The Magic of a Good Meal

I love to eat.

Anyone who knows me knows that (despite my childhood ardor for Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls) I am a foodie. And I love to engage in the conversation about food, watching food shows (I like PBS more than Food Network for these), reading magazines, blogs and tweets about food, and of course, writing about food. So it's only fitting that the following statement carry its proper "weight":

I recently had one of the 5 best meals of my life.

It was on a cold Tuesday night in December, but the table was full of some of my favorite people, and the food was pure magic.

Mike Lata + FIG = magic

Now it's true -- Lata gets a lotta love around here, heck, a lot of love by more than around here. He recently sharpened his knives on Iron Chef and lots and lots of people tout him as one of the country's best chefs. But what I had on Tuesday was light years away from any recipe, any cooking show, any Iron Chef competition.

Why was it magical?

Because I didn't want to figure out what made everything taste so good. I'd never had so many flavors working together on one dish on one table where they each worked together and I didn't say -- "how did they do this?" I just wanted to eat it, savor it, and share the meal with everyone.

Happy holidays, all you foodies. Hope you find a little magic at your table ...