Forked with Kelly Long

Kelly and I have sat together for more meals than I can count. We met as colleagues back in our Yahoo! days, which seems like a ridiculous way to start this post given our current relationship. Friend, confidant, business partner, chauffeur, innkeeper, reservationist, sommelier, trend hunter and laugh maker are just some of the roles she’s played in our intermingled, non-stop, bi-coastal, time starved life. (aka. Manifold). To make things even better, her below mentioned husband and I have a major food bromance in effect which has obvious “test kitchen” benefits for her when I’m in San Francisco. Aside from being the most photogenic person I know (I swear you can’t get a bad picture of her) she also one of the happiest, friendliest people our planet has ever seen. Don’t take my word for it though. She made #16 on Business Insiders “50 Sexiest Ad Execs Alive” list.  She could meet a fellow diner while on line for the bathroom and finish the night with them, their friends and her friends, three bottles of wine later in her living room. She’s a chronic dinner partier. Always up for “continuing the fun”. You can see why we get along so swimmingly. Kel and I recently shared a meal in Cincinnati of all places. Here’s what she had to say over lunch at Skyline Chili.

What do you think when i say dinnertime?

The best part of the day. Hands down, my favorite meal. Sitting down around a table with my favorite people – whether it’s my husband, my mom or six of my closest friends – it’s that hour or two in the day that my mind let’s go, the technology turns off, and I can finally be 100% present.

What is your favorite meal memory?

That’s easy, my annual December Fresh Crab Delaney dinner. We’re all Capricorns – yep, all four of us. And I happen to be the only one with a different birthday, December 30th. My mom, dad and sis unfortunately have to share their birthdays, which all land on Jan. 4th. So for mine, I always got to choose the menu. And without a doubt, it was always, and still is, fresh dungeness crab (with TONS of lemon) and my mom’s homemade cocktail sauce (Ketchup, Worcestershire, heaps of horseradish, and lemon). Growing up in the Bay Area, it’s pretty much a sin if you aren’t counting down the days until crab season!

If you could have your last meal with one person who would it be? Why?

That’s a no-brainer. My husband. Not only do we share a love for food (whether we’re hosting friends or just sharing a meal alone), he’s a brilliant cook himself (so ideally we’ll be eating a meal HE cooked). And somehow, all these years later, we never run out of things to talk about. So the conversation is guaranteed to be awesome.

What did we eat?

A bowl of chili, a 3-way and a coney. See last Fridays post for more on this mid-west mayhem.