My Dinner With Raj

The title is meant to goofily evoke the film My Dinner With Andre, which (as a complete digression) I wanted to spoof as My Dinner With Andre The Giant:

ANDRE THE GIANT
That was a good 64 ounch steak. Yum. [pause]

You gonna finish your potatoes?

WALLY
Inconceivable!

Anyway, Raj (an old Tep friend) and I haven't seen each other in ages, so we got together to try out a restaurant we haven't been to yet: Tryst in Arlington Center. I found it very good, but not fantastic--though I admit I had a big lunch, so I went light on dinner fare. Their fried oyster appetizer was fantastic--a great burst of rawness in the center with that real oyster/ocean flavor. I was worried that on a Friday night, it would be intimidatingly filled with the Beautiful People, but it was more casual than I expected. In any case, it's awesome that there's a restaurant of this caliber within a 10 minute walk from my front door.

Aferwards, we retired to my place, where we sampled a variety of my Scotch whiskeys, and wrapped up with a nightcap of Drambuie.


I realized just how much I have been missing high quality, genuine, personal conversation lately in my life. Everything from "we're age X, where are we in life?," Raj musing about having children (incidentally--news is that kid #2 is due in December!), seeing how his daughter's personality is an odd combination of the two parents, how personalities evolve over a person's life (including shuddering with horror on who we were a decade ago)--all great things to talk about with an old friend over some fine drinks.

I guess this evening made me realize that I have been horribly lax about seeing friends lately--I don't think I've caught up with anyone in person for several weeks now. However, this upcoming week is socializing in spades--Marketa & Joe on Saturday; Amie & Guy on Monday; Crusher & Cat on Tuesday. Then flying to Canada for a week (leaving on Friday), and seeing my KW friends. Yay!