The past couple weeks I've been in a serious funk. And I hadn't been able to decide if it was delayed culture shock, homesickness, the cough/cold I had, Charles traveling or what.
Part of the funk became this weird fixation on food. Anything I could think of to buy at the grocery store or order in a restaurant (which here in Diever actually means cafe) just seemed so incredibly unappetizing and unappealing that I almost felt ill.
And then I started thinking about how I would get fixated on food back in Ann Arbor. Lunch with a former coworker, a cocktail with Merrill at Eve's Wine Bar, Carrie Bank's chocolate brownies at knitting night, Friday night dinners with "the usual suspects" at Miss Saigon. These were the things, almost as much as the social events coupled with them, that would get me through what would otherwise be a humdrum week. And I don't have them here. Instead I get cheese tostis and crappy pasta.
Until tonight! I had to go to Zaandam for a business trip, and Charles met me in Zwolle on my way home. We ducked into a bar to get out of the rain for a while, and the bartender recommended an Argentinian restaurant down the street. It hit the spot! Meat empanadas and a mixed plate of grilled beef with baked potato and sour cream on the side. It was a lot of beef - probably too much in all honesty - but it was good. And it's put me in such a good mood for the rest of the evening that I'm not even dreading stupid Saturday errands and chores the way I have been lately!
But I think even aside from the food - because honestly only one of the cuts of steak was particularly enjoyable - it really was good just to go OUT for a night just the two of us. Without the dog, so we could eat inside where it was warm and dry. And have a date. I think this is how I will remember our (belated) fourth anniversary.
I actually cried more than once over the lack of good food in California. It's not that we couldn't find some decent things, it was just that it wasn't the stuff I really, really wanted. I sympathize.
Posted by: Kate Cho | October 16, 2006 at 07:49 PM