Every once in a while you eat a meal that you’ll remember for a long time. This was one of them.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2017 challenge. Here’s the full list. Click on the photos for a closer look!

One of the fundraisers at Lucy’s school is an auction. This year, one of the items was an authentic Syrian dinner at the home of one of the students’ parents. Well, we can’t really walk past an opportunity like that, so we bought two tickets.

That turns out to have been a very good decision. Our hosts, Hani and Hazar, are lovely people, and had gathered a wide variety of people to dine with. As it happens, two of the families there had kids in the special-needs category in the Ridgefield school district, which is how we got the idea to move there in the first place.

Of course, we should mention the food, which was all prepared by Hani’s mother, who lives one block away from them. I honestly couldn’t name any of the dishes we ate, but every single one of them is fresh in my memory. It was all so good. Lamb and yogurt and rice and so many more things, all amazing, and matched up with some great wine.

So if you ever get a chance to eat Syrian food, do so. And if you ever get a chance to hang out with this family, drop everything and do it.