Monday, January 20, 2014

To Eat on a Grey Winter Day


Eat grapefruit, that carnal pink fruit that one must rip apart in order to enjoy. Notice each juicy aril popping in your mouth; notice the slight bitterness left on your tongue that makes you appreciate the next sweet bite.

Eat a farm-fresh egg cooked simply, yolk runny, white just set. Stare into the unctuous sunshine upon your plate and imagine that the sun in the sky will take the yolk’s cue and be so bold tomorrow.

Nibble on herby olives, packed with rosemary and thyme and lemons and peppers. That little fruit has come a long way from being a hard, bitter thing hanging off of a silvery branch. Perhaps it has soaked in the Tuscan sun, or has drunk Greek rainwater. Perhaps this next one will implore you to close your eyes and travel to its origins.

Drink strong black coffee in a big mug for both of your hands to hold. No sugar, no cream, just deep topaz liquid sliding down your throat and warming your body. The farmers toiled in the heat to produce those beans, and the roaster kept a shrew eye upon them. That which you are drinking is the end product of life-long business, of historic origins thousands of years old. You are sipping time. It invigorates you.

On a grey winter day such as this, eat food guiltlessly, passionately, slowly to savor every layer of flavor. Eat juicy foods that muss up your shirt and stain your fingers, foods that burst between your teeth. Eat brightly colored foods so that the dreary air outside is counteracted by the joy you are relishing, spots of rainbow on your plate. Dare that grumpy winter to dampen your meal. Flaunt the foods you’ve found on a day that seems so devoid of life. Eat. Savor. Bon apetit! 

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