When I was on a ship I used to go to the same resturant in Mexico every time we docked in Cozmel. They had great salsa. I went not just for the salsa but because going to the same place gave me a sense of home when I was so far away from any home I have ever known. New is exciting, fresh and sometimes a little bit of a challenge. Being surrounded by change and different experiences the human mind  and the heart starts to crave the pleasantly familiar.

I buy eight dollar dill pickles from the Sultan Center because I know the pleasantly familiar is important to have in your refrigerator. Next year I will import my own Campbell’s Vegetable Beef Soup and Stoned Wheat Thins! Even though it might add extra weight to my luggage and cost me more having the pleasantly familiar is priceless.

When I talk to good friends and family I think I have a physical reaction to talking to someone who is pleasantly familiar. Your heart beat slows, you breath easier and you guard goes down. You aren’t afraid that they will attack you with their words, the sound of their voice, their laughter and the way they love is something you love! It is more then pleasantly familiar, it is pleasantly perfect!

Last night a bunch of us went to Taste of Kuwait. An organized event where patrons had the chance to taste small portions of food from a large cross-section of dining establishments.  We ordered a sample size swiss cheese fondue from Fondue Melt Away. It was something new but still reminded me of fun fondue parties of the past. Just for the record, the food from Fondue Melt Away was delicious and delightfully presented. I haven’t been to their actual restaurant (check out the pictures here) yet but their menu looks wonderful and if their small sample of food was any indication of what you will find at their place in Salhiya then I think it might be worth a trip there!

A trip to Fondue Melt Away will be new but if I go with pleasantly familiar people and order green tea, the new will blend together nicely with the familiar, which is a perfect recipe for an enjoyable evening!

Our big moments — where we can change the world — come because so many other people have helped us, and luck has come to us. But our small moments, when no one is watching and no one cares and the only thing that makes us try again is an unreasonable belief that we can get what we want for ourselves —
those are the triumphs that we do all by ourselves.
-Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist-