Food Favorites
Whenever I'm asked what my favorite meal is or my favorite place to eat, I tend to draw a blank.
My favorite meal is usually whatever I remembering eating last after a long day of playing outside when I'm hungry and tired and ready to chill. Yesterday after a crushing outrigger practice that meant my super fave go-to, Cafe del Soul's Curry Don't Stop wrap - add chicken, swap the rice with lettuce - and a small carton of goldfish. Propped lengthwise along my couch, some guilty pleasure TV playing in the background with a view of the fog rolling in across the headlands - it was my own personal foodie paradise.
A few weeks before that after a 10 mile run around Mt Tam it was a cornmeal crust pizza from Whole Foods and a single serving of organic black licorice. Repeat couch, TV, fog, paradise.
For the longest time, after a night of outrigger practice on the bay, it was the apple chicken salad at The Grove with a slice of crusty bread and several glasses of red wine. It wasn't ambitious - I always ordered the same thing - but it was what I craved without fail and though Jessica and I always paused to consider other options along Fillmore, it was The Grove where we always ended up.
My favorite meals are essential meals, meals that warm me and nourish me and come wrapped in relaxation and open-ended periods of time to do nothing. I've had amazing meals at world famous restaurants and decadent home cooking from friends but what stays with me are the meals that came when I was mentally and physically most in need. Sort of how meals you prepare when you're backpacking are never nearly as good when you try to make them at home but in the moment, they are the French Laundry of the outdoors. I'm talking about you tuna and pea over pasta casserole.
Two weeks ago, as I enjoyed my last free day before jumping into a new job, I booked all the appointments - pedicure, hair, eyebrows. It was a 4-hour afternoon that left me listless but happy and pretty smoking hot. I looked amazing, let's be honest, and I felt good about investing the time to start off on the right foot. But I was hungry, with waning sunlight still begging me to stay outside, so I walked to my favorite fro-yo place, Yolo, loaded up on a cup of the goods and sat outside on a bench watching life go by. It was exquisite. It was perfect. It was dinner. Because that's how you roll when you don't have kids.
If I had one last meal to request, it would be pizza. I can't lie. I love it. LOVE. I would eat an entire pie if I could get away with it - we used to get 25 or so Amici's pizzas delivered to work and invariably we would have 2-3 entire pies left at the end of the day. As I'd wait for the elevator, I'd snatch a cold slice to take with me.. Ditto the gym. Ditto any late afternoon meeting. I have a problem, yes. But goddamn, pizza is THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD. It's every food imaginable on one amazing doughy transportation vehicle to the mouth.
So yeah, I'd say pizza would be my last great meal wish and my favorite meals are whatever I last had after a great, long workout. Pretty sophisticated, I know.
My favorite meal is usually whatever I remembering eating last after a long day of playing outside when I'm hungry and tired and ready to chill. Yesterday after a crushing outrigger practice that meant my super fave go-to, Cafe del Soul's Curry Don't Stop wrap - add chicken, swap the rice with lettuce - and a small carton of goldfish. Propped lengthwise along my couch, some guilty pleasure TV playing in the background with a view of the fog rolling in across the headlands - it was my own personal foodie paradise.
 |
| Cafe del Soul Curry Don't Stop wrap with chicken. The bomb. |
For the longest time, after a night of outrigger practice on the bay, it was the apple chicken salad at The Grove with a slice of crusty bread and several glasses of red wine. It wasn't ambitious - I always ordered the same thing - but it was what I craved without fail and though Jessica and I always paused to consider other options along Fillmore, it was The Grove where we always ended up.
My favorite meals are essential meals, meals that warm me and nourish me and come wrapped in relaxation and open-ended periods of time to do nothing. I've had amazing meals at world famous restaurants and decadent home cooking from friends but what stays with me are the meals that came when I was mentally and physically most in need. Sort of how meals you prepare when you're backpacking are never nearly as good when you try to make them at home but in the moment, they are the French Laundry of the outdoors. I'm talking about you tuna and pea over pasta casserole.
Two weeks ago, as I enjoyed my last free day before jumping into a new job, I booked all the appointments - pedicure, hair, eyebrows. It was a 4-hour afternoon that left me listless but happy and pretty smoking hot. I looked amazing, let's be honest, and I felt good about investing the time to start off on the right foot. But I was hungry, with waning sunlight still begging me to stay outside, so I walked to my favorite fro-yo place, Yolo, loaded up on a cup of the goods and sat outside on a bench watching life go by. It was exquisite. It was perfect. It was dinner. Because that's how you roll when you don't have kids.
If I had one last meal to request, it would be pizza. I can't lie. I love it. LOVE. I would eat an entire pie if I could get away with it - we used to get 25 or so Amici's pizzas delivered to work and invariably we would have 2-3 entire pies left at the end of the day. As I'd wait for the elevator, I'd snatch a cold slice to take with me.. Ditto the gym. Ditto any late afternoon meeting. I have a problem, yes. But goddamn, pizza is THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD. It's every food imaginable on one amazing doughy transportation vehicle to the mouth.
So yeah, I'd say pizza would be my last great meal wish and my favorite meals are whatever I last had after a great, long workout. Pretty sophisticated, I know.
Comments
Also, yolo as a name for a yogurt place? Amazing.