Well Fed On the Town

More than five years ago, on one of our earliest dates my new boyfriend, Shawn, and I went to a popular Chinese restaurant near the Barnard College campus in New York. It was a place that I had been to before with friends and enjoyed so I figured he might too. On this particular day, we were seated at a tiny table for two in a long row of tables for two, next to a vision-impaired man. He had ordered fried rice, something Shawn loves. Throughout the meal, the man exclaimed about the deliciousness of the rice.

After finishing one plate, the man called on his waitress to bring another (it really was good fried rice). Then he turned to Shawn and asked him if his waitress was beautiful, “because she sounds beautiful to me.”

Shawn didn’t know what to say. He was more of a small-town guy who wasn’t used to New York’s packed restaurants where patrons sit nearly on top of each other. He finally said yes, much to the man’s delight.

We shared many smiles that day and enjoyed our meal almost as much as we enjoyed the man sitting next to us, whose sheer enthusiasm and zest was somewhat contagious.

It’s been more than five years and much has changed since then. Shawn is now my husband and we have a son, Will. But no matter how much time passes, I still think back to that restaurant with a smile and feel the same gush of warmth I felt then. And to this day, Shawn recalls that particular meal as one of our best dates ever.

Unfortunately, the restaurant has since been closed to make way for Columbia University’s expansion so we cannot revisit it.

Food and memories often intertwine in our consciousness like this.

Good memories and good food come together in a divine remembrance.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Well Fed On The Town is holding a special blogging event. Write a post on your blog between now and Feb. 13 highlighting a particular restaurant and the circumstances that made it special for you and yours. Be sure to link to Well Fed On The Town from the post. Then send the permalink to sarahDOTcaronATgmailDOTcom anything before 8 p.m., EST on Feb. 13 to be included in our Love Bites round-up on Feb. 14.

Don’t have a blog? Email your story and we’ll include it here.