The l o n g e s t dinner in the world.

Last night I had planned to meet up with Bri and Aud for dinner after they had finished in their yoga class in nearby Beijing (they told me to take the metro to a place that I had never been before) which turned out to be the cute part just on the hill below the Sacre Cour. All places here sound like they could be near Beijing as I know where that is better so everywhere feels farther away than it really is. When getting off at this stop there was a charming sign that warned, you can take the stairs but be careful, there are a lot of them.

I climbed them and I ascended again all the way up the hill to meet with them I received a call telling me that I was completely in the wrong place, which to me was kind of funny. I had to just turned around and walked down the hill, stairs and road.

They were there at the bottom with Fad and Mo and then to dinner we went, trying a cute place just around the corner but after deciding they didn't want to eat pasta because it would ruin the two hours of ab work they had done at yoga (Mo is the prof.) Vietnamese was decided.  Mo knows a great place called “fall fall” (the translation into English) which upon arrival we had to wait 15 minutes to sit. It is a tiny yellow hole in the wall kind of place which was decorated with the kind of Vietnamese trinks you'd find at a tourists' garage tag sales. The waitress a nice Vietnamese lady who had about 20 tables to serve clean and sit herself, with folks constantly coming in. Seeing this made me think that it had to be a great place, and the food would be mind blowing…which I now think was a guise. We waited 10 minutes to get our menus, another ten to place our order, 5 minutes for our drinks (non alcoholic or mixing needing) which included a bottle of Sanpelligrino, Coke Light, 2 green teas and a carafe of water. Then the wait began. 45 minutes until our appetizers and an hour till our main course. Our dishes were great, really delicious, but this perception I think was partially aided by our near starvation. We sat at 9:15 and left at midnight. It was amazing to see how the place ran. Apparently it is owned by an 80 year old Vietnamese lady (who is the chef) and speaks a little french, her assistant who is Korean and doesn't speak Vietnamese or French and  waited by this other Vietnamese woman. Together they are the dream team because they run this restaurant, and not into the ground. People are waiting outside the entire time.

I sadly have to say I didn't even describe the half of it. I didn't tell you about the french revolutionary, Fads outburst and Mo's working experience. Oh, yeah, and we all had noodles; so much for no pasta and I got home at 1:30.