My Birthday with Sun Moon Studio

Returning from our month-long vacation in Asia last January, I launched right into my birthday celebration with some of my dear friends. We treated everyone to the truly outstanding dining experience at Sun Moon Studio in West Oakland. This tiny 12-seat restaurant first captured my attention when I found out that Taiwanese American chef Alan Hsu was at the helm. I was able to snag a reservation right away for Alex’s and my wedding anniversary in December. And then I hosted my birthday with them in January. But since then, they have been written up in every publication possible, and they were also awarded a Michelin star. So it might be nearly impossible to snag a reservation now. But if you can mange it, it is absolutely worth the trek. Alan and Sarah and their small but mighty team were the perfect partners in this gathering.

Thank you to my dear friends for coming to celebrate with me! Including one contingent who traveled from LA for the occasion.

 

Really excellent drinks, including nonalcoholic cocktail options.

Of course it’s not my birthday party without some other creative component. While visiting one of many, many bookstores in Tokyo, I happened upon a ten-year journal, and the idea really tickled me. Especially as I was entering a new decade of life and soon entering parenthood, I liked the thought of logging daily thoughts over the course of years, and being able to compare across time as well. After a bit of online research, I found the Hobonichi Five-Year Journal and tracked it down to a small shop on the north side of Tokyo. 

I love the simple layout and the thoughtful design of the journal. Each calendar date is listed at the top, with slots to write for each of the next five years, so the same calendar date will overlap five times in the end, rather than sequentially going through year by year. There is also room on the right page for overflow notes, added drawings of pictures, or five more years, if you’d like. Hobonichi also has a cult following for its Tomoe paper, which is incredibly thin but doesn’t bleed through. In other words, this is the perfect journal to grow with over the course of years. I got a whole stack and gifted one to each of my party attendees.

We started the evening with some reflections on decades past, present and future. This is how you know it’s my party: I have some odd request, and my friends are all gamely entertaining it. Doing homework before they get served dinner.

And of course, we did have a wonderful dinner too, alongside the cozy ambiance and warm hospitality.

The full menu (some items pictured twice, as I had modifications to avoid raw elements on my dishes):

sf bay dungeness crab, hodo soy tofu, yuzu kosho bodega bay rockfish, citrus, fennel
egg custard tart, bonito, salmon roe
taiwanese sausage on steamed brioche
salt and pepper honey nut
day boat scallop with shaoxing wine, brown butter
mt. lassen trout, sunchoke, grape
stemple creek pork chop, mustard, black trumpet rye caraway rolls with shared cultures miso butter broth
bay leaf ice cream, pistachio, honey, black pepper
backyard meyer lemon tart
rojas satsumas

The best dishes are the ones where Sarah (the baker) and Alan (the chef)’s contributions are clearly melded. Folks were talking about the egg tart with roe for days and weeks after this event. Truly grateful for all of it. The friends, the meal, the beautiful way of marking a new decade.

We sent friends home with their five-year journals and with these mahjong pineapple cakes too, haha.

The TAF contingent

The college contingent

And the accountability contingent.

Plus Alan and Sarah, the talented duo behind Sun Moon Studio.

I’m still journaling every day (or going back and filling in weeks at a time) and marveling at how little of this year is left. Time is flying, and I’m just feebly trying to celebrate all of it, bit by bit as we go.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She creates beautiful, soft, and timeless imagery while capturing the most fleeting of moments. View her work at annawu.com, follow her daily adventures on instagram, or contact her to book your own session today.