the food was better than the conversation

in part because the food was good enough, and plentiful enough, that we were in a post-dim sum torpor, not inclined to much in the way of scintillating wit or clever analysis. Also, to be fair, those who were awake were going into reasonable detail on subjects where I lacked background, notably Alan Moore's recent work.

The food part worked better than it would have a few months ago, I suspect. I managed to bum a ride and thus dash out in time for dim sum, after sleeping badly and (thus) latish. So B and K, my ride, and I were on time, and even early. When nobody else had shown up by 20 minutes after the stated time, we asked for a table for six, hoping the rest of our group would arrive before the table was ready. They didn't.

And the staff calmly showed us a table, set for six and with seven chairs. At 12:15 on a Sunday. Convenient for us, but can you say recession? The other three did show up, a bit later: two when we'd gotten to the point of not being especially hungry anymore, able to take our time and pick out the nicest things, and the last while all five of us were working on dessertish things. There wasn't as much variety as usual for KB Garden, probably also a sign of slow business: you don't bring out lots of weird stuff if it won't sell. But we tried a dessert we hadn't had before, and liked it enough to get a second helping when that cart came around again: little baked buns, filled with a mixture of things, notably thousand-year-old-egg and candied ginger.

Then, when we got to Moshe's, Kevin pulled out all sorts of neat things from Trader Joe's, and Danny had brought a sack of fresh bagels. And Edie brought home-baked cookies. All of which reinforced the lazy-Sunday feeling, because we weren't doing much else, so why not have another bite of something delicious? And, having done that, we had no energy for much else.

On my way home, I got to the bus stop just as it was starting to drizzle. A steady rain for the bus ride, and a heavy one by the time I got to Inwood. Lacking an umbrella, I called Andy from the subway station and asked him to put the kettle up. Came home, stripped off my wet clothes and got into my bathrobe, drank tea, and sneezed. A night's sleep seems to have fixed that, though.

the food was better than the conversation

in part because the food was good enough, and plentiful enough, that we were in a post-dim sum torpor, not inclined to much in the way of scintillating wit or clever analysis. Also, to be fair, those who were awake were going into reasonable detail on subjects where I lacked background, notably Alan Moore's recent work.

The food part worked better than it would have a few months ago, I suspect. I managed to bum a ride and thus dash out in time for dim sum, after sleeping badly and (thus) latish. So B and K, my ride, and I were on time, and even early. When nobody else had shown up by 20 minutes after the stated time, we asked for a table for six, hoping the rest of our group would arrive before the table was ready. They didn't.

And the staff calmly showed us a table, set for six and with seven chairs. At 12:15 on a Sunday. Convenient for us, but can you say recession? The other three did show up, a bit later: two when we'd gotten to the point of not being especially hungry anymore, able to take our time and pick out the nicest things, and the last while all five of us were working on dessertish things. There wasn't as much variety as usual for KB Garden, probably also a sign of slow business: you don't bring out lots of weird stuff if it won't sell. But we tried a dessert we hadn't had before, and liked it enough to get a second helping when that cart came around again: little baked buns, filled with a mixture of things, notably thousand-year-old-egg and candied ginger.

Then, when we got to Moshe's, Kevin pulled out all sorts of neat things from Trader Joe's, and Danny had brought a sack of fresh bagels. And Edie brought home-baked cookies. All of which reinforced the lazy-Sunday feeling, because we weren't doing much else, so why not have another bite of something delicious? And, having done that, we had no energy for much else.

On my way home, I got to the bus stop just as it was starting to drizzle. A steady rain for the bus ride, and a heavy one by the time I got to Inwood. Lacking an umbrella, I called Andy from the subway station and asked him to put the kettle up. Came home, stripped off my wet clothes and got into my bathrobe, drank tea, and sneezed. A night's sleep seems to have fixed that, though.