This is part of our 100 Things in 2014 challenge. Here’s the full list.

For the fifth day of Christmas, I gave Becky a dinner at Castagna. Since a chef’s-whim dinner was on our 100 Things list, and Castagna is known for this… well, the plan wrote itself.

We noshed our way through 15 courses, complete with 8 wine pairings. Some of the courses were an education in molecular gastronomy, while others were entirely new foods to us (raw oysters, some kind of lamb’s gland). Here are some notes I wrote down while we were eating:

• A ramekin of lard
• Spoons and knives
• Gooey sweetbreads
• Freeze-dried raspberries
• Cranberry leather and goat cheese
• Brown butter crystals
• Brown butter ice cream!
• Onion custard

After 4 hours of sparkling conversation and fantastic food, we made our way home and collapsed; we’re not usually up until 11.

[A note on photography: we don’t want to be those guys, so we have a strict policy of not bringing a camera to a restaurant. All of these shots were captured surreptitiously and discreetly with a phone.]