“Table for one, please,” I told the hostess with the seemingly genuine smile. My pseudo nonchalance in my request was buoyed by the sight of two other single female diners ahead of me in line.

I followed the hostess to a table whose location I wouldn’t truly note until I was sipping my first cup of non-complimentary Jasmine tea.

I don’t dine alone often. Mostly because I like to look at/try other people’s food. And um, to have insightful, interesting conversations with said people, too, yeah. But a couple of weekdays ago, when I knew I would be downtown during lunchtime—an unusual occurrence—I did. (After getting ditched by Tool for an at-home, camera-equipment delivery, and Cathy for preschool pick-up duty of The Candy Sniffer Extraordinaire.)

My natural nosiness didn’t allow for much self-consciousness of my single-diner status, though. No, I was too busy taking in the restaurant’s layout and decor (this Chinese restaurant? Airy and spacious, with dark-wood tables), wondering what servers could be chatting about for several minutes there to the side (no idea), and if the diners to the left of me were co-workers (probably). Oh, and I also noticed that the temperature inside the restaurant was a peacoat-shedding 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only was I seated next to a column with a thermostat attached, my table location was also a much-traveled pathway for the many servers.

One of which brought me my food 20 minutes after ordering…

Shanghai Rice Cake With Chicken.

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Oh my God, how is it possible to gain 5 pounds overnight? Actually, I don’t know if this is true of myself and last night, and I don’t really want confirmation of what my belly is telling me. In my belly’s defense, however, those calories upon calories were worth it.

I dined with my large family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, many cousins, and something-in-laws last night. We had a multicourse-style set meal commonly offered at Chinese restaurants, and like those served at both Chinese and Vietnamese banquet weddings. I got excited pretty much as soon as I saw the table set-up with mismatched yet attractive plates…

and a real ceramic teapot because let’s face it, you don’t always see one in a Chinese restaurant…

and pretty bowls. Gosh, I can be such a girl sometimes. (I think I prefer my inner 12-year-old boy.)

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The first 5 randomly selected chopsticks winners who entered by the deadline are:

Lilly, Mel J., DD, Geremy, and Sonya!

I’m impressed that no one rated themselves below a 5 and several said 10. I’d rate myself at a 9—I’m not confident that I could get the last grain of rice like Sonya. And proper technique, what’s that? Seriously.

Winners, please email me (contact at asianaisle dot com) your addresses as soon as possible. And happy usin’—which I mean in a 100% legal way.

You’ve heard me mention TAMS in recent blog posts. It’s mostly because she’s a dear person in my life, even more so than Betty Crocker, and we share a love of food, eating, food, and eating. TAMS is my BCF (Best Cousin Forever), the one that, as children, I used to pick and pretend to stir-fry leaves with in her backyard. And also the cousin whom I would make egg rolls with out of squares of toilet paper. Rest assured, we didn’t eat either of our creations because that would’ve been weird.

Anyway, after having many years of friendship between us, I thought TAMS knew me well. Yet she somehow got it into her head that my interest in food includes cooking. Why else would she explain to me how to make Chicken Tikka? I set her straight when I said, “There’s an Indian restaurant down the street from me that makes a great version.”

Which we didn’t actually go to together. Nope, we instead hit up the one located close to the farmers’ market where we each bought Jerusalem Artichokes/Sunchokes for the first time, for roasting. (I cannot ‘cook’ well, but I am fairly proficient at tossing various vegetables in olive oil and salt, with maybe some fresh herbs, and putting the easy mess into an oven.)

The above tandoori appetizer plate contained Samosa, Chicken Pakora, Chicken Tikka, and Beef Kabob, served with cilantro and tamarind chutneys.

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