Read 'Til You Drop

Yesterday, Mark and I went to a Smithsonian presentation - Marisa Tomei, Mario Batali, and Lidia Bastianich, all talking about the importance of food and family in Italian life (including film.)  It was a fun afternoon - there were some great one-liners (mostly delivered by Mario), and the questions from the audience didn't suck (which they usually do.)  There weren't necessarily great insights into the human condition, but there were lots of confirmations of things that I believe (e.g., families should eat together to share their lives on a regular basis, fresh food grown near the home requires precious little in the way of preparation...)

All in all, a fun afternoon.

After which, of course, we needed to get Italian food.  Not the gourmet, ornate preparations of veal type of Italian food, but the giant bowl of pasta, served family style type of Italian food.  We ended up going to Il Radicchio (which used to be a small local chain run by one of the areas premier chefs, Roberto Donna, but only one outpost survives, and I don't know if Donna is still associated with it.)  It matched our desires exactly - we had all-you-can-eat spaghetti, with little gravy boats of bolognese sauce and pesto.  It was wonderful - and neither of us overdid the "all you can eat" part.  Yea!

Home then, and packing then, and getting life organized then for another 9 days of travel...

Mindy, about to head out for her annual physical