turns of phrase and dinner

Went out with friends Saturday night; I’m trying to reserve one night a week to do something social, just to take my head briefly away from journalism. We went back to Szechuan Gourmet. Most of the things we ordered were excellent, but one thing that Brian ordered near the end of the meal (a dish supposedly comprised of noodles, sauce, and sauteed pork) turned out to be a mass of weirdly stretchy clear noodles and a disappointing brown sauce. Nobody liked it much, and Brian later described it as:

“Rubberbands sauteéd in gasoline and misery.”