I have known my friend for years, a decade or more. Today we had lunch together – really lovely old coaching inn, Italian rustic food, complimentary bread and olive oil,  fab coffee.

What is it about eating, that makes spending time with someone so good. Years ago I found that the word companion comes from the Latin for someone you eat with. The great waiter this lunchtime would probably have known that it means literally with bread - com + panis. So even the Romans knew that eating made an event that bit more special.

But what is it that makes it different, that adds something?