I need to blog about my dining experience last evening, but I'm somewhat torn about what title I should give this entry:

my friend's big, fattening italian wedding
or
goodbye, atkins diet, it was nice knowing you

We attended Dave and Nancy's nuptial festivities yesterday night. I was so overwhelmed with the sheer volume of food presented to us that I feel compelled to share with you all a blow-by-blow recap of our meal. Maybe you'll think I'm just silly but if you've never been to an Italian wedding, read on.

First they served each person a generous serving of proscuitto with melon - one of my favorite Italian appetizers. This was followed by a soup, which was then followed by a plate of pasta. Mind you, this was pasta of the cheese-stuffed variety. By the time I was finished, I was approaching my fullness quotient. We were then presented with what I thought was ice cream. Ah, dessert, I thought to myself. As Roopa put it later on, our middle class minds thought the meal was over.

As it turned out, it wasn't ice cream, it was sherbet meant to cleanse our palate. Round two began.

Salad made an appearance at our table, followed by steak with potatoes. Before we had finished taking pictures of our plates, they brought out a seafood platter. To finish it off, we were also treated to a fresh fruit platter, followed by crepes stuffed with ice cream. It was absolutely marvelous.

By then I was fit to bust, but it wasn't over yet. They set up a buffet with mussels, italian sausages, pizza and submarine sandwiches and pastries. Even more astonishing was the fact that everyone lined to help themselves to the spread. Although I was quite full and ready to call it a night I couldn't resist the pastries and joined the queue to liberate a few of them from the dessert platters.

"I thought I was full before," declared Roopa afterwards, pushing her finished plate away, "but now I'm officially full." I mumbled an agreement in between forkfuls of millefeuille pastry.

I thinking alongside the wedding favors they hand out to guests, perhaps Italians should distribute individually packaged moo-moos as well. Then no one would have to think about loosening the belt buckle or anything like that. Hi, thanks for coming to our wedding. Here's your moo-moo. Changing rooms are on the left. You're at table 30. Enjoy the evening!

A big congratulations to Dave and Nancy. Another big congratulations to Joce and Van who got hitched last weekend. Stay tuned for picture postings!