Mushrooms and emotion

Monday night, Guillemette invited me over to view Gilles' slideshow. I was the only non-journalist. She was making a dinner to fulfill her blog apetit obligations; the ingredients were mushroom and emotion. I immediately said yes and told her not to tell Gilles, but that I was coming for the mushrooms.

Gilles had just come back from China, where he had been living for the better part of a year. I arrived late, but was still on the early side; only two other guests were there. I poured a glass of wine and caught up with Catherine. When the room was full and all the chairs occupied, Guillemette served dinner. A salad was already on the table, along with various cheeses. She brought out a mushroom and magret de canard tarte. It was delicious. The pastry was flakey, as if she had blown compressed air through the layers of dough. The mushrooms and magret were coated in cheese. I went back for two servings and piled my plate with salad. On a side table were small cakes. I took several.

As dinner was winding down, Guillemette leaned over to me. She told me that the cakes were for dessert; she was hoping to save them for later, but would make an exception in my case. Gilles set up his projector and showed four sets of pictures: one on the subway, one on a theater troupe, one on the Three Gorges Dam, and one workers coming to the city. Applause followed each set.

Afterwards, I had to take my leave. I had told Shinji I'd try to meet him at the Digital Railroad party, which I had thought was on Tuesday. Gilles said he wished he could come with me; but being the center of the party was committed to staying. I said my goodbyes and braved the hallway of smoke. I was surprised to see Pia with a cigarette in hand. She had told me she was going to quit. "Yeah, I know," she said. She leaned in to kiss me goodbye. I pulled back and joked that I didn't kiss women who smoked. "Does this mean you're not going to IM me anymore?" I said I'd have to think about it.
Posted by eku at December 14, 2005 9:46 AM