We’ve spent the last week in Maine — a place I would happily spend a lot more than a week. We heard from a poet/seaweed harvester who chants along with the sound of his boat motor as he rides out to sea, and a lobster fisherman who is quite pissed off at all the regulations. And now we are gearing up for our visit to NYC and the big dinner we are having at Prune. I’m excited and nervous. We’ve invited fans, friends, and a bunch of press — its sort of like a New York coming out party and that is crazy. On top of all that, its 9/11. 10 years ago I moved to NYC a few days before the Sept 11. It seems strange to have a dinner on that day… but people have to eat and celebrate life and learn, even on the days with bad memories. Perhaps it is even more important to live life on those days. And I guess New Yorkers feel the same as the dinner filled up so fast. On Saturday we’ll begin to prepare for the 150 or so folks descending on Prune. It will be fun to enter another kitchen. Over the past 4 months, we’ve cooked in a lot of homes, at farms and in restaurants. Its always exciting and difficult to enter someone else’s kitchen, find their pots and pans and cook a meal. Their tools, cleanliness and ingredients are windows into their lives. Mirra and I have talked a lot about how we are shopping for lifestyles, attitudes and places to live as we traverse America… perhaps it is kitchens too.