(After talking a big game about making a post every day, I dropped that ball in the second inning. I guess I’ll have to do two posts today to make up for it.)

Two nights ago, Amy and I went to the Blue Elephant, the best (and to our knowledge, only) Thai restaurant in Beirut. Our dinner was a wedding present from our friends Matthew and Mary Ann and we were under explicit instructions to order the Royal Thai Banquet for two. What a royal banquet indeed. I didn’t even know what a lot of the dishes were, but they were all good and the main attraction was seasoned chicken wrapped in banana (?) leaves.

A great time was had by all (even if they didn’t have the right beer).

I spent a large part of the night trying to figure out how to acquire one of those sweet Blue Elephant ashtrays. I considered simply asking whether I could take or even purchase one, but I thought my request might be deemed weird and refused and then I would be forever branded as “that weird ashtray fetishist” among the staff. I also considered just taking one (as I was sure they had crates of them in back…there are Blue Elephant locations around the world) and leaving a big tip in exchange for their complicity. However, I had last-minute panic about running up against classic Lebanese entrepeneurial spirit. To wit, “Despite the fact that these people just spent a large sum of money on dinner for two, I am going to harrass them over a 15 cent ashtray and thus deep-six the chances of them (or any of their friends) ever coming here again.” I’m sure it’s all in my head, but clearly a suitably complex scheme is required. Next time we go I’m going to have Amy create a distraction and then…

This is the hand-made card in which our wedding gift came. It was sitting on top of the computer monitor for a while. It has some Stella artwork…or possibly poetry…inside.

Thanks Matthew and Mary Ann!