I went to Panera this morning. Mmm, good bread. I haven't had any since I left University of Basketball town, where we had a co-op that made terrific bread (and terrific scones, and cherry-almond tarts and ... yum.) It's funny how you take little stuff like that for granted, until it's gone.
So far, much of the stuff I miss about U. of B. Town is food-related -- milk and ice cream from the local dairy, the Middle Eastern deli where you get an enormous plate of food for $6.99, the Mexican place with six different kinds of homemade salsa, barbecue. I found another dairy here that sells milk in glass bottles, and there's a place in New City that can satisfy the falafel cravings, but I don't think there's much to be done about the barbecue. It's really the department pig pickin' that I miss, because there's nothing like sitting out under the stars with a bottle of bourbon and the smell of slow-cooking pig in the air.
Come to think about it, memories of my favorite places are nearly always intertwined with memories of food -- nothing says "childhood beach vacations" to me like corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes and a whole heap of blue crabs with Old Bay. And studying abroad? All about the paella and oranges and the Serrano ham and oh my God, the coffee. I've been back to Spain twice since then, and just going to the bar for a sandwich brought the memories flooding back. Good stuff.
I'm sure I'll miss a lot of little things when (and if) I move away from here, but I don't know what they are yet.
So yeah, food, a good thing, especially when shared with other people. Don't you agree?
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6 comments:
I totally agree. I'm a vegetarian living in a small town in Montana, and there's not much here that's veggie friendly.
Ironically, when I first got here, I made a friend who loved to eat out. We both had a modest amount of disposable income so we could afford to eat out occasionally. But this town only has a handful of restaurants that focus on beef, beef, and more beef.
It was so disappointing to actually have a buddy to eat out with and have no place to go. So we started ordering pizza and watching Sex and the City.
Good luck in your new town!
roaringgrrl
Thanks for the good wishes! I haven't had a chance to go out to eat much since I moved here (what with being broke and busy, and not knowing more than a handful of folks here), but at least I'm not in Montana...
Now, now...Montana isn't soooo bad. My town is host to the Great Harvest Bread Company's main office. Mmmmm.....carbalicious...
roaringgrrl
OK, I have to admit I know nothing whatsoever about Montana, so I'm basing my judgments solely on my brother's experience working at a steakhouse there (where everything came previously frozen). Good to know you've got nice bread.
OMG, I've been near your city, Roaringgrrl! AND it's totally gorgeous country. (I have a friend in the city where Great Harvest started.)
Quills, at least you've got a Panera! As for barbeque... there are some people in my department who cook like a dream. Maybe you can become the dream barbeque person for your place? (And someone else will turn out to be the dream [other food] person?) In my experience, academics in small towns figure out how to survive pretty darned well.
Heh, I think we might need to define some terms here, because where I come from, barbecue involves a big pit and a pig that gets slow-cooked all night. It's not really the sort of thing an apartment-dweller can pull off, unfortunately!
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