2005-06-04 - 12:03 p.m.
The best meal I ever had was at Lot 401 in Providence. It was last Saturday, the night before my graduation. The chef there and I went to Hebrew school together back in Brooklyn and rediscovered each other in Providence via Friendster. She�s now like a celebrity chef (and got invited to cook at the super-prestigious James Beard House). As another friend of mine said �Whoa, you know her? She�s famous!�
We got the upstairs of the restaurant, which becomes a slightly cheesy (if popular) club at night. We stayed long enough for it to actually be opened as a club and we had to move for dessert, as our tables were being cleared for the dance floor. Eventually, we cleared out entirely when the �VIPs�, for whom the area where we were sitting was reserved, showed up. It was okay; it was getting late anyway.
Friends from all different stages of my life showed up. It was so incredible. Saint Ann�s, Harvard, Record Hospital, Brown. It was actually a little weird to see people from all different phases in the same place. I was a little worried that they wouldn�t gel, but they all got along great. Someone commented that it was amazing that I kept friends for so long. There were people there I�d known over ten or twenty years. But that�s just how I�ve always been. I mean, they�re my friends.
We played the old-school grrl punk-funk of ESG for pre-dinner cocktail hour and several mixes during dinner. Lauren made one of them with �I Don�t Wanna Go to School No More�, a particularly appropriate Donnas song, and �Progress�, one of my favorite Mission of Burma songs. She also put on �Things Are What You Make of Them� by our friends Bishop Allen, which I listened to for the rest of the weekend. I think I know what she means. Things are what you make of them.
I even remember what I ate. The Asian braised pork is widely praised and I�d tasted it at her James Beard dinner, before I choked on the steak and eggs and passed out (I�m still sorry about that). It�s made with sweet and sour cabbage and little potatoes and it�s so delicious. We had a champagne toast and all, but most importantly I was with everyone I love.
So certainly it was on a more positive note than my last favorite meal. I think it will be the best dinner I�ve ever had for a long time. Thank you to everyone who came. You are all an essential part of my life and you made me very happy.
� 2005 Geoff Gladstone
Sign My Guestbook!
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
�
