Yes, sometimes it is about the food!

Last Thursday’s dinner was truly the first dinner with a set of complete and utter strangers. We invited over two of our new twitter friends who until that point had only been virtual acquaintances. We weren’t worried though, these two gals we had invited, who in the virtual world go by the names of  @mamakitten and @amyblogschow, had an outstanding google record and were good about keeping their lives pretty open on the internet.  So right off the bat and as soon as I opened the door and saw them,  immediately I got a good vibe. I knew we were off to a great start!

And so the night began with an exciting group of people who’s proximity to us came from many different vantage points. In addition to our new found twitter friends,  joining us we had an ex work colleague Gerard and his girlfriend Nuria. We also had Charlie, who studied with me in Seville and his lovely girlfriend Alex. And so there we were, all of us somewhat loosely connected, waiting for an amazing dinner experience to take place, open to all possibilities.

We were much more prepared than usual for this dinner, and this we realized when we were ready to serve dinner at 9:30PM, which is EXTREMELY early compared to what we are used to.  Starting earlier was strange, but there was something else going on with the timing of things that worked out beautifully in a random way. Rather than having many of the experiences happening upfront and sitting down for dinner very late, OR, enjoying long conversations after dinner, during our last dinner, all the good stuff was packed right in the middle of the night, right on the plate and on the glasses of wine. I have a few theories about why accidentally (or not) we were able to achieve the night’s climatic experience right as the three dishes were being served. First theory: THE WINE!  Owner of FranklyWines (a local TriBeCa wine shop), Christy, who we have now baptized as our wine consultant, prepared wine recommendations for our guests. So this time around, each dish was perfectly matched with an excellent and unexpected wine. This made us have to pay attention to both, what we were eating, and, what we were drinking, focusing all our energy in the act of eating and drinking, DELICIOUS! Second theory: The foodies that were at the table! Kat and Amy live and breathe food, these two girls love everything about food, and do so in a nonpretencious, genuine, true way, they love food for the sake of food. They too, helped us focus back in, making the act of eating a truly memorable experience. After we had eaten and drank ourselves silly, we did of course finish up the night with some great conversations, but I have to say, while it lasted, we enjoyed every single bite!