Cris's Birthday and Rahil's Condo
I just had dinner with Cris, Mark, Rahil, and Dino this evening at LA Food Show in Manhattan Beach, first to celebrate Cris's birthda, but also to finally get to see Rahil and Dino's new condo. It's very nice and well decorated. Rahil gets tons of props for her design sense. I guess their watching HGTV all day pays off lol.I don't know if you've ever eaten at LA Food Show, but personally, at least the one in Manhattan Beach, the food is over priced and sub par in both presentation and flavor. I expected much more considering the location and reputation of the place. While the ambiance fairly dark, but comfortable, modern and fairly quiet. You get to see an open kitchen, which was both a plus and possibly a minus. There were two occasions where we distinctly heard someone drop a glass and another possibly a large plate. That one was very loud and the people clapped as it happened (not sure if it was in good fun, but I thought that was sad). The service was so so. Our server was friendly and helpful with the recommendations. She seemed knowledgeable in the dishes. The one thing that ruined it for me was the length of time it took for them to bring out the dessert menu (Cris's cheese cake/birthday dessert). We were waiting for what felt like an hour. It wasn't that bad because we were busy talking, but I noticed we were among the few left in the place and noticed the time. It was already 10:00pm and no one was bringing the check or the dessert menu.
All in all, I'd rather eat CPK (its sister company), Macaroni Grill, Cheesecake Factory, or even BJ's even though its noisy. At least the food in these places are fairly good at a much better price. I was going to get their Chicken Milanese (waitress recommended), but opted for Chicken Marsala instead since I didn't want to have the same thing as everyone else and saw it had mashed potatoes ^^. Unfortunately, their marsala was over seasoned and very salty, so was their red herb mashed potatoes...and I like my salt! $17 for what appeared to be 1/2 chicken breast pounded very thinly and sliced into three pieces, some red mashed potato, and a about 5 slices of blanched asparagus. Not worth it. Even their peach iced tea wasn't very peachy enough. I couldn't even finish my cheese cake (too sour strawberry topping and texture of the cheesecake itself was just not smooth nor creamy and the texture was gross) and key lime pie was too sour. I did not care for the crust either. I didn't even like their banana bread pudding (too mushy) even though Mark and Rahil seemed to really like it. All it reminded me of was how it paled in comparison to the texture and flavor of the banana bread my mom just made yesterday with crunchy almonds and toffee topping. I ate it warm with ice cream (sooooo good).*ugh* maybe it's just me, cause everyone else seemed to like their food. I like my chicken and mashed potatoes, but this dish definitely did not cut it. It's the first time I ate at a restaurant and came out not full. Anyway despite that, I had fun, granted it was a little hard to really keep a conversation completely meaningful when there were five fairly distinct personalities granted everyone at the table is really great, sometimes when bigger groups are involved (note a small group to me is 4 or less), the quality of the conversation gets dulled. There was even a 3 second bout of silence, which was weird. I know if it were just Cris and I or Rahil and I it would be an ongoing exchange.
Before meeting with everyone, I stopped by my apartment and dropped off a few things. I wrote Cris a little message and recalled a conversation I had with my other friend Kathleen who happened to go to the same high school with Cris. She asked me how I became friends with him and I told her. Just thinking about it made me really happy at how much Cris and I bonded in college and how a really wonderful friend he has been to me. He's almost like an older brother to me even though technically I'm older than him by 4 months. Today while Rahil finished giving me a tour of their house he noticed my collar was out of place and fixed it. As we were walking to the restaurant he offered his hand to help me up the steps and noticed I was wearing heals (I don't wear heals too often with jeans). Over dinner Cris told everyone how sometimes even though we've been out of college for a while, he's gotten so used to being with me that he feels as though our times together were so recent and yet it's technically been ages. It's funny how much he remembers little details of things. My friends seem to notice little things and it's the fact that they notice these little things that make me feel so fortunate to have them as my friends. It is what sets them apart from everyone else. It's what makes them so special to me.
Rahil was saying that there are very few people she can just call and meet up like there's no problem. I would have to agree. She says that each time we meet there is no awkwardness and no hesitation. There are very few people who have even one friend like that. I am very fortunate to have three. I am not a friend whore, but the friends I have are better than most would find in their lifetime.
posted by shine
at
Thursday, July 17, 2008
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