The Dinner with ME experience

Every Dinner with ME features a party of eight: three of Megan's friends, three of Ethan's friends, and ME. The fewer people who know each other the better.

Pre-party Question
Upon RSVPing, each guest receives a single question to answer, which will be the basis for the Dessert-time Diversion.

Guests arrive and introductions take place over cocktails. (Drinking is mandatory with ME.)

Tangential Topics
Conversation meanders and eventually leads us to the point of the evening most enjoyed by ME. Every party features eight "Tangential Topics." Favorites answers are posted right here on the Dinner with ME (fabulous) blog.

Dessert-time diversions
Toward the end of each party, guests test their new-found neighborly knowledge in a special challenge devised by ME, incorporating each guest's answers to the Pre-Party Question. The guest with the highest score WINS something special...from ME.

How to party with ME

1. You receive a personalized invitation from ME, beckoning you to the next New York City hotspot deemed worthy by ME.

2. You RSVP in a timely manner to ME.

3. Once you're on The List, you receive a Question to answer.

4. Send your answer to ME.

5. Partytime.

6. Internet Fame for you and ME.

Dinner #1

Room Service
Bangkok Contemporary Kitchen
690 Ninth Ave. Between 47th and 48th St.

Moment in Time:
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 8pm

Gorgeous Guests:
Joel R.
Lauren B.
Tiffany F.
Elin E.
Mattie B.
Niyati K.
and ME.

Absentees:
Matt Damon
Ira Glass
Johnny Depp
Conan O'Brien
Kate Winslet
Matt Bomer
Bill Murray
John Stewart

Standout Cocktails:
Detox, Sex in the Bathtub and Do Not Disturb

Damn good delectables:
Corn Spring Rolls ($3.20!!), Chicken Shrimp Dumplings, Thai Fried Rice, Spicy Thai Basil with Fish

Highlights from this evening's Tangential Topics:

- What is the best/worst/craziest thing to happen to you while traveling?
While traveling to Shanghai, Ethan's "friend" got off the plane so inebriated that when he got to customs he licked the glass in front of the official's face and proceeded to steal a small airplane.

- If you could implement any new law (realistic of ridiculous) what would it be?
Niyati would like to make smoking illegal across the globe. (Tobacco, that is.)

- What new product/invention would change your life?
Joel called for a radio you can take in the shower. Once we informed him this existed, he dreamed of a mirror you can take into the shower with you that won't fog up. Maybe it will happen by 2025.

- If you had to chose between eating five gallons of Manhattan clam chowder while wearing a hooded, floor-length down parka in 100-degree weather,OR running three miles with no pants on in Central Park in 0-degree weather while being chased by a dinosaur (the dinosaur is slow so there’s no risk of death, but it is scary), which would you choose and why? (In both scenarios you are being filmed for live television and the broadcast will air on every major network across the country. And Obama will give all Americans the day off in order to watch with their families.)
Unanimously in favor of the dinosaur.

- Have you ever read or heard a quotation that immediately implanted itself in your memory? If so, what is the quotation and where did you read/hear it?
"The bigger the hair the closer to God." (Origin unknown)
"If we don't change where we're headed we'll end up where we're going." (Chinese proverb)
"When the needs of the world intersect with your talents, therein lies your vocation."
"Something Ogden Nash said."
"Acting is real behavior under imaginary circumstances"
"The wolfman cried out in the night, "Be one with the moon, be two with the sun, but don't be three with a hooker."

- What is your best “only in New York” story?
Trends ME noticed in the answers: subways, vomiting, trannies, trannies vomiting on subways.
"I was living across the hall from a tranny brothel frequented by Hasidic jews and I had no idea until the cops raided."
"I vomited in a cab and the driver loved me because I managed to stick my head fully out of the window."
"On a night that was NOT Halloween or Santacon, there were 30 vomiting, drunken, vomiting Santa Clauses vomiting outside my window. Over the next few days I ran into two of those men separately. I recognized them by the vomit smell. And the reindeer."

The evening's Dessert-time Diversion was an appropriate precursor to the Winter Olympics. Congratulations to our winner, Niyati, who scored a box of Jacques Torres chocolates! (And thanks for sharing.)

Love,
ME