While it isn’t necessary that an excellent visit with friends and/or relatives has at some point a rendezvous with exceptional food, it certainly doesn’t hurt. We’ve all heard the facile distinction between those that eat to live and those and live to eat. This is a false dichotomy.1 I know a number of fine people who would put themselves in the former category, but every one of them, when placed in a situation where good food and good wine are flowing, unerringly find themselves wrapped up in conversations and conviviality that they would have missed had they instead been fed with American-cheese-product sandwiches. They may not acknowledge—or even know it themselves—and would claim that all the good times were the result solely of the interactions of the people present. But they’d be wrong. Good food and good wine can’t help but make you feel good. The converse, is also true.
All this by saying that I had a couple of great meals this weekend with family. Ten Penh on Saturday was a revelation. There wasn’t a single dish among the 6 appetizers, 6 main courses, and 4 desserts that we wouldn’t order again. Restores my faith in fusion cuisine. Sunday found us back at Mark’s Duck House, where we ordered…wait for it…Peking duck. Oh, and Hunan crispy whole tilapia (right out of the tank), Chinese brocolli, and Singapore noodles. This is a well known place in Northern Virginia and worth the trip. Well, perhaps not from Boston.
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1There is only one true dichotomy. There are those that dichotomize and those that don’t.