On fruit

When asked about my favorite fruit, I’m sure I would have to say fresh cherries with strawberries running a strong second with the kiwi coming in third. Can you ever get enough fruit? I suppose we should ask Adam, but he’s not here, so we’ll move on. Apples and oranges, bananas and pineapple, I can already feel the juice running down my chin. Nature’s own fresh candy, it’s sweet and delicious, a delight to the sense of taste and smell, touch to a certain extent. Not a huge fan of mango, but it’s because I’m allergic. Grapes, watermelon, lemons, limes, grapefruit, pomegranate. Fruit is a dark object of sensuous desire, the colors and textures yearn to split and eaten, juice running everywhere, down your chin, your hands and elbows, you grab for a napkin to clean up. It’s the sugar, of course, which we crave. Eat a banana–it has one of the highest sugar contents in the fruit world. What redeems fruit are all the vitamins and minerals they contain. I also think that sugary fruit, the object of desire, is redeemed by its aesthetics and its taste. The taste of a ripe grapefruit, beautifully red strawberries, sweet white grapes, or that perfect apple are all astonishingly different and astonishingly wonderful. No one will mistake one for the other, but it is rather rare to meet someone who doesn’t like fruit. The textures are also all different: raspberries are not at all like melon, and no one will mistake a peach for a pear, in the dark or with the lights on.

On fruit

When asked about my favorite fruit, I’m sure I would have to say fresh cherries with strawberries running a strong second with the kiwi coming in third. Can you ever get enough fruit? I suppose we should ask Adam, but he’s not here, so we’ll move on. Apples and oranges, bananas and pineapple, I can already feel the juice running down my chin. Nature’s own fresh candy, it’s sweet and delicious, a delight to the sense of taste and smell, touch to a certain extent. Not a huge fan of mango, but it’s because I’m allergic. Grapes, watermelon, lemons, limes, grapefruit, pomegranate. Fruit is a dark object of sensuous desire, the colors and textures yearn to split and eaten, juice running everywhere, down your chin, your hands and elbows, you grab for a napkin to clean up. It’s the sugar, of course, which we crave. Eat a banana–it has one of the highest sugar contents in the fruit world. What redeems fruit are all the vitamins and minerals they contain. I also think that sugary fruit, the object of desire, is redeemed by its aesthetics and its taste. The taste of a ripe grapefruit, beautifully red strawberries, sweet white grapes, or that perfect apple are all astonishingly different and astonishingly wonderful. No one will mistake one for the other, but it is rather rare to meet someone who doesn’t like fruit. The textures are also all different: raspberries are not at all like melon, and no one will mistake a peach for a pear, in the dark or with the lights on.

On wine

Wine is a controversial beverage. Wherever you go, someone has an opinion, pro or con, about wine because it contains alcohol, and alcohol, for good or bad, has been the source of much pleasure and much pain throughout history. The secret to enjoying wine is to know how much to drink and when to stop, and never, I mean never, drink wine on an empty stomach. It will hit your blood like a steam roller and you will be toast in no time at all. Wine is best enjoyed with friends over food. If you are mixing your box of wine with cola and sitting alone on a park bench while you enjoy your toxic coctail, you might want to re-examine both your life and your career objectives. Wine should probably not be mixed with anything, especially if it is worth drinking. Sangría, a Spanish wine cocktail, is best enjoyed very sparingly for reasons which I think are obvious. A decent bottle of wine, white or red, to be shared by several people over dinner, is a unifying drink that can turn an average dinner into a totally delightful evening, enhancing the dining experience, bringing people together, relaxing the diners, and complimenting the food, especially if both food and wine are choosen carefully. Wine is one of those drinks that can either make your dining experience wonderful, or, conversely, make your life miserable if you have too much. There are worse things in the world than a wine hangover, but I don’t want to list any of them here because they are all disagreeable and nasty. Drinking alcohol has to be a personal decision based a series of social, ethical, religious, and moral consideration, and I admire those who make a decision and stick by it–if you don’t drink, great, if you do, understand the implications and live with them, but don’t be a high and mighty fence-sitter who hypocritally points fingers but then drinks in private. By the way, drinking in private is a sign that you might be joining the guy on the park bench with the box wine and two litre bottle of cola. This note is neither a condemnation of drinking nor is it a recommendation of drinking, but it is a discussion of wine. Many of my friends drink wine, and I have been known to sip spoiled grape juice on occasion. For me, food and win go together like Laurel and Hardy, like spaguetti and meatballs, like the Fourth of July and parades. When eating a steak (not a vegetarian, either), a nice strong glass of some velvety red wine is the perfect beverage companion, not that you couldn’t drink a glass of milk with your steak. When eating some beautiful piece of fish smothered in a clam and shrimp sauce, you must have a nice, light, glass of white wine in order to ensure a good digestive process–drinking water might make your tummy hurt. I’m not saying that water isn’t always the perfect solution–I drink plenty of water (yes, I admit it, even though water is so strong!)–but sometimes it’s not the best solution (water is a compound, not a solution, unless you dissolve something in it, and it stops being just a compound), and if you are a teatotaller, more power to you, pass the water pitcher. So sometimes I drink wine, just like the guests at the wedding in Cana.

On wine

Wine is a controversial beverage. Wherever you go, someone has an opinion, pro or con, about wine because it contains alcohol, and alcohol, for good or bad, has been the source of much pleasure and much pain throughout history. The secret to enjoying wine is to know how much to drink and when to stop, and never, I mean never, drink wine on an empty stomach. It will hit your blood like a steam roller and you will be toast in no time at all. Wine is best enjoyed with friends over food. If you are mixing your box of wine with cola and sitting alone on a park bench while you enjoy your toxic coctail, you might want to re-examine both your life and your career objectives. Wine should probably not be mixed with anything, especially if it is worth drinking. Sangría, a Spanish wine cocktail, is best enjoyed very sparingly for reasons which I think are obvious. A decent bottle of wine, white or red, to be shared by several people over dinner, is a unifying drink that can turn an average dinner into a totally delightful evening, enhancing the dining experience, bringing people together, relaxing the diners, and complimenting the food, especially if both food and wine are choosen carefully. Wine is one of those drinks that can either make your dining experience wonderful, or, conversely, make your life miserable if you have too much. There are worse things in the world than a wine hangover, but I don’t want to list any of them here because they are all disagreeable and nasty. Drinking alcohol has to be a personal decision based a series of social, ethical, religious, and moral consideration, and I admire those who make a decision and stick by it–if you don’t drink, great, if you do, understand the implications and live with them, but don’t be a high and mighty fence-sitter who hypocritally points fingers but then drinks in private. By the way, drinking in private is a sign that you might be joining the guy on the park bench with the box wine and two litre bottle of cola. This note is neither a condemnation of drinking nor is it a recommendation of drinking, but it is a discussion of wine. Many of my friends drink wine, and I have been known to sip spoiled grape juice on occasion. For me, food and win go together like Laurel and Hardy, like spaguetti and meatballs, like the Fourth of July and parades. When eating a steak (not a vegetarian, either), a nice strong glass of some velvety red wine is the perfect beverage companion, not that you couldn’t drink a glass of milk with your steak. When eating some beautiful piece of fish smothered in a clam and shrimp sauce, you must have a nice, light, glass of white wine in order to ensure a good digestive process–drinking water might make your tummy hurt. I’m not saying that water isn’t always the perfect solution–I drink plenty of water (yes, I admit it, even though water is so strong!)–but sometimes it’s not the best solution (water is a compound, not a solution, unless you dissolve something in it, and it stops being just a compound), and if you are a teatotaller, more power to you, pass the water pitcher. So sometimes I drink wine, just like the guests at the wedding in Cana.

On wine

Wine is a controversial beverage. Wherever you go, someone has an opinion, pro or con, about wine because it contains alcohol, and alcohol, for good or bad, has been the source of much pleasure and much pain throughout history. The secret to enjoying wine is to know how much to drink and when to stop, and never, I mean never, drink wine on an empty stomach. It will hit your blood like a steam roller and you will be toast in no time at all. Wine is best enjoyed with friends over food. If you are mixing your box of wine with cola and sitting alone on a park bench while you enjoy your toxic coctail, you might want to re-examine both your life and your career objectives. Wine should probably not be mixed with anything, especially if it is worth drinking. Sangría, a Spanish wine cocktail, is best enjoyed very sparingly for reasons which I think are obvious. A decent bottle of wine, white or red, to be shared by several people over dinner, is a unifying drink that can turn an average dinner into a totally delightful evening, enhancing the dining experience, bringing people together, relaxing the diners, and complimenting the food, especially if both food and wine are choosen carefully. Wine is one of those drinks that can either make your dining experience wonderful, or, conversely, make your life miserable if you have too much. There are worse things in the world than a wine hangover, but I don’t want to list any of them here because they are all disagreeable and nasty. Drinking alcohol has to be a personal decision based a series of social, ethical, religious, and moral consideration, and I admire those who make a decision and stick by it–if you don’t drink, great, if you do, understand the implications and live with them, but don’t be a high and mighty fence-sitter who hypocritally points fingers but then drinks in private. By the way, drinking in private is a sign that you might be joining the guy on the park bench with the box wine and two litre bottle of cola. This note is neither a condemnation of drinking nor is it a recommendation of drinking, but it is a discussion of wine. Many of my friends drink wine, and I have been known to sip spoiled grape juice on occasion. For me, food and win go together like Laurel and Hardy, like spaguetti and meatballs, like the Fourth of July and parades. When eating a steak (not a vegetarian, either), a nice strong glass of some velvety red wine is the perfect beverage companion, not that you couldn’t drink a glass of milk with your steak. When eating some beautiful piece of fish smothered in a clam and shrimp sauce, you must have a nice, light, glass of white wine in order to ensure a good digestive process–drinking water might make your tummy hurt. I’m not saying that water isn’t always the perfect solution–I drink plenty of water (yes, I admit it, even though water is so strong!)–but sometimes it’s not the best solution (water is a compound, not a solution, unless you dissolve something in it, and it stops being just a compound), and if you are a teatotaller, more power to you, pass the water pitcher. So sometimes I drink wine, just like the guests at the wedding in Cana.

On warm bread sticks

If I just hadn’t eaten in Olive Garden, this probably wouldn’t matter that much to me, but I was just there on Thursday night, and the bread sticks were warm. There has been much hullabaloo surrounding a polite review of the restaurant written by an 85 year-old foodie from Grand Forks, North Dakota, and it has gone viral, gaining national attention to both the writer, Marilyn Hagerty, and the nationally know Italian food chain. We used to have an Italian restaurant of some caliber in Waco, Texas, but times got tough, it closed, and Olive Garden flourished. I have nothing against the relaxed faux-Italian dining atmosphere of the restaurant. It’s better than fast food, the bread sticks are warm, the Arnold Palmers are cold and delicious, and the food is generally fresh given the heavy traffic of diners on any given day. I once got a very dry piece of lasagna that had been sitting under a warmer too long–I sent it back. I also dislike the iceberg lettuce in their salads. You can get a glass of drinkable Italian wine, the pastas are generally well-cooked and tasty. The prices are perhaps a little high for what you get, but then again, where’s the competition? This is it for Italian food in Waco unless you want fast food Italian, which is exactly that: fast, but with no amenities. I applaud Ms. Hagerty’s sincerity and honesty: most regular folks are going to be okay with eating at the Olive Garden from time to time. If you go for lunch, the soup and salad combo with a drink is less than ten dollars and you can have all you can eat. Not a bad deal at all. The wait staff is a little over-worked, but their attitude is generally acceptable, and when I have sent things back or had a special order (why isn’t spaghetti carbonara a menu item?) they have always been helpful. The wine list is also okay and you can get a decent glass of red wine for a reasonable price. Do I go out of my way to eat at Olive Garden? No, not having other choices, I don’t, but when you have a group of folks, representing a variety of tastes and needs, the place can get you out of an eating place jam in a hurry. And a freshly baked bread stick is nothing to sneeze at.