A night out with Steamy Kitchen

Last night I had the good fortune to be invited along for a little foodie feeding frenzy.

Jaden Hair of the fabulous blog Steamy Kitchen, happened to be in town touring for her new cookbook. My sometime virtual friend and newfound real-life friend Ben, from Cooking with the Single Guy, decided to pull together a few local food bloggers to welcome Jaden to the Bay Area and was kind enough to include me and the husband in the festivities.

We met at Otoro, which may just be my new favorite sushi joint in San Francisco, where we ordered a slew of goodies, from seaweed salad to monkfish liver. Along with Ben and Jaden, we were joined by Stephanie from Wasabimon and Sean from Hedonia. Rather than recounting the entire evening, check out Ben's great post, complete with awesome action shots of Jaden serving noodles, as well as a group photo in which the husband towers like a giant over the rest of us dwarfs. Really, he's only 6'2" but in the picture he looks about 8 feet tall.

Thanks again to Ben for organizing a lovely evening out. It's so fun to meet new people who share a common interest. And how often do you meet strangers and 30 minutes later find yourself willingly sharing a bowl of communal ramen, particularly in the age of pig flu? Not often, I say. It was a great night.