Food! Glorious Food!

Here is the odd little personal fact about moi, which would shock my current friends: I hated food when I was growing up. It’s true, folks. I was groomed to be a Food Hater. My mother was a fearful and unimaginative cook, owning only one cook book my entire childhood. She had issues with her stomach, so the entire family was put on a bland-low-residue diet along with her. Our usual dinner was a plain, dried-out piece of meat (she was afraid of undercooking and giving us all botulism), a canned vegetable, and baked potato. Salt was forbidden. I asked my mother, once, if she could make the Corn Flake chicken recipe I’d eaten at a friend’s house for dinner, but she said it would be too much work. (Really? You dip the chicken in milk, then roll in cornflakes.....easy-peasy. Whatever.) I dreaded Dinner Time. It was a battle ground, with food as my enemy. I spent my childhood avoiding getting caught not eating. I’d stuff the dried-out meat into my napkin to throw away later, or surreptitiously give it away to my brother.

But now I am a Foodie. I love The Delectable. The Scrumptious. The Mouthwateringly Yummy! My childhood prison-food days are long gone and I have embraced the God-Given; that which brings life; food. It is no longer my enemy, but a steadfast and interesting friend. I have made a hobby of trying new recipes and new eateries.

Fortunately, most of my friends are Foodies, too. The other evening, four of us gathered together at Houlihan’s, on an evening when they were testing new “small plates” to put on their menu. We shared a bottle of savignon blanc while tasting white bean and artichoke hummus with pita bread, and ginger lemongrass porkbites with peanut sauce. We caught up over goat cheese and artichoke poppers, shrimp po’boy sliders with Creole remoulade sauce and BBQ chicken flatbread pizza. We topped it all off with my favorite creme brulee.

Ahhh.....good friends and good food, filling up my body and soul. There is surely no better way to spend a winter evening.