Five Years

I moved to New York on January 8, 2007. No job, no friends, and basically no clue about what I was getting myself into.

Tonight, five years after starting this no-longer-new life of mine, I shared a tasty North Carolina-style barbeque dinner at The Cardinal with two of my good friends. Everything we ate was excellent, from the moist beef brisket to the flavorful mac and cheese to the juicy pulled pork to the subtly sweet bread pudding. (And that's only half of what we ate!) Yes, it was quite the feast. Should I have commemorated this anniversary with something more typically "New York," like pizza or a deli sandwich? Maybe. But to me, more than anything else, New York signifies delicious food from all over, eaten with people from all over. So I think my dinner was very fitting.

If I could, I would grab your hand, and take you to every place I've ever loved to eat from these past five years so you could taste a bit of what my life has been like. We would grow fat and tired and broke, but it would be glorious.