In my many travels around the city, I have built a mental catalogue of places that look like places I should someday visit. There's an Italian place on Bleeker street, the Indian restaurant around the block from where I live, and GoBo--"Food For The Five Senses"--on 6th Avenue near NYU.

Last night was a reunion of sorts. I haven't seen Jen H. in years and she and I were close as close can be in college. There's also Lisa (who I haven't seen enough of since I started school) and Annette who I'm not sure if you've met yet, but she and I are going into business together some day. I suggested it last night when she said she wants to go to business school. I'd tell you my business idea but you might steal it. All I'll say is that it involves large vibrating radishes.

Anyway, we started our walk in Chelsea and headed down towards the Village. On the way we saw KYAN from Queer Eye. I wanted to ask him about my shaving technique but he looked preoccupied. We continued on our journey.

Eventually someone said, "Dudes, where are we going?" It was Ashton Kutcher. How did he find his way into our group?

Someone realized that two of us out of the four were vegetarian (Lisa and Jenny) so I suggested GoBo--"Food For The Five Senses"--which was close to where we were standing and served vegetarian cuisine. "For the Five Senses."

Ends up Lisa's been there before TWICE. She was worried because she'd had one really positive experience and one really negative experience. The negative experience happened on her birthday. But she was ready to try it again. We would be there for her.

From the street, the place looked to me like a cheap counter-service place with plastic forks and knives and large red trays. How wrong I was. Inside, this place was fancy--with cool funky decor (large square light fixtures over every table) and a tranquil Eastern vibe.

The hostess was incredibly accomodating even though we didn't have a reservation. Here's Jenny and I on one side of the table:

And here's Annette and Lisa:

We were all very hungry. Three of us ordered bubble tea. Have you had this yet, my Amateur Gourmet reading audience? It's quite fantastic:

Let's see--from left to right there's passionfruit, black tea and kumquat teas with tapioca pearls. The large straws allow you to suck up these gelatinous little balls. At first this was fun, but I quickly grew tired of it. The straw was humongous. Sometimes 80 pearls would clog its artery and I'd have to use my knife and fork to perform bubble tea straw bypass surgery.

For an appetizer, we ordered yam and yucca fries:

And some kind of dumplings with tofu cheese in them:

The idea of tofu cheese grossed me out, but it actually tasted really good. You know, now that I think about it I think GoBo may have been VEGAN food which is all the more impressive since that would preclude the use of eggs and milk in preparing many of these dishes. Let's take a moment to pause and reflect on this accomplishment.

*Cue Enya's Orinoco Flow*

*Kill the Enya*

For my entree, I ordered ginger glazed shitake mushrooms on greens:

Terrific. Great textures, great flavors. We quickly stabbed our forks into each other's food. Jenny got a killer butternut squash risotto. Annette got nori (?) wrapped tofu (?) that was tasty and Lisa got something in something something that tasted really good.

When the check came, I grabbed it and opened it up and said, "If anyone can guess the total dollar amount, I'll buy your dinner."

Shockingly--and I mean this is truly shocking since there was no way she could have seen it from across the table--Annette said, "94 dollars."

She was DEAD ON. I fell out of my chair. Paramedics rushed me to the hospital and Annette had to pay for MY dinner. I highly recommend this technique should you ever lose a game of "how much did dinner cost?"