I love having dinner parties. It is always so satisfying when people really like the food you cook them. I also think it makes me happier to eat with a big group. When I was growing up, and still when I go visit my family, we had dinner together at the table every day. Then in college, I lived in our campus's co-op house, where it was pretty much the same way. Meal times have always been very lively for me, full of interesting conversations, stories, laughter and joking. After cooking, shopping, eating, cleaning, and planning our lives together, for years, my housemates at the co-op become my dearest friends in all the world.
It is a bit sad that in graduate school this has changed very much. As this blog documents, I've shared some very special meals with David. But just as it has gotten harder to make friends in general, it has become rarer to share dinner with the group of friends I do have. It has taken much longer to get to this point than in earlier episodes of my life, but the friends I have made in my two years in grad school do mean very much to me. So it was a wonderful to share such a delicious evening with them yesterday. We had an arugula salad with almonds and lemon vinagrette, the homemade pumpkin tortellini I mentioned earlier with petite peas, pancetta, and lemon cream, and we finished it off with another cheese board from Capone's. This time we had an excellent semi-hard peccorino toscano, a very affordable, but just o.k., goats-milk brie, and a truly excellent italian cowsmilk that I just can't remember the name of. It was really creamy with a soft rind and pronounced flavor.
I remember good meals for a very long time, what we ate, who was there, what the occasion was. Eating (and drinking) with people is how relationships get built and my memories of these relationships are embedded in the memories of the meals we shared. I think this meal will stick with me.
It is a bit sad that in graduate school this has changed very much. As this blog documents, I've shared some very special meals with David. But just as it has gotten harder to make friends in general, it has become rarer to share dinner with the group of friends I do have. It has taken much longer to get to this point than in earlier episodes of my life, but the friends I have made in my two years in grad school do mean very much to me. So it was a wonderful to share such a delicious evening with them yesterday. We had an arugula salad with almonds and lemon vinagrette, the homemade pumpkin tortellini I mentioned earlier with petite peas, pancetta, and lemon cream, and we finished it off with another cheese board from Capone's. This time we had an excellent semi-hard peccorino toscano, a very affordable, but just o.k., goats-milk brie, and a truly excellent italian cowsmilk that I just can't remember the name of. It was really creamy with a soft rind and pronounced flavor.
I remember good meals for a very long time, what we ate, who was there, what the occasion was. Eating (and drinking) with people is how relationships get built and my memories of these relationships are embedded in the memories of the meals we shared. I think this meal will stick with me.
2 comments:
Dearest Gustavo, this is a meal that will stick with all of us for a long time -- I ate enough to last me for weeks! The food and company were both magnificent. Thank you for putting on such a splendid evening!
ah the "food memory" as Chris likes to call it. The good ones stay with you so long, the great ones you always remember. It's also why most of our family photos are around the dinner table, and many times of just the food. I love this blog. Just seeing the meals warms me.
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