This weekend will mainly be spent eating (or waiting for the next course)

We are off to New York on Saturday to celebrate Bruce's 30th - all very exciting as it's our first off island trip and I haven't been shopping for three whole months. Today we had our pre-dining email from Eleven Madison Park reminding us that we will be having an "extended tasting menu" and that dinner will last approximately 210 minutes...

Last time I sat through quite such a lengthy dinner with Bruce was on our honeymoon at Ossiano in Dubai and I found it incredibly frustrating that you basically had to wait 15 - 20 minutes for each mouthful of food. I was sorely tempted to ask if they would mind bringing three courses at once. Naturally, Bruce loved it.

So, anyway, I've learned my lesson regarding excessively long "dining experiences" so here are my top tips for getting through it:

1. Have a reasonable lunch... it might be a long meal, but it's unlikely to be filling for at least the first 120 minutes
2. Store up some conversation topics... 210 minutes is a really long time
3. Ideally, go with more than one person
4. Wear a comfortable dress (I made that mistake last time)
5. Ditto with shoes
6. Wear a watch so you can check how you're doing for time

Bruce assures me that Eleven Madison Park will actually be amazing, but, then again, me agreeing to sit through it without complaining is his 30th birthday present (plus he gets 45 minutes in a huge board game shop in NYC) and let's not forget that he loved Ossiano anyway!

Apparently Eleven Madison Park do magic tricks at your table and, at the end of the meal, they leave you with a bottle of cognac... how bad can it be?!