In attendance at this meeting was Summer (host), Tom, Chris R, Lisa, Meghan, Sohrab, Mike, Dana and myself. We got things started by discussing some of the grossest things we had eaten. I can't remember what Tom said, but he professed a fondness for liver. As a child, Lisa was tricked into eating turtle soup. Summer willingly consumed alligator and Sohrab was also tricked, but into eating tongue. I observed tongue in my fridge, destined for a curry and flatly refused to eat it. The grossest thing I ate, which wasn't that gross, just sad, was kangaroo meat, which I only did because it was offered to me by Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr Bungle. Lisa, Meghan and myself all being vegetarian quickly realised that we easily avoided the gross-out factor one eliminating meat.
There was eventually some specific discussion of the book which Sohrab, Dana and I had finished, Summer having read some of it. We shared a few stories and I could soon tell that I they got more out of it than I did as they knew all about Bourdain beforehand. I figured he was some sort of TV chef and thought his name sounded familiar, but since the only TV chef drilled into my head is Gordon Ramsay, I kept reading the book in his voice in a British accent, no matter how often he made it clear that he was American. Some of the anecdotes included Bourdain's wayward bread maker, the time he blew a job interview at a steak house and his admission to being a fuck up.
We devoured some decent eats for the event with baked brie, some fanciful zucchini concoction, and fresh bread. I made a pissy effort by bringing a 5 layer Mexican dip and some garlic bread that I bought at the store on the way over.
No-one had read this month's chapter of City of Quartz so there was little discussion of that other than for Lisa to inform us that according to the book, there are more Catholics in LA than all other denominations put together. As next month will be the last month of the yearly book, Summer proposed going for gold challenging us all to read the whole book by next month. While I admire her enthusiasm (an enthusiasm I believe to be placed in the fact that she only just bought the book) I daresay I will not be participating in the challenge.
We rounded out the night by watching an episode of Bourdain's show No Reservations in which Bourdain took us around the Pacific Northwest while he sampled their wares. Sohrab, exposed his poor knowledge of food by scoffing at the idea of a vegan doughnut by assuming they would taste like nothing. Last time I checked, sugar was vegan! The show contained the capturing of some clams which looked like dongs which had me in fits. I about peed my pants when the guy peeled it's skin off and it looked like he was peeling off a rubber. Oh boy! Life is good!
Dana will be hosting next month with Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote.
Dong clam
