Some one asked me, “What do you mean by Granularity of life.”
Life is like walking on a beach and never seeing the grains of sand. Isolation
in place forces us to look at all sorts of little things we never had time or
took time to examine.
Food is good example of the grains of sand I’m talking
about. What did you eat for dinner last night? Being France I’ve a French
friend Guy who used to invite me over dinner.
Dinner is at 7:30 PM and the table was always set with tablecloth and
silverware in place. Nothing was haphazard in the preparation. The courses were
served in a leisurely fashion. The cheese course was set out early so it was
soft and warm and not straight out of the refrigerator. The two wines were
chosen according to the food that matched the taste. This wasn’t some fancy
restaurant in Paris. This was a country meal in a town of 500 souls who, as the
French say, work to eat rather than Americans who eat to work.
Since I am alone in my house here, I set the table for
myself. Tablecloth, silverware, glass for wine and glass for water and
napkin. Do you remember what your meal
tasted like? I had 9 big Medoc oysters that I shucked myself. Wrestling them
out of their shells is the first challenge. They filled a whole plate.
My vegetables were a sauté of broccoli, green peppers and
cabbage with mushrooms,added at the end.
Salt, pepper, Garam Marsala and Curry powder were in at the beginning.
Two cloves of garlic squeezed through the press topped off the vegetables. A
salad of Batavia lettuce with cherry tomatoes and avocado dressed with olive
oil, Balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard was the last course. My wine is limited
to one glass and I used a local Cab/Merlot blend.
Why only one glass you may ask? A year ago, in February I
felt like I weighed too much, so I went on a keto diet. We have always heard, “ we are what we eat”, and I was too much what
I ate, so I dieted and lost 45 pounds. I was determined to keep it off and
coming to the land of wine and great bread was a real challenge. Portion
control has been tough, but I weigh today what did when I arrived on February
2.
When I sit down to the meal, I laid out above, I used to eat
like a Hoover vacuum sweeper. Now I follow my mother’s rules, sort of. “Chew
each bite 50 times. Then swallow.” I
found that I tasted what I cooked. My body and brain also had time to tell my
mouth that I was full, so I didn’t need more. By the way, if you eat oysters
slowly you taste and feel some of the sand, they grew up in.
Dessert can be fruit or pastry. I’m told that French women often
take one bite of a cookie and that is it.
Not 2 or 3?
I’m going for my
afternoon walk before dinner.
