Adventures in Dining Alone - Part I (the good)
Being single and having all of two friends in town is a rather sad situation. Hence the dining alone.
So there I was last evening, disgusted with life. The above mentioned two were respectively down with a feverish cold and out on a flight to the east coast. The intrepid eater-out that I am, I decided to treat myself to a "nice" dinner all by myself. The restaurant is a place called Amuse cafe about ten minutes from where I live. They are very well known for their small-plates which are more or less Tapas sized servings of very good Californian cooking.
I had a caramelized onion and Gruyere tart (decadent and oh so good) and some grilled octopus with salami served with a mustardy sauce and a pesto-ish sauce (very nice, but not ecstacy inducing). I could drink only a ginger vanilla lemonade (really really good - I am not that fond of lemonade normally - but this was sweet enough but with a tinge of spiciness... mmmmm) as I was driving. As an aside I am still not sure about my driving skills with even a glass of wine in me, there are perhaps stories galore there but that is for another day.
I ended up with an excellent panna cotta with strawberry sauce. This was pretty much the highlight of my day - the panna cotta was light as air yet dense and the strawberry sauce was fruity yet refreshing. Just thinking about it makes me smile today :).
The only problem with dining alone is one never knows what to do while one waits, between courses or for the check and so on. I shamelessly eavesdropped on the conversation in the next table. It was all about why the older of the two women HAD to get a porsche convertible and what her husband had to say about it. Normal Southern California dinner table small talk that is.
So that was dinner, and it came to under $40 including taxes, tips and valet. Funny thing was two could have easily eaten for about $55 or $60. Evidently there are distinct economies of scale to eating out. Unfortunately!
So there I was last evening, disgusted with life. The above mentioned two were respectively down with a feverish cold and out on a flight to the east coast. The intrepid eater-out that I am, I decided to treat myself to a "nice" dinner all by myself. The restaurant is a place called Amuse cafe about ten minutes from where I live. They are very well known for their small-plates which are more or less Tapas sized servings of very good Californian cooking.
I had a caramelized onion and Gruyere tart (decadent and oh so good) and some grilled octopus with salami served with a mustardy sauce and a pesto-ish sauce (very nice, but not ecstacy inducing). I could drink only a ginger vanilla lemonade (really really good - I am not that fond of lemonade normally - but this was sweet enough but with a tinge of spiciness... mmmmm) as I was driving. As an aside I am still not sure about my driving skills with even a glass of wine in me, there are perhaps stories galore there but that is for another day.
I ended up with an excellent panna cotta with strawberry sauce. This was pretty much the highlight of my day - the panna cotta was light as air yet dense and the strawberry sauce was fruity yet refreshing. Just thinking about it makes me smile today :).
The only problem with dining alone is one never knows what to do while one waits, between courses or for the check and so on. I shamelessly eavesdropped on the conversation in the next table. It was all about why the older of the two women HAD to get a porsche convertible and what her husband had to say about it. Normal Southern California dinner table small talk that is.
So that was dinner, and it came to under $40 including taxes, tips and valet. Funny thing was two could have easily eaten for about $55 or $60. Evidently there are distinct economies of scale to eating out. Unfortunately!
2 Comments:
methinks someone needs a date.
Erm Ani, are you asking? Jokes apart, some company (male/female /otherwise) willing to watch weird films and eat at cheap thai restaurant would be welcome.
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