN74. I picked up some rose boquets for each of them on the way over, just as a special thank you. The last time they got flowers from someone was probably a while ago- and the dads definitely haven't gotten flowers in a while. So we wanted to spruce things up a bit :). Anyway, RN74 is the new Michael Minna restaurant in SOMA. The Yelp reviews of this place weren't the best- 3.5/5 stars. However, the food was actually really good. Main courses were definitely good. Not too big a fan of the swordfish, but the pork, chicken, and scallops were good. We got a bunch of appetizers to share and I just got to say that the Hamachi Sashimi and the Maitake Mushroom Tempura was yummy.

Pictured below is the Beef Carpaccio and Butternut Squash Agnolotti. Delectable.

The main course I got was bacon wrapped pork loin over a bed of spinach with this cornbread wheat bread. So good. I've realized that I love pork and pork on pork. YUM again.

I should have taken cocktail pictures as cocktails are important to the meal. Our moms don't drink too much normally so each of them felt "dizzy" and "lightheaded" after a few sips of a cocktail. Precious. My mom got a margarita, which she didn't quite finish. We also got a bottle of wine for the table and tried our best to encourage the moms to finish their drinks to get them liquored up for karaoke. Don't worry, the daughters were responsible and became the DD's for the evening.

The desserts at RN74 weren't to die for. I wouldn't really recommend getting desserts there. They all were very unique and different tasting. We did get their beignets, which were probably the best thing on the dessert menu. But again, not my favorite place for dessert.

And then we headed to Karaoke. Amazing night. Singing in chinese, singing 80's songs and old classics was a lot of fun with the moms and they had a great time together. The night will need to be repeated again in the future. Maybe we'll add the dads in next time.

This will probably be my last post of the year. Here's to wishing you and your loved ones a very safe, healthy, and happy new year. Cheers!