Kitchens on the Road: Gifts of Time and Taste
A trip to an outdoor market is an invitation to creativity. There is no shopping list, no plan...yet. There is only what looks good today and what I can invent to make use of it. There is the old man explaining why his cheeses are best in a language I don't speak, and yet somehow I understand every word. There is the sharp-elbowed woman shoving in front of me to reach for the best tomatoes. There is the young girl who says thank you like she means it before giving me my change.
And there is the delight of having something to share with friends and colleagues. The most important ingredients are the ones they bring to the meal, which will be remembered long after we've forgotten which wine we drank or which night we ate the pumpkin. Conversation, the meeting of intelligent eyes, the clink of a toast, the sharing of old memories, the creation of new ones...all of these are worth every minute spent in the kitchen.
Bon appetite.