The resilient biking undergarment dinner

After a two-month summer hiatus, the Entrepicurean series resumed in full force on August 7. Thankfully the weather was not as hot as it had been for the previous several days, which is a good thing given that my A/C is not working. Nonetheless, for the first time in this series I decided to do the cooking the night before to keep things cool. One side effect of this choice was that I was able to participate in more conversations than I am used to, especially in the early part of the evening. This was great as I feel that I had an opportunity to have at least some time to chat with all the diners before we sat down to eat.

The guest list included (counterclockwise from the lower right) Marina Hatsopoulos of Windy Street, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Barbara McGovern of Incentive Targeting, Mike Bukhin of Tendril, Mary Chiochios of Chiochios Studio (the co-host), Amit Bansil of WireOver.com, Mona Vernon of Thomson Reuters and yours truly.

The title of this dinner reflects three of the many discussion topics that buzzed around the dining table. In a slight departure from past Entrepicurean dinners, at one point everyone was asked to say a few things about themselves, and to make suggestions for a title for the dinner. Mona suggested the resilient label because there had been several conversations about resilience, from children who grow up in different countries, to entrepreneurs, to women in Iran who are not allowed to do many things that we take for granted. Biking is a thread that was repeated several times, and in fact at one point we realized that seven of the eight diners consider themselves bikers (of the pedal variety); in fact, I believe at least two of the guests biked to the dinner. As to the undergarment... no, the dinner was not that exciting. As it turns out, Marina has recently made investments in a couple of different start-ups that have to do with undergarments, and Mona has a friend who also started an undergarment-related company, which made for lively and amusing conversations at our end of the table (much to the envy of some of friends at the other end of the table who were talking bikes while we were talking bras).

The food and drinks

The entire menu was designed for a warm summer evening, with nothing hot being served at any point during the meal. Appetizers included a variety of choices from hummus to artichoke dip and chips and salsa. The main course included a room-temperature risotto alle verdure, i.e., a risotto with mixed vegetables (bell peppers, eggplant, carrot, tomato, zucchini, onion), accompanied by a tomato salad made with yummy Campari tomatoes and mozzarella. Dessert also stayed on the cool side with a tropical fruit salad heavy on the pineapple and kiwi. The fruit salad was complemented by some delicious elephant ears that Mary brought from a bakery in East Boston.

The drinks selection was also quite summery, including a wonderful variety of fruit sodas and juices, some specialty beers, and a full complement of wines: red, white and rosé. Marina added a splash of Italian summer by bringing a bottle of Campari and a bottle of soda, with which she prepared one of my favorite apéritifs - with a glass of Campari & Soda in hand I felt like I was back in Piazza Navona. And when I got up the next morning I was reminded that Campari is stronger than it seems, especially when mixed with other drinks...