Lunch With A Pal

Is it just a "girl thing" or do men like having lunch with their guy friends, too? Women, or at least women like me, love to have lunch with a same-sex pal. We talk and talk about things we'd never bring up if there was a guy at the table. My pals listen to my rants and joys and I relish hearing about theirs, too. We chew it all over over chow - relationships, politics, families - and feel nourished in more than one way.

A case in point: lunch this week with Sari at the Townhouse Bar and Grill, a restaurant on a back street in industrial Emeryville that began life as a speakeasy and a brothel during Prohibition. More recently, they have developed what I might characterize as an upscale comfort food menu that had several tempting dishes from which to choose.

I decided on their version of the Hawaiian plate lunch. It is an appetizer on their menu, but it was plenty for lunch. A scoop of sticky rice was surrounded by little bites of filet of beef with a sweet-salt teriyaki sauce and a chiffonade of green onions, topped with a pile of bright red ginger (pickled?) that added spice and bite as well as visual punch to the dish. The sprinkling of sesame seeds finished off a lovely taste treat. Sari snapped this photo for me with her i-Phone as I had forgotten my camera.

We shared one of the best Caesar salads I've tasted in a long time, a huge plate of truly crispy Romaine hearts with a tangy, garlicky dressing. We also shared a serving of their chocolate chip bread pudding swimming in a pool of caramel sauce - a few bites of this bliss-inducing stuff is enough to bring on a serious nap need.

And all the time we munched, we talked and caught up and generally enjoyed the communion of two good friends who share a taste for comfort food and for lunching with a pal.