It is hard to get my two chickens together now that the eldest one is working and going to college. When that opportunity arose, I seized on it and took them to lunch to celebrate with roasted chicken.

This was the second time that I was visiting Glass and Vine, and there was a very specific reason we came here – the chicken. The first time we had brunch, this time we came for lunch to make sure that the chicken was on the menu.

We started with a Watermelon Salad – lime crema, cotija, toasted corn, cilantro. This salad was made with a very bizarre combination of ingredients, but somehow this crazy mélange worked. The smell of the cotija cheese was a little bit hard to endure. Cotija cheese is a hard, crumbly Mexican cheese that is made mainly from cow’s milk. It had a strong smell, much like feta, and it was sprinkled all over the dish. One bite was all it took to understand the magical role the watermelon played as a base for this marriage of special components to bloom- the coolness of the watermelon calmed down the intensity of the cheese, and the lime crema brought it all together, the toasted corn added the crunch.

I did not want to repeat dishes, but the little one had to order the Broccoli-Cheeseburger again. It was, like the first time we tried it at brunch, quite exceptional. A delicious meat patty encased in a soft brioche bun, broccoli drizzled with cheddar cheese and crunchy-soft fries. What’s not to love?

The next dish was the Seared Octopus – Nouc cham, cashews, coconut cream, cucumber. As usual, when there is an octopus on a plate, there was a battle for who could get the biggest piece and as always, my oldest chicken won.

The primary motivation to come back to Glass and Vine so soon was to try the Half Chicken: Roasted chicken served with bitter lettuce and literally drenched in “mojo canario” – a sauce made with tons of garlic, cilantro, onions and olive oil, among other things. I am a chicken-lover, and this dish was pure chicken heaven. All the pieces were moist and perfectly prepared except for the bitter char in some of the chicken skin.

So what were we celebrating? Three things in particular – my chickens were at lunch together with me, I passed my 90-day probation at my new job, and I got to taste the half-chicken I was so craving for a long time.