EUROPEANS & THE ART OF SOCIAL ALCOHOLISM

My boyfriend Christophe and I are currently in the midst of our private food trials (to cut down the 400 items i want to put on the menu of our Goa restaurant). Yesterday was maguru tuna tartare, steak with Roger's sauce aux morrilles (the most amazing morel mushroom and cognac recipe that was Christophe's dad's speciality), potato gratin and glazed carrots. Now i could start talking about the amazing "gucchis" from Himachal (the Himachalis people eat the mushrooms as medicine rather than a delicacy) or the over-fishing of sushi grade tuna (even though i continue to use it in my sushi). But what has left me truly mystified is how much & what varieties of alcohol we managed to ingest, with the excuse of a "dinner".
I'm slowly beginning to accept that the European view of beer and the Indian view is radically different. For Indians, its what your parents used to drink on sunday or while watching cricket & tennis on tv, drunken afternoons on the beach in Goa and for those (mostly north-indian) connoisseurs who go for the "strong" beer- instant coma. Whereas for Europeans, beer is just beer- something that can be drunk without being labeled an alcoholic at ANY time of the day or night.
So we started off the cooking process with a couple of Leffe's (ridiculously over-priced but absolutely yummy wheat beer) and some old-school Renaud. As the evening progressed and our friends (swiss and indian) arrived it was time for the perfectly acceptable "aperitif"- in other words ABSINTHE! Undoubtedly potent and refreshing in this crazy heat, it went down very easily. Steadily chugging on the beers and absinthe, it was then time for the first course. Of course we had to open a bottle of wine, it is the only polite drink at the table. By the time we were ready with the steak, a second bottle had been opened (in spite of the fact that there was one pregnant non-drinker among us). Et voila, it was time for the after- dinner "digestive"- some Abricotine (that had arrived fresh from Leysin) and some strong black coffee.
So here's the recap in case you didn't get it- beer, more beer, absinthe, red wine, apricot liquor.
And then it struck me, it was damn good fun! No wonder they take 3 hours to prepare meals and 3 more hours to eat them. Leaving aside my judgmental, 'my boyfriend is an alcoholic' attitude, I actually managed to have a great time!
Now unfortunately, we are dealing with the after effects- a screwdriver piercing through my third eye and feeling as if i'm walking on a boat. Pass the alka seltzer s'il vous plait :(