Usually something fancy and roasted, because most of my friends don't seem to make this sort of thing at home. If I'm having vegetarians over, then I might do something like stuffed portobellos, unless I've made that before for them.
My favorite comfort food:
Something with melted cheese on it.
My top 5 favorite restaurants:
I've been to lots of good restaurants, so it's hard to pick favorites, but one place where we're "regulars" is Cendrillon in New York, at least until it closed. We'll be regulars again when they open their new restaurant, Purple Yam, in Brooklyn. Favorite NYC deli--Carnegie. When in Cracow, I love Hawełka and particularly their room upstairs known as Restauracja Tetmejerowska. In London I usually try to get to Bombay Brasserie.
My most tattered cookbooks:
James Beard, _Theory and Practice of Good Cooking_; _The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery_