Timeline of a dinner part part II

120 After my second chess lesson I make it back to the greenmarket. By this time it is crowded with people who seem to be either tourists or NYU students.

140 I promptly finish my greenmarket shopping, spending much less money than I had anticipated. I also see the fish people packing up meaning that I made the right decision about an hour and a half ago. Maybe things are going my way.

145 I enter Whole Foods. After reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivores Dilemma, I shudder a little bit at the thought of whole foods. All of a sudden asparagus from California and tomatoes from Florida are not as appealing to me. I buy them anyway and die a little inside.

210 I proceed to check out at the Union Square Whole Foods.

220 I finally make it to the counter. Some middle age, vegan, hippie types almost skip me in line. The place is a zoo.

224 The clerk looks at my mushrooms and appears to be incredibly confused. She examines them further and looks at me even more confused.

“Enoki mushrooms?” I offer.

Blank stare.

She then walks away.

230 The clerk comes back and looks at me. “Are these enoki mushrooms?” she asks.

“yes” I respond. She walks away again.

235 The clerk comes back again and finishes ringing up my food. Apparently the enoki mushrooms were, in fact enoki mushrooms. I will never purchase enoki mushrooms from Whole Foods again.

315 I get back home and place the buttermilk ice cream base in the ice cream maker. It magically becomes ice cream and I now have to find something else to do.

330 I’m still not sure what to be doing so I decide to watch basketball and do a bicep workout in my room. In between sets I make a list of everything that has to be done for each course and begin to feel overwhelmed.

400 I start to clean the kitchen

415 my friend Allegra arrives. I immediately force her to chop tomatoes and basil to make bruschetta. I start chopping mushrooms and sweet onion

445 my friend Laura arrives. She likes chocolate cake so I tell her how to make chocolate cakes and put her to work. (The chocolate cakes tasted really good.)

500 My friend Aaron arrives and goes into my room to use the computer. I am chopping vegetables for mixed vegetable faro risotto.

515 Aaron volunteers to help and I tell him to clean the kitchen. I feel a little bad about this.

518 Aaron gets mad at me for being too cavalier while walking around with my Japanese knife.

523 Aaron gets mad at me for being too cavalier while walking around with my Japanese knife.


530 Aaron gets mad at me for being too cavalier while walking around with my Japanese knife.

540 My friend Scott arrives. I put him to work juicing citrus fruit for ceviche

542 Aaron gets mad at me for being too cavalier while walking around with my Japanese knife.

545 I tell Aaron to make the plum chutney into a uniform puree. He gets mad that im forcing him to place chutney in a blender and force it through a sieve into a funnel leading to a squirt bottle. (Scott will later write Aaron’s name in plum chutney script on his dinner plate to make him feel better about the effort.)

600 more guests arrive and I start to become more confused. I switch from shorts to pants so that I may look more appropriate. We will start late.

602 Aaron gets mad at me for being too cavalier while walking around with my Japanese knife.

Things will be relatively chaotic but peaceful for the next hour. No one will get stabbed by my knife.

700 Original estimated starting time is upon us. Ceviche finally goes into the refrigerator. We will not start for another hour. Guests start drinking prosecco.

720 Pretty much everything for dinner is prepared. I don’t really think everything is prepared but all the guests are here and I can’t think of anything else to be done. I tell my friends Lizzie and Brooke (who want to help out) to make the bruschetta out of the pre assembled parts.

730 We are still missing two guests. They are coming from Brooklyn so I will forgive them.

740 The last two guests arrive. I go into my room for some peace and quiet and to drink some of the Lopez de Heredia ’95 rose that I don’t particularly want to share.

800 Dinner Starts.


1230 Nine courses, 19 bottles of wine, some Johhny Walker Green label that my friend Evan hazed us into drinking and lots of dirty dishes later, dinner is finished. I think it was a success.