pictures of our dinner will be posted here when i receive them. for now, know that darryl and mihaela, kitchen co-adventurers, produced for our dinner last night:

miso-marinated pork belly roast, sliced and attractively arranged (like an open fan) by darryl, with a light sprinkling of chili flakes across the middle. accompaniments: roast figs, asparagus, boiled potatoes with butter and parsley, and a salad of radishes, cherry tomatoes, walnuts and arugula. the bergamot-orange iced-tea was darryl's idea.

darryl tells of how the professor he is researching for this summer suggested he do a project on a certain french chef who killed himself after being chastised by louis xiv for a poor meal. this is a true story, darryl says, and mentioned in the physiognomy of taste. we agree we like the story, but, i say, i will have to have von confirm this. how is von more qualified than me? huffed darryl. me: because you could be making it up whereas i know for sure that he has read his brillat-savarin! so then darryl recaps some of von's thesis for mihaela and encourages her to go to lamont to read it, whereupon i keep very quiet because i haven't, and chip in with the parisians and their begonias, as being vaguely germane.