This is a photo of three men and a boy in a dim sum coma. The little one in the center excels at waitress flirting, taxi driver overtipping, and milk drinking.

By far, the best place to get dim sum in the DC area is Oriental East on a weekend. If you want excellent dim sum any night of the week, visit A&J in Rockville or Annandale. When I ordered a bowl of millet at A&J, I received an entire bowl full of yellow mush. I have no idea how anyone could ever finish such a huge portion. The waiter and I had a good laugh over me not being able to eat it all; I think he thought it was funny I ordered it in the first place. That said, their dim sum is good; the cucumber with garlic and the smoked chicken are favorites of mine.

But back to Oriental East … We’re going there today with the San Diego friends. Last night, our conversation moved from evolutionary psychology to tribal cultures (especially in Papua New Guinea) to social psychology to coaching to infants. Ah, I miss these friends of ours. It’s difficult to lure someone back to snowy-icy-steamy-humid-hot DC after they’ve spent a year living near the beach in sunny La Jolla. I’ll probably resort to monetary bribes.