What did you eat last night for dinner?

Fabienne, I wish I had your dinner instead of mine. Hot & Sour soup Chicken & Broccoli w/ an orange sauce that I did not like over Brown Rice Michelob light

Roasted Chicken Beef Noodle Soup Strawberry Shortcake 2002 Arcadian SLH Pinot Noir

Spaghetti with meat sauce Green salad Glass of milk Bradford

Dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso (Georgetown location, not quite as good as Dupont Circle location for some reason): tuna and white bean salad pizza (half spinach/onion/mushroom, half scallops) glass of red wine biscotti dessert wine

I cooked a Jamacian jerked pork -- a big ole' pork shoulder slathered with homemade jerk sauce. Trinidad-style rice and peas on the side, doused with blistering Matouk's hot sauce, also from Trinidad and made with Scotch Bonnet peppers. Had a salad of boiled breadfruit, boiled chayote, boiled green bananas, avocado and dark leaf lettuce. Desert was a Partagas Series S Preferido and a glass of Old Fitzgerald 12-year-old Very Special bourbon with a few drops of water swirled in it. MMMM. Sometimes when I'm really in that Caribbean mood I'll curry up a goat and put on the soundtrack from "The Harder they Come, the Harder they Fall."

Sliced roasted beef (the tender part along the spine) with eggplant, pesto sauce, roasted pinekernel nuts and 'ekblad salad' (oak-leaf salad ?). Sorry - I don't have the vocabulary to do this justice. A bottle of Spanish reserva followed by Chianti Classico (we had a dinner guest). Two glasses of 17yr old Suntory whisky - turned out to be one too many B

I went to Father's office in Santa Monica for the best burger in town. the burger is dry-aged beef with gruyere and maytag blue cheese and comes dressed with spicy arugula and applewood-smoked bacon and caramelized onions. also ordered a side of their sweet potato fries and topped it off with two heffes. good stuff.

Was the Chianti served with the roast beef, or after? I would have thought it was light for roast beef? Was the spanish wine a rioja? I guess it could have been good enough for that.

stu, what does the next generation eat when you are eating all the spicy stuff?

We had the Spanish one with the dinner. It was a Montecillo reserva '98 and it turned out to be a good match. Not too oaky as some Riojas tend to be - often there is not enough fruit to support all that oak and they feel hollow. This was actually a bottle that our guest brought so I guess we got lucky. The chianti came towards the end of the meal and we finished it sitting and chatting at the table. This is often the best part of a dinner party - before everybody stands up and goes to the living room. It's so much nicer to chat around the table. Bjorn

Baked farfale with four cheeses (padano, mozzarella, edam, gorgonzola) Baby greens salad Chocolate malt cake (a nigella recipe)

Bjorn: Sounds like a good meal...

I only cook like that when I am alone. Neither the wife nor kid can tolerate the taste of that, or even the smell for that matter. I'm staying at my house in Florida right now on business, so I'm living it up while I do so.

I went to a local chili restaurant and had Chili Bubba: Corn bread, chili, onions, cheese, sour cream. So good. I had half and half chili. Half vegeterian, half texas (all meat). So good. Oh, and like 3 iced teas.