The inaugural meeting...A tavola, Darlinghurst

Ushered past the communal dining table to a court yard out the back, a tavola is more than meets the eye.

From our warmly lit table, my food loving sister declared, "I'd like to call the first meeting of Adventures with Knife and Fork to an open."

On the first Tuesday in May, my fellow adventurers and I met for our inaugural meeting. Adventures with Knife and Fork is an effort to gather our food loving friends together for some gastronomical delights. A tavola, Darlinghurst, was on tonight's agenda.

The menu written solely in Italian was recited to us by our host, who did an amazing job at not only remembering, but describing each meal in sufficient detail to have our collective mouths watering.

"Is it sacrilege to come to a tavola and not have pasta?" I wondered.

I decided it was.

Fresh papardelle with lamb ragu cooked with borlotti beans, mint, rosemary and tomatoes. Mmmmm yum!

Amongst the orders of my fellow adventurers were several of the fresh pasta dishes from the menu, including stracchi and gnocchi, an asparagus and witlof salad and of course, an Italian red.

"Who would play us in a movie?" someone declared. Amongst laughter we decided that that was business worth considering at our next meeting.

My papardelle arrived. The lamb melted in my mouth and as a hush fell over the table it was clear the other adventurers were enjoying their meals as much as I was.

What else was on the agenda...food, recipes, diets, husbands/partners/dates, fashion and trashy tv.

Arriving shortly after, at the table next to us, was the fashion week crew. While I wondered how they would cope with eating carbs at that hour I was not to be put off my desert...all in the name of research of course. "I'll have the baked alaska please". A chocolate sponge, with coffee gelato, meringue and caramel sauce.

The alaska arrived and received mixed reviews. "Is that meringue or marshmallow?" one of the adventurers pondered, prodding her fork into the meringue. All I could determine was that it was sweet gooey heaven and I was pleased that I had opted to share.

As our first meeting drew to an end we left a tavola, filled with the warmth of our first adventure and I quietly wondered...perhaps I could be Maggie Gyllenhaal?