French Roast (but not coffee)
Nov. 14th, 2009 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI had forgotten how much I like Jacques Pepin. Today I watched the episode from the series "The Complete Pepin" about gravies and carving. It was really useful to see how an expert carves a chicken. Really useful to have an expert explain what you might do in the kitchen compared to carving in the dining room.
The gravy portion at the beginning was really astonishing because Pepin says, "You can never get this at a restaurant. *points* Roast chicken and natural gravy." I have just recently been bemoaning the lack of gravy available in restaurants, but if Pepin can't find gravy in France or New York City, then maybe there is a reason I can't find it either.
Do you know what bothers me about restaurants? It's that since they started as a celebratory type of thing, dining alone is not really how they're set up.
But if I really want to celebrate something, I cook here. The food is better and it's worth the extra effort if there are going to be a lot of people around. I can buy a really excellent beef roast for $25 that will feed 8 people generously. It's a feast when accompanied by roasted vegetables and gravy. Add in some homemade rolls and real butter and you cannot get anything like it in any restaurant around here.
Yesterday it got to be 12:30 and I hadn't left yet for the grocery store, but I was already hungry. So I wanted to quickly grab some food so I didn't come home with Froot Loops, strawberry ice cream, frozen waffles and 3 bags of chips. But there aren't a lot of restaurants designed for that.... I had a 4-person table to myself but felt really awkward when a new party came in and had to wait for a table. (I was nearly done, so I just hurried a bit.)
Some days I want to have company for lunch but there aren't a lot of people free for lunch during the week near home. I wouldn't have minded being matched up with a random stranger, separate checks of course, yesterday. I prefer food with companionship or at least conversation.
I am getting really tired of the assumption that people are all already full up on friends so they wouldn't want to talk to strangers.
The gravy portion at the beginning was really astonishing because Pepin says, "You can never get this at a restaurant. *points* Roast chicken and natural gravy." I have just recently been bemoaning the lack of gravy available in restaurants, but if Pepin can't find gravy in France or New York City, then maybe there is a reason I can't find it either.
Do you know what bothers me about restaurants? It's that since they started as a celebratory type of thing, dining alone is not really how they're set up.
But if I really want to celebrate something, I cook here. The food is better and it's worth the extra effort if there are going to be a lot of people around. I can buy a really excellent beef roast for $25 that will feed 8 people generously. It's a feast when accompanied by roasted vegetables and gravy. Add in some homemade rolls and real butter and you cannot get anything like it in any restaurant around here.
Yesterday it got to be 12:30 and I hadn't left yet for the grocery store, but I was already hungry. So I wanted to quickly grab some food so I didn't come home with Froot Loops, strawberry ice cream, frozen waffles and 3 bags of chips. But there aren't a lot of restaurants designed for that.... I had a 4-person table to myself but felt really awkward when a new party came in and had to wait for a table. (I was nearly done, so I just hurried a bit.)
Some days I want to have company for lunch but there aren't a lot of people free for lunch during the week near home. I wouldn't have minded being matched up with a random stranger, separate checks of course, yesterday. I prefer food with companionship or at least conversation.
I am getting really tired of the assumption that people are all already full up on friends so they wouldn't want to talk to strangers.
