Lobster Salad and Champagne

One of the joys our technological civilisation has lost is the excitement with which seasonal flowers and fruits were welcomed; the first daffodil, strawberry or cherry are now things of the past, along with their precious moment of arrival.
-- Derek Jarman, 1989

Thursday, May 15, 1997

Today I made my first change to this diary in response to reader feedback. Lucy suggested that I should include a link so folks could send me mail on every page. I took this to mean that the "Feedback" link at the foot of the page was far too restrained, discreet, and easily overlooked, so I removed the <span class=hush> from the word. So feel free to write me!

Again I walked up the street after I got home from work. I was thinking of buying provisions for the film festival but got sidetracked at the annex to the natural food store. In the annex they sell vitamins, herbal remedies, and aromatherapy materials. I don't favor the natural remedies, but I am a sucker for essential oils in little bottles. I have had a basket of assorted vials for a long time, and finally smartened up and started keeping it in my bathroom. I've been taking baths and adding a few drops of whatever scent suits my fancy.

But today I resisted buying a new scent. The "Revitalizing" scent didn't appeal, and the ginger oil smelled nothing like fresh ginger. I continued on to the main store and inspected the produce. Although the produce stand on my way to work has a big hand-painted sign outside saying "Cherries are here!", the cherries at the natural food store were about four dollars a pound, which is too much. The real cherry season will be here in a few days, I hope. I often bring them to the festival, or bring in a few pounds to pass around a meeting at work. The Northwest has a special variety of cherry that I don't think I had growing up. Rainier cherries don't ship that well, so we didn't see them in Virginia. They have the most beautiful color, like a nectarine, yellow, pink, blushing red. Rainiers have a special sweetness. They are more expensive than Bing cherries, but worth getting, especially since the season is so short.

Some foods just don't seem worth paying more for. The price difference between an Asian pear and an apple is not in proportion to the difference in the eating experience. Sure, an Asian pear tastes pleasant, crisp -- but is it four or five times better than an apple? Not to me. Oscar Wilde said "Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." In fact, he said it twice, in a novel and in a play. But I don't think my resistance to high-priced produce makes me a philistine or unculinarily cultured.

So I ended up buying nothing at the natural food store that I couldn't have bought elsewhere: stoned wheat thins, Feta cheese cubes soaked in oil and herbs, and Karam's tahini and garlic sauce. I'll share my festival buddy A----'s raw carrots tomorrow night.

Anita's Home page Anita's Book of Days Previous Next