Celebrating friendship

About a month ago I (Peta) headed to Cincinnati to be with my best friend Lois for her birthday and accompanying party. I’m not really big on parties but Lois and I met when we were in our twenties, when I was attending University of Cincinnati, and our lives have been deeply entwined ever since! We are both South African, have been through preganancies, children, marriage, divorce and life together. I remember what she was wearing the first night I met her, that is how entranced I was with her and remain, to this day. Lois visited us in Nicaragua a couple years ago and now it was my time to be with her in her space.

What fun to stay in her lovely condo with the incredible view of the Ohio river (below) and celebrate our friendship.

Lois & Peta

View from outside Lois’s condo, over the Ohio river

Making RAW VEGAN ~ yummy pates from macademia nuts, dates and veggies on cucumber and daikon slices for the party

Peta and Charles (tango dancer extraordinaire)

Peta and Chris (Lois’s husband, now separated but still close friends)

After the party and a few days in Cincinnati, Lois and I took a road trip and drove to Chicago where I met up with Adam! Adam is living downtown Chicago with good friends from his school days, and is working in the kitchen of AVEC (http://avecrestaurant.com/) one of Chicago’s hot and trendy restaurants with a James Beard award winning chef Koren Grieveson (Who happens to also be originally from South Africa). How fabulous to see Adam in his element, working his ass off and loving it. Adam had arranged to take Lois and I to AVEC where we were treated to the most scrumptious and memorable dinner. Of note were the creative combinations such as dates wrapped in crispy bacon in a spicy chili sauce (one of their signature appetizers), marinated white tiny anchovies on flat bread, arctic char paired with red endive, dandelions, spring onions and pea mash ~ and three different desserts as well as wine pairings for each dish. YUM!

Adam and Peta downtown Chicago on the way to AVEC for dinner

Adam outside his apartment on Van Buren right near the L train

AVEC is very minimalist and beautiful in design with the feel of being inside a gorgeous wooden sake cup

In the kitchen downstairs after dinner, getting a tour of Adam’s workspace

On to Highland Park by train to visit my parents, where Adam and his granny Bluma (mi madre) prepare a lovely dinner of salmon and fennel flavored kale.