Tonight, we went out for a quick dinner and comedy show with my friend, her husband, his business partner, and the business partner’s wife. We’d never met the business partner and wife before, and although the meal and time chatting was quick, it was fun to be around new people and see what their life and perspectives are like. Unlike the last time we went out for dinner with Kaia and had a babysitter watch her, tonight’s dinner was really delicious. Jazba, which means “passion” in Urdu, specializes in regional cuisines across India, specifically highlighting street food in India’s dhabas, or roadside shacks. We shared a lot of starters and mains, with highlights being the haleem, a slow cooked goat stew with lentils and taftan bread; a Jaituni fish tikka; and a Goan prawn curry. An unexpected treat was that there were appams you could order as sides, so in addition to garlic naan and lacha paratha, we also got two appams, which were spongy, and fluffy. Everything was packed with flavor, and a number of the dishes had lingering heat that made my tongue tingle. Chris said that he liked this meal as much as he disliked the other restaurant we visited for dinner before our Guatemala trip. The only downside was that as is pretty much the norm nowadays, the meal was expensive; after all the food and alcoholic drinks, tax, and tip, it ended up being about $60 per person. And we were barely at the restaurant for an hour. This is just the cost of eating a mid-range meal nowadays that is not fast casual for dinner.

We broke into two groups because one of the women in the group was craving cannoli before the comedy show, and so my friend and I accompanied her to an Italian bakery nearby while the other three went directly to the theater. When we got there, she asked if she could get a cannoli freshly filled, and the guy behind the counter said that they don’t do that; what you see under the glass, which were pre-filled cannoli, was all that they could offer. So, she dismissed cannoli completely and opted for a lobster tail and some eclairs instead. As we walked out, she said that she refuses to eat cannoli that are pre-filled because you have no idea when they were last filled, and that it could have been so long ago that the cannoli shell was now stale or soggy. And as she said this, my face lit up. I think she is literally the only person other than myself I have met who shares this opinion with me. No one else I know has vocalized this qualm. I think we could get along food-wise.

My friend said later that this person. “is a bit too fancy with food — she wants quality stuff only!” And I responded back, well, can you blame her? Life is too short to eat a bunch of crap, and we need standards! We want food that tastes good. Why should we have to settle? I’m totally with the business partner’s wife on this!