OUR MAN in EUROPE/dave delacroix/Part 3: Dinner @ Trimalchios...

Part 3:  Dinner @ Trimalchios...

...From the Roman epic "Satyricon" by Petronius, Emperor Nero's "arbiter of elegance" and imperial sidekick.
This'll be my "foodie" sketch...
...I know, I know. I havent got to France yet. I'm still in Germany.
Ahem! (clears throat)

Never before having Summered in Germany I experience a "kleine" culture shock. Everyone's happy and...I know, I know! -it - oddly - sucks. I was all prepared for Weimar Dark, Metallica "kunst" and Kurt Weill soundtracks with stone vogue blondes singing: "Show me the way to the next Whiskey bar..."
But no. It's: "Ja, Dave! Try this cocktail: Die Swimming Pool."
You die.
...Happy-ish.
This takes place at a bar in Usingen called THE BLACK PEARL which, on discovering, I knock at the door and ask for "Capt Jack", and I'm allowed entry as long as I follow "the Code", which is/are more like "guidelines"...
...And I really would like to tell you more about this event but then I'd have (to kill you) to tell you about my host, Count Alex von Ludwigshafen and his sprawling garden because every time we rustle up a meal, here in the "schloss", Herr Graf (the Count) rushes into the "halle" sized kitchen with the native (?) produce, plucked right out of the local soil!
Liebstockel (Haggikraut) -for soup.
Salbei (sauce)
Kresse (sauce)
Estragon, for fish.
Thymian, good for meat dishes.
And, yay! -garlic, onions, tomatoes, radishes, ad infinitum.

Counting all that and with old friend (from Roman Holiday days), Sebastian, who catches Trout from nearby streams....with his bare hands....this sketch unfolds with all the expectations of a Tony Bourdain - No Reservations! - epicurean epiphany.

Don't hold your breath.

-Which, of course, is personal and resides - outside of Celeb-Chef TV-land - within your own Soul.
That's what it's there for.

So in your life OR future travels, "Capt, says I!", with eyes streaming from chopping onions and beating off Summer flies, perhaps you find your own time to take a breath and then start grating onions, garlic, ginger and prepping the proverbial skillet?
Bon appetite!...

PS: I'm really not missing the Denver Broncos, Nuggets and...what's the other team's name?
      Oh, right. The Shotgun Willies!

(NB: For non-Denver readers: Shotgun Willies. A Strip Club in Glendale-Denver)

WATCH OUT FOR the next "Our Man in Europe" blog: "I STILL love Paris!"

Usingen. July 2010

c 2010. dave delacroix/our man in europe