Fri, Sept 19 - Warszawa

9.09am - plain coconut yogurt w/ walnuts, flax seeds, hemp seeds, blueberries, at work.12.36pm - 1/2 a bland turkey club sandwich and some lousy, card-boardy garlic French fries that all the garlic in the world couldn't save, at the nasty, smelly and over-priced Damon & Pythias in Westwood, with Ritesh.

1.04pm - Ritesh's cobb salad, at Damon & Pythias. As thoughtlessly thrown together as it looks. Will so never go back to that place.

1.52pm - ice cream sandwich, just to erase the bad memories from lunch, back at work. Didn't really help. Plus there's hydrogenated oils in this.

3.04pm - thankfully, Caroline is back from France and brought some chocolate...

7.36pm - and thankfully, Greg and Phinney took both of us out to Warszawa for Ritesh's birthday - this totally saved the day! Thanks, guys!
Warszawa is Polish restaurant in Santa Monica, somewhat divey looking from the outside but a real gem on the inside. It's basically someone's lovely old house that was converted into a restaurant, so there's several little rooms with tables, and it all has a very homey, old-world charm to it. They also have an outside patio with a bar and a big-screen TV, totally different vibe, and this bar seems to be more popular, at least amongst the crowd who writes online reviews - leading Ritesh and me to believe we'd have a very mellow, cheap dinner at a low-key sports bar. Instead, to our surprise, we're finding ourselves in a really nice restaurant, white table cloths and all. We were very impressed, and the food was outstanding. In fact, Greg and Phinney are planning on having their rehearsal dinner there! Can't wait...

7.45pm - bread and olive tapenade, at Warszawa, with Ritesh, Greg and Phinney

7.50pm - the grilled sausage appetizer, with an amazing horseradish sauce, shared w/ Ritesh, Greg and Phinney

7.50pm - the mixed pierogi appetizer plate - there were some w/ braised beef, some w/ cheese, onion and potatoes, and some w/ mushrooms. Again, shared w/ Ritesh, Greg and Phinney.

7.55pm - the wine we were having, a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from New Zealand. The menu promised guava undertones in it, and we could actually taste them, so we were chuffed.

8.09pm - my "Bigos", a Polish hunter's stew w/ lots of cabbage, different kinds of meat and sausage, plus some mashed potatoes, peas in the pod and carrot puree. Loved it!

8.09pm - Ritesh's stuffed cabbage, with a tomato sauce and the same sides I had. And I loved this even more than I loved my dish! Will have to have this again, or learn to make it at home. Ritesh went to high school with a guy from Romania whose mother used to make this a lot, so hopefully we can get her recipe!

8.09pm - just for dramatic effect, as I didn't actually try this - this is Greg's half duckling, with a knife sticking out, and some cinnamony apple-plum compote.

8.44pm - dessert No.1: a chardonnay poached pear w/ two sauces, vanilla-cream and I think cassis, very nice.

8.44pm - and this is Phinney's favorite: a crepe filled w/ lemon ricotta, served warm with some hot raspberry sauce. She loves this so much, I'll have to try and reproduce this next time they come over... doesn't seem like it would be that hard.

10.05pm - wait, we're not done yet! We cracked open some of the amazing aged sipping Tequila Ritesh got from his brother Prashant for his birthday, and we got to try some of Delphine's mind-blowing and highly addictive home made spicy maple walnuts, at Greg and Phinney's.