Terminalcoffee discussion

I was thinking about something Sarah Pi said in another thread about drawing out meals, and that got me thinking about slow food and really enjoying meals and people's company.

I rarely do that and I should do it more.

I tend to eat fairly quickly. After dinner we usually have homework to do, or the kids want to go do their thing, or I want to do my thing, etc. At breakfast my sons and I will usually hang out and talk about the sports page of the paper if they're up when I'm eating breakfast. And I usually eat lunch at my desk at work, although sometimes I go to the cafeteria and read while I'm eating.

But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking more about with adults...long, drawn out meals followed by conversation and alcohol or something. You know, when you talk until you're tired and feel better for the conversation.

Do you enjoy that? How often do you do it? Do you like it? What's the best setting for it, home or at a restaurant?

We grill out some in the summer and sit up late with neighbors, drinking. I like that.

And...you?

Love to do it, but don't do it nearly as much as I would like. We've done it with some friends a couple times lately, and time absolutely flies by.

I love sitting in a restaurant with friends and having good food and talking for hours. Perhaps it has something to do with not having to clean up afterward, or perhaps it's because it gives me an excuse to have that extra glass of wine or indulge in a dish of chocolate mousse. I love the atmosphere of a comfortable place and relaxed talk where you don't have to guard your words from disapproving ears, and you feel like you can be just yourself - not Mom or wife or whatever masks you feel you have to wear daily. It kind of feels like being in a place outside of the normal world.

That's the biggest observation I took away from Paris this past Thanksgiving. The French easily spend 2 hours over their meals.

Sweeter and I rarely have breakfast together during the week, but on the weekends we have long, drawn out Brunchinners. I ususally make a great big egg/sausage/potato casserole that we'll sit down and eat while we read the paper and do the crossword, and return to for snacks periodically throughout the day.

Lunches are almost always had at my office desk, a cup of fruit cocktail, a granola bar or a handful of nuts, and almost always, a peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes for variety I'll have cream cheese and jelly.

Dinner is fun. Sweeter eats everything I cook with gusto, so I get to be pretty experimental. We have favorites, which I return to out of the pantry on busy nights, but at least three nights a week we'll sit down and have a meal together, do the crossword, and chat about our day. I think that hour of mealtime is the best of the day, and I'd never give it up.

We have a game night once a month with two other couples, always held at the one couple's house who have a real dining room, with chairs enough for six adults and a bebeh. For that meal we sit, and swill wine, and linger over each course and complement the chef profusely. It is the best time we have with friends every month, hands down.

Sweeter and I don't go out very much mostly because we cannot afford it, but also because (and I'm quoting someone on here, maybe Heidi) I can cook better that. Also, having been a server for many years, the restaurant experience is not that relaxing for me. Somewhat like how a former lifeguard feels at a pool with young children. Always have to do the count. Always.

At school, I try to eat with people as often as possible. Words like "breakfast" "lunch" and "dinner" hardly mean anything anymore because it's more about finding an overlapping free hour in our schedules rather than a specific time of day. I love eating with people. It is the best excuse to eat things I would never get for myself, and to spend quality time getting to know new people (or chilling with old friends).

I especially like it when dinner with friends moves out of the restaurant into the apartment and turns into dessert tea/ice cream/fruits, which lingers on into late night, intimate conversations -- even better when someone pulls out a guitar, and song requests turn it into a sort of group karaoke. My roommates and I made sure to get a (relatively) spacious living room so that we could comfortably accommodate guests.

When I eat alone, it's usually with a book or over homework, if I am busy.

I love those long meals that are just as much about the company and conversation as about the food. When my family is all here, all twelve of us--soon to be 13, we go to this great sushi place in downtown Sarasota. It's so fun and we're there about three hours and everybody talks and laughs and we have so much good food. It feeds my soul and my body.

When I'm alone, I always read when I eat and when I eat with my daughter, it's uually on the couch, watching the dvd player at the same time. I like to go out because there aren't any distractions--just me and the person I'm with--and no dishes afterwards, of course--and it just seems like we focus more on each other, not just eating and then going to do something else. It's good, especially with my daughter, a time when we are together, really together.

Leslie, I feel very close to my own mother despite our differences, and so I love reading your posts about your relationship with your daughter -- especially when I'm feeling hurt or misunderstood (which happens often, unsurprisingly, so different are the worlds we've known). It reminds me of what a good, good thing I have and puts some of the ways we wound each other into the right context: inadvertent and well-meaning.

I often skip breakfast. I don't have much of an appetite. At least, not right now. I focus on lunch and dinner.

I generally head into town after class (around noon) and eat at one of the many cafés along Nassau. Chez Alice is one of my favourites. I'd usually get the vegetable soup or a grilled chicken panini. Massimo's is a terrific pizza place, so when I'm in the mood for something greasy, I head over there.

If I can't head into town, I'll eat at Frist (the campus center) or the café underneath of Pyne. The food's not nearly as good.

I generally eat my dinner in the dining halls. The food's pretty mediocre, but it's free, so... I'm a cheap bastard.

The food's pretty mediocre, but it's free ...."

Um ... Matthew. No. It's not free. I suspect your parental units are paying for it.

Free for me, Larry. Heh heh. If you pay for the unlimited meal plan (a good deal), you'll get all three of your meals for almost the same cost as the lunch/dinner plan.

I understand.

Heh...we won't rat you out, Matthew. If my kids turn out half as smart and together as you, I don't care where they get their food in college or who they think paid for it.:)

Our University cafeteria is only ok, too...I hear most university cafeterias are getting better, though. Still, I don't mind the pizza and the veggie burgers, esp. since I get a cut rate...

We're watching a FoodTV show about old fashioned diners. Oh man... it all looks scrumptuous. I've only been to a real diner a couple of times in my life, and the food was amazing.

Can I have an order of cream cheese stuffed raspberry french toast please? PLEASE?!!

Oh, man, I love old diners, Sherrie. They were everywhere in the neighborhood where I grew up in Chicago...the Blue Angel, the Big Top, Mr. K's (although Mr. K's was gross), the Skylark, the Golden Flame, Sally's (no, really), etc. And those are just the ones that emerge off the top of my head.

You cannot lose with grilled cheese and tomato and fries in a diner. I would hesitate, however, to order anything with a remotely ethnic bend, way off the back of the six page menu.

Evidence!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/sallys-waffle...

Smart: maybe. Together: not really.

It's getting better, though.

I really enjoyed Yelp when we were in SF. Good, current information about just about everywhere.

Oh yeah. In central PA, the common topping for potatoes in diners is vinegar.

Ha! Eggplant is not the thing to order at a midwest diner.

I do love a good diner. The last great one I went to was The Empire Diner in NYC. Perfect BLT, my mouth waters still at the thought.

No good diner's in Seattle that I've found yet. boohoo.

(And as I write this I realize how boring it is. I'm tempted to delete. Damn Brenda!)

Not boring! I'm intrigued! There must be some good diners in Seattle.

Yeah, there must but I haven't found one yet. Overall, food in Seattle is disappointing. But I think coming from NYC ruined things for me.

Oh! I'd love to have some Turkish food, I don't think I've ever had any, except for the general mid-east stuff, like felafel, etc.

Bun - That's kind of like my trick of finding restaurants that are frequented by people who appear to be of that ethnicity. I figure that the Indian food must be good at the place that caters to Indian families. It works pretty well. There's a place up the road from me which serves food that tastes nothing like any other Indian food in town -- much spicier, not as rich, super tasty.

Yep, we've found the best Chinese restaurants that way - go where you are practically the only white folk there.

Anthony Bourdain always says "eat where the locals eat"...

Probably a lot of people say that. I doubt he was the first:)

It doesn't always work, though. If you go to Yoder's in Lancaster County, PA you get lots of very bland Pennslvania Dutch (Deutch) food covered with thick, gelatinous gravy. The locals love it -- but it's crap (IMO)

Gravy, yuck. Yeah it depends where you are from and where you are if you want to trust locals.

Then again, Yoder's has the BEST bland Penn Dutch food, right? But if you don't like that sort of thick gelatinous gravy, well....the very best still isn't very good.

It's not very good -- but you get a lot of it for the money.

Kevin, Look Sue is a Cub fan too!

Sorry, back to the meal topic.

Damn. Are you recruiting people, Kevin and Jim?

No need to recruit, people just naturally desire to be Cub fans. ;-).

Careful, RA. Don't burst Jim's bubble.

Yeah, what Larry said

::quickly puts up protective barrier around my bubble::

Thanks Nools, that really made me feel good. I appreciate you sharing that with me.

I don't need to burst Jim's bubble. September bursts Jim's bubble every year:)

Randomanthony wrote: "I don't need to burst Jim's bubble. September bursts Jim's bubble every year:)"

Gee that would hurt if I wasn't numb from the past 40 years of it being true for me.

Sue wrote: "Ah baseball! Then my meals turn to beer, hotdogs and popcorn for the whole season. As a Cub fan, have to keep that sweet false hope alive. Fat and drunk!"

Welcome to TC Sue, I see you listed beer first on your meal plan, you must be a long suffering Cub fan too.

But this is the year!

:::moment of silence for the Cubbies:::

Larry wrote: ":::moment of silence for the Cubbies:::"

Hey not yet Larry, the season hasn't started yet, this is our time to be optimistic, they are not dead yet.

::said while clicking my heals together:: This is the year we win the World Series, this is the year we win the World Series, this is the year we win the World Series...........

I'm cheering for you, Jim. There just something about hopeless causes ....

No. I'm kidding. I really do hope it happens for you.

Well my secret plan is to send a black cat to run out on the field on opening day for all the other teams, thus jinxing them and increasing the chances.

I didn't say it was a good plan ;-D.

You'd better take good care of that cat, or you'll earn an enemy in this corner, Jim.

No problem Larry, I like cats too.

Go Cubs Go!

I am saving my analysis of the Cubs' losing ways, and why they will lose again this year, for a thread closer to the baseball season.

I have no desire to watch you three cry. But you know you will! You know you will!

I lived within a few blocks of Wrigley for a year, and then within a couple miles for a few years. I taught my sons to stick out their tongue when we drive by Wrigley Field these days. When they're a little older they'll graduate to giving it the finger.

Why, oh why is there Baseball in the meals thread?

*picks up baseball with tongs, removes back to the realm of sports*

I've been grading for nearly 12 hours now. I'm calling it a day and moving on to cooking. Tonight I'm going to make some jambasta. It began as a Rachel Ray recipe (I know, I know) once upon a time, but I've morphed it into my own creation. It just has to include: spicy sausage, celery and okra, chicken, tomatoes, spices galore, and pasta.

We should probably start a baseball thread. I was going to wait until closer to the season's start...but...since it comes up all the time...

But that's not a guarantee it'll stay in the proper thread. Case in point...cheese...

We brought sports into it just to test your resolve Sally :-D.