nice hair.

Yesterday I was complimented on my hair no less than four times. And from complete strangers too.

I'm not quite sure why. I pretty much have had the same haircut for the past three or four years, but yesterday I must have either stood out more or somehow styled my hair extra special.

AJ and I had gone to the annual Meals on Wheels fundraiser: Star Chef's and Vintner's Gala event. It's a formal black tie event that is San Francisco's Meals on Wheels biggest fundraiser.

For the past four or five years, I have created signage for the event, and in the past three years, I've been actually been invited to the event itself, which not only is for a good cause, but it fabulous in it's own right.

See it has food. FANTASTIC food. and really REALLY great wine too. The chef and winery list is on their website and it's a veritable whose who of master chefs of the bay area. The event starts with an appetizer and wine section in the beginning where some of the top chefs of the bay area present appetizers and top wineries offering wine tastings (though the tastings tend to be rather full glasses than the little taste you get at the winery tasting room).

Highlights of the appetizer portion included:

A fabulous Tuna Piqua from Asia De Cuba which is a sushi grade tuna with currants and coconut on a wonton chip.

A marvelous Pork Cheek and White Bean "Sloppy Joe" with Salsa Verde from Willi's Wine Bar.

An amazing Shaking Beef served straight from the wok from The Slanted Door.

A delicious Hamachi tartare served on a crostini from the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco.

And my favorite, the Day Boat Scallop "Tater Tot" with caviar creme from the Cosmopolitan. We SO have to eat there for "new restaurant of the month".

The second part of the even included a sit down three course meal created by different chefs and paired with wine. I was first served an Artichoke with Tuna Conserva from A-16 Restaurant (it was only ok) while AJ got a Hamachi Carpaccio with mountain caviar from Ame (which is amazing). The wine pairing was a 2005 Sauvignon Blanc from Frog's Leap that was delicious. On the second course, AJ was served a Roasted Duck breast with corn crepe and raspberry jus from Chez Spencer (fantastic), and I was served a Duck fat poached Moulard Duck breast from Incanto (so incredibly rich, the duck was fantastic, the accompaning "18th century market stew" was not that great). The wine pairing with the duck was an amazing 2001 Pinot Noir Bien Nacido Vineyards from Bernardus. The final dish was a short rib crepinette with morels for AJ from MYTH (not bad but Camilla who was sitting next to me complained it tasted like meatloaf which I don't have a problem with, but she apparently did. To her credit, it did have a bit of a processed meat texture to it) and seared lamb loin and braised leg of lamb from Redd (fantastic - in fact no one sat next to us, and of course, AJ had to pick up the meal and eat that one as well so it wouldn't go to waste, thus he got both the meatloaf and the lamb). The 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet from J.P. Harbison was decent, but everyone kept on going back to the pinot from the second course, it was so good.

Camilla was so disappointed with the "meatloaf" that her husband's friend (I can't remember if his name was Joe or Ken) went off and brought back a lambchop from some table that had a no show. I had no idea who made it, but it too was delicious. We tried to offer her the extra plate next to AJ but AJ had already started to eat off of it, and so she only took a slice of the lamb.

Joe/Ken and Camilla were fabulous to have at the table. Joe/Ken was rather drunk, but I imagine if he wasn't he still would have acted the way he did. He actually walked off and then came back with a bottle of wine from one of the wineries from the appetizer section. He also came back with sparkling water for us for dinner. And in the end he walked in with a tray of cupcakes from the dessert tables outside. God bless him.

The final part of the evening of course was the desserts, and dessert wines. I had learned (from two years of experience) to pace myself, and I ended up gorging myself on various mini cupcakes (remind me to make them for my party), a million variations of chocolate (including Michael Recchiuti's gorgeous truffles and candies - the chocolate salty caramel was amazing, but we didn't care for the Earl Grey Tea one). I told Michael Recchiuti (who was there wearing a very cute work shirt with the name Michael on it, that his chocolates inspired AJ and I to make our own truffles for Christmas. He inquired as to how that went, and AJ said it went well, but it was quite labor intensive. He agreed that it was.

There were also marvelous confections, cakes, puddings, and astounding petit fours. Boulevard had fruit with chocolate and fruit dips, and I ended up running into an old friend of a friend there (who I hadn't seen in AGES!) named LIBBY. She was friends with SHARON who used to work at LEVI's but now is in NYC. LIBBY also used to work at LEVI's but once they restructured, she went back to cooking school for pastry work, and is now doing desserts at Boulevard. go her! I can't wait to hang out with her again. I'd love to invite her to one of my dessert parties....

So all the desserts were fantastic, but I was sugared out. I guess I now know what it's like to go to one of OUR dessert parties. SUGAR overload. I never really eat any of the desserts at my parties. Go figure. I really don't like to eat that much of what I make.

Anyway it was Joe/Ken who started up with my hair. Granted he was drunk, but he kept on commenting about how fascinated he was with the spikiness. He asked me what I used in it (I replied a pomade-y paste like substance). In his drunken stated he asked to touch it, and that of course had Camilla next to me pawing my hair as well. Joe/Ken then asked if product I used would work on other parts of the body. *ahem* Camilla was suitably embarrassed, but AJ piped in that I didn't need any help in that department. Joe/Ken was a little taken aback, but I think amused that AJ had a clever come back.

Then Paul and his friend Jenna over on the OTHER side of the table independently asked me about my hair. Jenna was talking to the woman next to her (who incidently JUST found out on Friday that she passed the CA BAR exam - which we totally congratulated her on. We told her that our friend PETER found out that he passed as well, so it was happiness all around) most of the evening so she didn't even notice or hear anything about my hair.

Paul and her then proceeded to ask if they could touch my hair as well. So I let them.

Finally as I dragged AJ out of the dining room to go and feast on even more desserts and to get him some zinfandel port, my friend CHIP (who hooked me up with the signage job to begin with) and his girlfriend commented on my hair as well.

So my question is this. Why is spikey hair so fascinating when you are drunk? Is it the spikey hair coupled with the tuxedo that they find so entertaining? Or is it just me? Here's a picture. Let me know what you think.