Five dishes I really enjoy

Sometimes it is great to write about other things we like. Not just gaming. Food is one thing I personally enjoy. A lot. In this post I will describe five dishes that I really like. These are things I have either on special occasions or at a restaurant that specialize in them.

I have avoided to mention those foods I consider common and focused on those that evoke either a time or place in my own life.

Sashimi The Japanese way of preparing raw fish. Not the rolls or the piece of fish on a ball of rice. I mean fish. Just fish. Rice on the side. The coolest story I have about it is that one time Pascal and I order a boat of sashimi in Utsunomiya (the dish was served on a small wooden boat). It was so fresh that it had a fishhead on our plate. Yes still breathing! I poked it in the eye. It was both awesome and gruesome at the same time.

Gyros sandwiches Greek sandwiches made with either beef, chicken, lamb, goat, or pork. I love them all. As a child, my mother and aunt wouldgo there regularly. By the time I turned 7 or 8, I would eat one of those by myself. No fries no nothing.to this day, when I return to that restaurant, I still eat them, though I can now eat two... I have been to many other places and enjoy many different recipes, Arahova set the bar high for all others.

Paneer Korma I got into Indian food later in life. Paneer is a tofu like cheese and korma is a creamy sauce. I really like the combination. It was one of the dishes I ordered with Julie as we celebrated her first birthday after she moved in with me. Turns out it was too spicy for her.

Couscous with Mergez Another type of food I got into later in life. Although there are many different types of couscous, the one I think about comes from a tiny place in the Quartier Latin in Paris. Again introduced to it by an ex, I must say that I have not really had any in years. The lack of merguez here in the States (Julie has been doing a lot of searching).

Curries This one is more general than the previous dishes. I first had good curry while at the university. As president of the RPG club, I would do the social thing and was lucky enough to be invited to eat with the Muslim Association. There we spoke frankly and intelligently about philosophy and religion. One of the things that really stuck with me is the many varieties of curries. Delicious and eaten with flat pita-like bread. Today when I enjoy curries, I think of sitting with those guys and talking intelligently about tough subjects. I hold on to the dream that one day we could all just sit down and eat together in peace. I doubt it will ever happen, but I hope that my own small acts helped.

Food conjures images. Whether positive ones or negative ones. The important thing is that they become part of the memory. Whether a fish head or a date with an old flame, food brings images.

So what does this haveto do with gaming?

Nothing. However use of these images is too often ignored by us writers. We simplify everything to a slop of stew or a simple venison roast. I do it too often

But what about the less traditional foods? What do they tell us? What images do they conjure?

Now I'm hungry.

JP