(Piacenza) Take 24: Wide-eyed.

Take 24: Wide-eyed.


The noble Art of Cooking is...well? It's just that! It IS an Art. Every dude I ever met prided himself - usually at at BBQ -  on being a great cook.
I too, also suffer from this illusion; ignorant, possibly, in ALL innocence: Wide-eyed.

But I DO like to cook, especially to treat and entertain my chums (culinary surprises, etc.). And it DOES take years to get past "food porn" and create epicurean beauty....

When I was 17?  (it was a very good year:) I finally figured out that "sunny-side-up" eggs...are NOT to be treated like Pasta...which is to say? -to ascertain their readiness, you DON'T fling them at the kitchen wall...and if they STICK? -they're done!
You end up with a yellow, greasy mess.

When I was 27? (It was a very good year:) I discovered that cooking rice ON the BBQ grill dosen't actually work.
Without a pan, of some sort, the blessed stuff just filters down through the grill, mingles with the charcoal, looks AND smells like shit, and when you serve a lump of rice-caked charcoal to your guests? -the un-grateful swines get downright uppity! (?)

When I was 37? (It was a very good year:) .... OK. It's SALSA-time!

1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 squeeze of lemon juice
A sprinkle of oregano
1/2 a chopped onion
A "glance" of Olive Oil
Mucho chopped HOT Red Chillis
Crushed Garlic clove
....Chuck it all in a pan, heat it up, then let cool....Then serve with Tortilla chips, Corona, Dos Equis, or Moretti beer (lots of).
It was?....A very good year.

I HAVE (possibly, you too?) once in a while, on my travels, gone hungry, begged from the church, gone Super-market "dumpster diving" and many, many times, literally SANG for my supper.
(Still DO, my friends)

But there is not a doubt in my mind?... There is something quite integrally wholesome about Working for one's sustenance.
Folks grab a bite at McDonald's or some fast-food joint without a second thought or care!

Tonight? I guarantee you. There are MILLIONS of folks...and very sad kids, Wide-Eyed with Hunger's stare.


c 2011/dave delacroix/Lord Borgo/Piacenza/Italy/Merry Christmas!