A Bite of Eggplant

The thought of eating alone sits on the soul in a manner of ways. To some, it is a comfort. It may be a quiet time for mother to enjoy her own sublime cuisine, spent away from chicken fingers with ketchup. The gourmand may spend secret alone time devouring a guilty orange pleasure of microwave mac and cheese. For many, perhaps a Wall Street stock broker or a lonely mid-thirties career gal, the idea of eating alone means taking oneself out to lunch, spending money on good food and good wine. Others still find the idea repulsive; a schoolchild with few friends may spend as little time as possible eating lunch, not wishing to face seclusion. The solitary intake of food can be soothing, overwhelming, enjoyable, or even irritating. But no matter how one reacts to the event, dining alone is a simple fact of life. We have all, at one time or another, faced this necessity and reacted in a whole manner of ways.

As for me, dining alone is a bit of all of these things. On a cool night, all alone in my tiny apartment, I’m curled up in a blanket with a grilled PB&J, watching movies on the coach. A much needed day off is usually spent treating myself, sometimes to shopping or a movie, but almost always with a nice meal. Dressing up in fancy clothes and taking myself out for a date always makes me smile after long work weeks. And after a late night, chips, homemade salsa, and a beer is a great way to relax me down. I enjoy the quite time spent sitting at a table dining alone watching others around me, taking in the scene, and the lack of energy needed to eat tacos in front of the TV. Cooking for myself is usually simple but delicious, pasta or rice with salt, pepper, butter, fresh tomatoes. Sometimes a glass of white wine. When plans with friends fall through though, an unexpected dinner alone can turn into frustration and depression. A dinner date gone awry can make dinner for one downright miserable. Being alone in the kitchen indeed has it’s ups and downs.

These ups and downs of solo eating are chronicled in 2007′s collection of essays, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. Included are essays from some of the best food writers, each with their own story to tell about the perils and joys of dinning alone. In each story, you connect with the author as they feel happiness, joy, indifference, depression, and despair over simply dining alone. I laughed with Phoebe Nobles as she conquered asparagus in “Asparagus Superheros,” all at once wishing to begin an asparagus only diet as she did. As Colin Harrison discussed his many options for going “Out to Lunch,” I imagined a solitary meal in the old New York haunts he visited. My salt and pepper white rice, paired well with Anneli Rufus’ “White-on-White Lunch for when no one is Looking.” I cried out for Haruki Murakami to eat something else as I read ” The Year of Spaghetti,” and I wished for love to be ditacted by potatoes as Nora Ephron suggests in “Potatoes and Love: Some Reflections.”

The book is a terrific read. Jenni Ferrari-Alder has brought together some powerful, insightfully humorous and touching essays on a subject that truly touches everyone. The essays connect with the reader and with each other, in many ways glorifying the art of eating alone, but also showcases it’s ability to bring out tears. Reading one, you may laugh out loud, and in the next few pages be flooded with sadness. Overall it is a book full of emotion, the very core of eating alone, and one that will, at the very least make you appreciate your last meal, solitary or not.

Dining out: Do or die?

Have you ever sat in a restaurant, the scene set for an incredible meal? The lights are dimmed, but it’s not too dark, illuminating your date across the table as you sit comfortably in the lush chairs. Although there are people all around you, you merely hear soft murmurs as you look over the enticing menu. In the simple, but elegantly designed dinging room you drink the crisp wine your waitress has suggested and bite into warm bread as you excitedly wait for you meal to arrive.

And then the meal arrives. And the experience is for naughtt. The mushrooms are undercooked and poorly handled, rendering them a soggy mess a top what should have been your wonderful pasta. The gnocchi are gooey and flavorless, drenched in a one dimensional sauce of overpowering hickory flavoring. The wait for entrees is a hopeful one. Sipping wine and biting more warm bread, hopes rise that the food of the restaurant can catch up with feel of it. But the main courses arrives and hope is once again lost. Sauces comprised almost entirely of demi glace lace both plates. An over sized portion of rabbit draped in bacon looses all flavor but that of overly salted pork, served atop lumpy polenta. Venison, rare enough to be confused with seared tuna, is served with chestnuts so dry they take your breath away, all on a cold plate.

And the bite into sweets is little better. Chocolate ganache so thick and heavy it can hardly be cut with fork is served inside a chocolate shell that is for some reason crunchy, making it even more difficult to eat. As the last of the wine is finished and the bill is the paid, the glowing candle illuminates the beautiful interior of the restaurant, making earlier expectations once again clear and all at once very lost in the evening.

And thus the challenge of the restaurant industry. Creating a space that will entice your guests, one with comfort and elegance, and one that compliments your food. Training your wait staff to provide for your guests without being overbearing, designing a wine program to offer the best you can, and hiring the kind of people who will make the best restaurant possible. Creating a menu that will entice your customers,and marketing those customers. And then most importantly, executing that menu. Some restaurants have one or two of these elements down pact, some more than others, some none at all. Some have it all. As a diner, restaurants are for the hope of when the beauty of the place, the glow of the wine, and the excitement of the menu are all realized in that first bite. When the meat melts in your mouth, the flavors pop, the sauce excites, and you dream about the dish for days, weeks, and even years after. As a cook restaurants are the challenge to create dishes that give this experience. To make sure that every single thing under your watch is seasoned properly, cut properly, cooked properly, and plated properly so that the absolute meaning of what the chef wants to serve is given to the customer. Because if it’s not, if it is off, even by a minuscule hair, all the other elements don’t matter and the experience is forever ruined.