Chakravorty-Bose-Knežević-Kong Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our good friends Aditi and Subhayu, who arrived from Chicago on Wednesday. After cathing up with a few other Guy Carpenter old timers over lunch, the four of us really kicked off the festivities with an amazing dinner at Campagne Restaurant (kudos to Aditi for such an excellent choice!) just off Seattle's Pike Place Market. Some of us decided to try a Prix-fixe menu as part of the ongoing Dine Around Seattle event, while others ordered à la carte but either way one couldn't go wrong in the this temple of exquisite French country fare: the escargot, bathed in an aromatic bath of parsley and garlic, the plump mussels, in a savory pool of anise-scented broth, and the seasonal fruit tart with frangipane and pistachios in a sweet pastry crust topped with Mission figs and a drizzle of honey, only to name a few. And of course, the housemade chocolate Grand Marnier truffles accompaning our check!

We spent Thanksgiving Day in a traditional Knežević-Kong fashion - playing Monopoly and preparing a huge meal. The game started off nice enough although the moment Subhayu volunteered to be the banker we should have smelled trouble! Eventually the niceties gave way to fierce competition, engineering of cunning arrangements, offers of bribes and shady deals, accusations of cheating, but all in a (mostly) friendly manner of course. Aditi convinced Subhayu to hand over some of his best properties (aaaah the things we do for love!) so he folded shortly thereafter but since I had to get back to baking I decided to let him have my place, just after negotiating a rent-free arrangement with Hoon in exchange for Park Place only to have Subhayu rescind the entire agreement after taking over! The look on Hoon's face was what sent everyone into hysterics for good ten minutes straight until we were all seriously hurting and unable to continue the game.

On Friday we decided to take full advantage of the gorgeous weather and work off the huge dinner from the day before by going for a hike up to the Rattlesnake Ledge, but not before getting a caffeine fix at Caffe Ladro. Kiki was excited to have two extra people to herd up the winding trail and a clear sunny day provided a picture perfect views as a reward for reaching the top. Later we had a well deserved rest and yummy lunch at Red Mill Burgers on the way home. The same evening we attended a much talked about performance of Clare Boothe Luce's famed 1936 comedy The Women at the ACT Theatre. It was smart, funny, witty and thoroughly enjoyable, with a stellar cast and fabulous costumes!