Appetite for the World

It all started with our cotton anniversary.

E and I celebrated 2 years of not killing each other yet by going out to dinner. Last year we went to Casbah, a Mediterranean place with a stocked wine bar, which was pretty good. This year we decided to split one fancy dinner into 2 nice meals, for the heck of it.

First, we went to Abay, Ethiopian cuisine on S. Highland Ave. Very neat. There was regular seating, as well as tables that looked like oversized rattan tagines. We got a platter with kay wat, doro tibs, kay sir dinich, and tikil gomen, along with a steaming pot of yekemem shai (very much like chai tea). I was so proud of E, Mr. I-hate-eating-with-my-fingers, who dove in enthusiastically with the injera, Ethiopian flatbread. The stews were arranged neatly on the injera like paint on a palette. It was amazing; we're definitely going again.

The next evening, we went to our favorite sushi joint for the usual chirashi. Best sushi in town!

Then things got a little crazy. Two of E's associates from work flew in from Atlanta; we had to take them out to dinner every night they were here. First, we took them to Joe Mama's for hearty American-Italian - I had to get the giant tiramisu-in-a-mug. Then we had South/Southeast Asian fare at Spice Island Tea House, where I had to get the Belgian raspberry wheat beer. We took a break the next evening (phew), then picked up again with Greek/Lebanese/Middle Eastern food at Aladdin's (the grape leaves are to-die-for!).

From injera to nan to pita, from Africa to Japan to Italy to Burma to Lebanon, our tastebuds toured the world in 5 days. (We now have leftovers in the fridge to last us a week, and I can't bear the thought of walking into another restaurant for quite some time.)

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Last night, after eating Rice Krispies for dinner (see above for why), I headed to Lauren's for my first book club meeting. It was a meeting of a dozen or so impeccably dressed young women, all from the glamorous world of marketing and publishing, to talk about this month's read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a movie in making and virgin novel by local writer Michael Chabon when he was 21.

I put my contribution of a Louis Jadot Chardonnay on the table, together with 16 other bottles already there. I wondered how much we would be drinking... (book club? wine club?) I was the only one who didn't know anyone else besides the hostess, and NOT being from either marketing or publishing, I felt pretty out of it. I wished there were "Hello, My Name Is" tags for everyone. I bonded with a writer at Whirl, whose office was a few blocks away from mine. It was a fun estrogen fest where we spent 10 minutes actually talking about the book, and the rest drinking and picking at hors d'oeuvres and gossiping.

The fiances and husbands started streaming in around 10pm, E included, to make fun of all the drunks and drive them home - not before a rowdy video game on the big screen in the basement. At the end of the night (12.30am), we kicked eleven bottles of wine (not counting the 4 or so bottles that went into the mulled wine) - damn. The next meeting will be in March, reviewing Shoot the Moon, a murder mystery by Billie Letts.

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Congratulations to my best friend, my mentor and tormentor since we were 13, who recently got engaged to his gal of 8 years. It's about damn time! :) I wish the two of you nothing but the best for the future. Come visit us when you get the chance!!