Now that was a pleasant way to spend an evening. As a reward for getting ourselves thru a long week, Sarah suggested we go out to dinner here. Once we got there, we ran into this local blogger and we had just a delightful evening of good conversation along with the (as usual) fine food and drinks. Plus, as readers of Archer Pelican will know, Phil's something of a regular at Starlu, and he introduced us to the chef. So that was really cool. At one point a very interesting question was posed, about the watercress that came w/ my entree (steak frites cos, hey, it's Bastille Day), and about how few people seemed to be eating much of it. And, in fact, I had eaten hardly any of it. I don't know why. It just hadn't occured to me. When I ate some with the steak it turned out to be an excellent combination. My guess is there's something about the presentation that's discouraging people from eating the cress but I haven't quite figured out what. Or how you'd go about correcting that. I think if they put less on the plate it'd look even more like a "not meant to be eaten" garnish. They could dress it in some way, but it's already a pretty substantial plate (beef, tarragon butter, fried potatoes) and it really wants something clean, light, fresh and not at all oily to balance things out. I'll have to think some more about it.

In other foodie news, Alicia sent me this link. Looks like Tony Bourdain and his film crew are trapped in Beirut. Altho, as is mentioned in the article, with Discovery Channel working on their behalf they're a lot better off that most Lebanese at this moment.