Jun 05 2010
Memories With a Side of Hunger
Photo by Llalan
There are days when I am so hungry that nothing I have in the pantry will do. No local take-out will even satisfy me. In fact, nothing in this entire state will sate my hunger.
On this fine, sunny Saturday morning, I am starving. I do not, however, want a pastry from the 7-11 across the street. What I want right now – right now - is fresh pineapple from Thailand. It comes in a little clear plastic bag with a wooden stick to stab each piece with, juice collecting in the bottom corners. Every triangle of fruit melts in my mouth and I eat it all, even though it gives my tongue painful little bumps. It’s worth it.
For lunch I want fish and chips from Nova Scotia. So fresh and flaky! I tell the waitress I’d like two fillets. “Two fill-ets, then,” she responds, pronouncing the “t.” Yes, I guess so.
To drink I will take some sweet tea from Charleston, SC. They claim to make it up here – even at McDonald’s – but it’s far from authentic. Real sweet tea comes to my table waited on by a woman with a southern accent who calls me “hun.” Real sweet tea is served on days that are almost unbearably hot in glasses dripping with condensation, the ice melting as fast as you can drink it.
As a mid-afternoon snack I will grab handfuls of tiny apricots grown in the fertile soil of the orchards bordering Lake Erie. It’s as if because they are small they have concentrated flavor within their bright fuzzy skins. And while on the subject of Canadian afternoons, I might as well have a Labatt Blue on my porch while I’m at it.
I want something light for dinner: a salad with fresh greens and vegetables from my Ohio garden. Lettuce plucked from the head and washed very carefully to rinse off all the dirt that raindrops have kicked up onto it. Misshapen carrots, brilliant white scallions, sprigs of dill, rounds of cucumber, and perhaps most importantly, tiny red cherry tomatoes that explode in your mouth, still warm from the sun.
But for now I’m still hungry. Perhaps hungrier than before.
Read more: Food & Wine, TravelLlalan specializes in all things Ohio, but has funny stories from all over the US and Canada, plus a few snort-inducing ones from Thailand. And not only does she read books from around the world, she also samples beers in as many languages as possible. Favorite style: the multi-national American Double IPA.
