Monday, 23 February 2004
Ruminating
It's been a while - maybe years - since I've had scallops, at one time my favorite seafood. But for some random reason I've preyed on these unsuspecting mussels not once, but twice in the last week.
Tonight was printanière de noix de Saint-Jacques crémée aux artichauts (a mouthful, but easier when translated: "scallops in creamed artichoke sauce"; "printanière" refers to a sort of "springtime" style, but I'm no gourmet expert so I can't be more specific). Last Wednesday was also scallops - market-fresh that very morning, served broiled in a butter sauce.
The difference was that tonight had me eating a Picard frozen meal at home and last week I was one of six at a friend's dinner party. Both these meals were good. Still, convenience has a nice bonus: any time the urge strikes, I can whip out a frozen package and ten minutes later be eating steaming scallops.
What I enjoy the most is the latest conventional wisdom about eating well: look at the week as a whole, not each individual day. Which seems about right, considering that besides dining on scallops last Wednesday, we lucky few had pâté de foie gras and finished with a dark chocolate mousse cake from Stohrer (a pâtisserie founded by King Louis XV's pastry chef).
Is it rubbing it in to ask you to guess who brought the cake?