Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.
Garrison Keillor
Today I had lunch with a good friend. It was a miserable experience; the lunch was overpriced, the portions were ridiculously small and we were waited on by poorly trained indifferent people who wanted to be anywhere but at work. Now you might say bummer or unlucky you. However luck had nothing to do with it; we always meet at the same restaurant and always have a predictably frustrating experience. It’s a chain restaurant. The power of unexamined habits never ceases to amaze me. I contrast this with a local pizza joint (it’s a mom and pop shop) that Kathy and I frequent every Sunday night. We love their salads and always look forward to a fun adventure. The owners are glad to see us and everybody has fun. Today’s poor dining experience was a wake-up call. I realized that these mediocre eating-out experiences were happening with regularity. So I made a commitment to consciously plan and find restaurants that had a good ambience and provided good bang for the buck. It’s just no fun to be on automatic pilot; life is too short to needlessly endure mediocre experiences.
This commitment inspired me to investigate further and see if we could enhance and upgrade the regular meals eaten at home. We usually have a salad with our evening meal and discovered that adding a little gourmet cheese (Maytag Blue Cheese) and experimenting with the salad dressing really enhanced the taste of the salad. We are currently enjoying a Raspberry/Framboise dressing; it’s tasty, healthy and got a fancy name. A couple of glasses of red wine is a great way to end the day but we decided to be a little bit more adventurous and see if we could upgrade the experience. We switched to Port; Port is a sweet fortified wine from the Douro region of Portugal. We had it in Portugal and found we could get it at a reasonable price at home in Minnesota. Mission accomplished as former President Bush would say.
Sometimes experiments go awry. I enjoy coffee and wondered what I could do to brew a better cup of coffee. I decided to grind my own beans and that was I good decision; the coffee seems fresher. I should have quit while I was ahead. I decided use a French Press to make my coffee. All my coffee drinking friends thought that this made the best cup of coffee ever. Maybe, but everybody forget to mention that it’s a very labor intensive and messy process. I’m too lazy and impatient to use any device that has the name French in it.
We decided to buy our produce every week at the farmer’s market. It’s a fun experience and the produce seems to be a little cheaper and a little fresher. While summer is here, it’s a shame not to eat fresh produce. So for the summer we are going to pig out on good salads, lots of corn-on-the-cob, fresh peaches for dessert and top it off with a good glass of port and a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Bon appétit.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Riley this post makes me hungry! It reminds me of our adventure with coffee, much the same as yours. We started grinding our own beans and considered growing them (can’t, not around here) . We noticed that coffee never tasted as good as it does when you percolate your own, fresh-ground beans over a campfire and enjoy it outdoors! Today we drink a coffee called Gano which has become an addiction. The first cup reminded us of that campfire coffee – it’s that good!
We do the garden thing but if we didn’t, I’m frequent the Farmer’s Market. In the summer we wonder how we enjoyed eating in the winter when things weren’t so fresh!
And you switched to port. Say no more!
Lori
Lori Gosselin recently posted..Did You See The Moonwalking Bear?
Lori,
It would seem that location is a big part of the coffee-drinking experience. One of my quests is to find the perfect setting to have my morning coffee. Right now the two finalists are: a cypress swamp in Mississippi and Sandpoint Idaho (a coffee shop with a beautiful rustic cabin motif overlooking a lake with mountains in the background. I’m sure somewhere in Nova Scotia is a place that qualifies (with all that beautiful scenery how can you miss).
Riley
riley harrison recently posted..THERE IS A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN AND THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE
I’m hungry now; but what a great story. It made me realize we are somewhat in a rut and what a great idea to make at least one meal an experience. I love the markets and fresh vegetables but do not partake in them nearly enough.
Say ‘no’ to mediocre, that’s for sure……….
Bill Dorman recently posted..How to get an invite to any party
Hi Bill,
The interesting thing is that when you head down new paths in life you have adventures not originally intended or planned. It’s really great fun to gain new info about a subject (e.g.wine and cheese) and to encounter people that are really passionate about the subject and are willing to help you out. We once encountered a young lady that was so passionate about chocolate that she moved to Paris and gave tours that visited all the great places in Paris to buy chocolate. She was from Iowa.
riley harrison recently posted..THERE IS A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN AND THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE
Hi Riley,
My French press is gathering dust in a cupboard I never go into. I use a vacuum flask pot instead of a glass pot on a burner, and that is as fancy as I dare to go: If my coffee was too good, I might just lose an excuse to get out of the house. … Although, come to think of it, it has been decades since I would spend a whole day at home. … Still, I want to enjoy my time away, with coffee as good as at home.
In a small way I am adventurous: I found a coffee shop with a plate glass wall overlooking a man made lake and I often head there in the dark –even after a snow fall– and then hang out as the sun rises, and then by the time the new day is here I have done my daily writing quota.
Dare I say, my favourite ice cream is vanilla, and my favourite donut is “old fashioned plain.”
Sean
sean crawford recently posted..America’s Decline
Well Sean my favorite restaurant is a pizza place. It’s interesting the places we find to write – I like coffee shops but Barnes & Noble book stores also work for me. I can’t write on a consistent basis at home.
riley harrison recently posted..THERE IS A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN AND THINGS ARE GONNA CHANGE