closing time

 Last stop and everything.  

I wonder what keeps people in your life, and I wonder who's going to stay in mine.

We've talked about filling niches - how friends can play many roles, but they can't occupy the same exact ones.

Foodie date, travel buddy, secret keeper, advice giver, fun and serious, same hates, same loves, same sensibilities.  Maybe we need too much.  Maybe this is why it's hard to forget who.

Maybe it sounds simplistic.  But it's like central ingredients.

Shrimp can be part of a meal landscape of Chinese broccoli and purple sticky rice.
Head-on shrimp sauteed with ginger and garlic creates a light but rich and meaty and orange-y sauce to pour over rice.  You gotta pull off the heads and suck on them before attacking the rest of the thing.  It's weird, but it's the best part.  Trust me.

Or they are found on this tiny seafood platter appetizer from City Kitchen with fried oysters and scallops.  Three of my favorite items.  Some things are better together.

Or in this tropical-esque salad of shrimp, papaya, and avocado dressed in lemon vinaigrette.  Amazingly refreshing and surprisingly satisfying.  The hardest part is making sure the cubes of avocado and papaya are similar in size to the baby shrimp.  Note: easier done with a just-ripe avocado.  However, if you use an over-ripe avocado like I did, it kinda lends itself to the dressing.

This has a little more emphasis when you're 22... as opposed to 12.