On Food

I am degenerating into my usual summer anarchy, albeit with the everpresent knowledge that in three measly weeks I'm going to be getting on a plane to China and I should probably start packing at some point.  

Things I've loved about this summer so far:

• Fresh tomatoes
• Pelee Island 
• Seeing my family
• Passing out on the couch until 5 a.m. for no good reason other than I can
• Finishing two books in one day
• Having a 2.5 hour conversation with a hilarious twelve year-old girl on the plane.  I don't normally like talking to strangers on airplanes -- I like reading or sleeping better -- but this girl was amazing.  We talked about EVERYTHING:  The Hunger Games, the Outsiders, blowing stuff up for the science fair, her reading level, ziplining, Debate Class, how laws are boring but necessary, Tyler Perry, Trayvon Martin, Criminal Minds (her mom claimed it was based on true stories; the girl shook her head at me and mouthed exaggeratedly, "NO IT ISN'T), the Green River Killer, and crime in Cleveland.  At the end of this conversation she told me that her name was Diamond and that I looked like my name should be BeJewelia.  

(Chef Boy, later:  BeJewelia isn't even a NAME.
Me:  YES IT IS.  It's MY name.  It's my secret name, way down deep in my SOUL.  Just ask Diamond.
Roommate:  I am calling you BeJewelia from now on.)

•  Seeing Much Ado About Nothing one day and Despicable Me 2 the next day and realizing that they are actually really similar in that they are both delightful
• Feeling kind of tragic about food I'm going to miss.  

Let me explain.  

Pretty much if you've ever met me, you know that I love food.  I love to eat it, obviously, but also to talk about it, read about it, write about it, and anticipate it.  I have been thinking about Seattle foods I'm going to miss since approximately five minutes after I took the job in China.  Before I had a car, I would organize an entire day around getting myself to Red Mill Burgers.  I used to overdraw my bank account because I needed sushi.  

I like pretty much everything:  seaweed, sea urchin, smoked oysters, raw geoduck, elk, rabbit, anchovies, brussel sprouts, bone marrow, fried octopus balls, chopped liver, pork belly, sweetbreads, steak tartare, and pretty much any kind of smoked fish.  

(I hate mashed potatoes.)  

I make food-themed top five lists in my head semi-obsessively -- top five best fried chicken places, top five favorite types of sushi, top five meals ever in life.  

Actually, let's do one now.

My Desert Island Top Five Seattle Meals

in no particular order 

1. Lark with the 2006-2007 residents of the Marion Street House, circa March 2007.  What I remember about this meal is what an amazing payoff it was.  I saved for months to be able to afford it, putting about twenty dollars away per month until I had enough.  And the food just kept coming -- simple food, complicated food, all the food.  One of us was a waitress at a fancy downtown restaurant, and our waiter recognized her and gave us free dessert.  It was our last hurrah as roommates: an unforgettable meal that served as a cap on our footloose and fancy-free days before we all went off to different cities and our terrifying futures as Real Adults.
2. Mashiko for the joint Grebinator/Rebecca birthday bash, November 17, 2013.  Dude.  So much sea urchin.  So spiky.  So delicious.  Also memorable because of going to a karaoke bar later where there was an actual fight, duets of Summer Lovin' with the Grebinator and Rhymenocerous vs. the Hiphopepotimus with the Moorish Warrior, and then somehow I ended up jumping up and down in a nearly empty restaurant yelling the words to "Baby Got Back" into a microphone.
3. Cafe Presse, July 6, 2013.  I could really pick any time I've eaten at Cafe Presse and it would be one of my top meals, but for some reason the meal I had with Anthro!Girl here on Saturday really sticks out to me.  (This is partly probably because it was, like, two days ago.)  I had my usual here -- foie and green salad, and it was delicious and I loved every bite, and then we went back to Casa Avalon and watched Ratatouille and drank wine, which is the perfect thing to do either directly before or after you eat French food.
4. Pho Ba, any given Sunday since 2010.  The CatFarmer introduced me to 

You know what?  No.  Abort, abort, abort.  This isn't about food.  All the meals that stick out to me -- Pho Ba with the CatFarmer and the Moorish Warrior, a gathering at Casa Sutherland for a surprise birthday dinner, my first taste of fried chicken at the Marion Street House -- they're about perfect moments, confluences of food and people.  And if it weren't for the people, the food would be worthless.

Because while I love the way food tastes, what I love more is how it anchors certain moments in time for me.  Processing jury duty over an adventurous sushi meal, creating new friendships by trading dirty jokes at KFC, struggling with a roommate to bring our first ever hosted Thanksgiving together, reconnecting with an old friend over Greek food, talking for hours over hot chocolate at IHOP, angsting with my friends at a Mexican restaurant in Federal Way about whether or not to break up with my first ever boyfriend, eating homecooked meals with all the friends who've basically become family at this point: this is what I'm really going to miss.  This is what is going to hurt.

I'll make some new memorable meals in China, with some new memorable people.  I'm sure of that.  But I am equally (if not more) sure that while I might not remember the specific food I've eaten here, I will never stop missing the meals.

And this is why I make top five lists.