More than bliss

 Remember when you were young, and shown like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond.  -Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Pink Floyd, 1975, Wish You Were Here album.

There was something about naivety that made it work back in the old days. $100 trips across the United States while eating food that was absolutely void of taste and nutrition. The old saying, ignorance is bliss certainly had its benefits back then.

I cannot begin to imagine the things that I have missed out on. I wonder, did they even exist though? We all know that in the last 30 years, food has been an absolute revolution.

The types of food that I long to learn more about did exist. It is traditional foods from around the globe that I find so fascinating. I know that without modern media my learning about these types of culinary discoveries would be restricted to books, and maybe an occasional travel show on PBS.

Donna said to me yesterday, “Oh to be 20 years younger!” It was said in the context of all the creative things that we would do.

 20 years ago we did not have this incredible lifeline of information just flooding our senses and lighting all these fires of ideas. YouTube began in 2005 and in the last 18 years, it has really grown up. All of the predictions of Popular Mechanics came true and then some when it came to how the Information Super Highway would change our lives.

Sometimes it is difficult to see beyond the technological forest that we now live in and therefore can squander moments in our lives that we could be using this benefit to better ourselves, whether that is by making a fantastic meal tonight, starting a business, or effecting a successful automotive repair.

There has been an interesting side effect. Learning all of this has raised the bar. A lifeline is lifting me out of my ignorance, especially in culinary horizons. The casualty? The average restaurant is dead to me. The places that 30-plus years ago would have seemed not only acceptable but excellent now fall at my feet, like crashed aircraft, smoldering, disappointing, and leaving me full of remorse.

I am alright with this though, I would rather not know. That is bliss I am grateful that I no longer have. The opportunity to have the unending joy that food brings has been a prize so large I cannot believe it did not tower in my view like Everest, calling me.

COVID changed how I try other people’s food, and for the most part, it was up to me to make the new things I was trying. That is an "up" for me. More than three years after COVID shut it all down, I ventured into corners of empty restaurants to get the full experience.

I found that in the over three years that had passed since sitting in a restaurant, my education of the whole restaurant machine, front end, back end, food safety, school, and veteran storytelling (thank you Tony Bourdain) richly enhanced the experience of now sitting down in a restaurant and enjoying a fantastic meal.

My appreciation for the chef, for the wait-person, for anyone putting their life into this work, I am moved by. When that bite fires so many senses and emotion explodes like fireworks inside you while on the outside, you sigh and smile. It is absolutely moving.

Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, I recently got to experience a perfect Tex-Mex meal. Yesterday on a date day with Donna, we found a little Japanese restaurant on a side street in Keene, NH. What this sushi-centric restaurant can do with flavors and textures is an emotional experience. 

It is wonderful to ask the server what their favorite choices are, and then wait for the emotion. I have an unfair advantage here. I feel people’s emotions. Nothing weird about it, I just thought everyone could feel it too. Of the hundreds of subliminal signals we as humans put out as we interact, I seem to notice more than the average person. Maybe it is a byproduct of being raised around so many women through my early years. 

When the server emotionally endorses the choice, that is what I want to try. Upon that, a superior dining experience is born. A connection with the staff. Inside I am envious for a moment. They have this chance to make a difference in the lives of others many times. These are the people who know, love, and understand that it is a wonderful responsibility.