Done Waiting

This is Bruce Ballet, a Frenchman in Daytona. He has cheffed at and owned restaurants in Provence. But decided to sell them off and come to the US so he could play golf all week and work as a waiter at my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant - Leanh's (where I only order the Vietnamese dishes because although Leanh is Chinese by lineage and Vietnamese by birth she has lived in Daytona since she was 6 and prefers making Italian - you are following this, right?) three days a week for "fun". He is delightful - charming, witty, great to look at and fun. So it was easy, if Bruce was there my friend Mike and I would just sit back, tell Bruce to feed us and wait for the parade of dishes - sometimes on the menu and sometimes not - to come out of the kitchen. (My birthday dessert this year was a round pineapple cake with fried bananas standing all around it in a strawberry coulis. It strongly resembled Stonehenge flooded during a red tide. Leanh came in just as Mike and I were about to devour the solstice stone and shrieked "What the hell is that?? That isn't on the menu!! Must be Frenchie at work!") You are following this, right? Well, all good things end. Tonight was his last night. He has divorced his wife (an American lawyer) and sent his daughters to France for a short summer break with his parents. He leaves tomorrow to move to Connecticut to move in with the new girlfriend (an American lawyer - at least he's consistent!) It is SOOOOOO FRENCH!! You are following this, right?