Saturday, May 20, 2006
At Last - The Arrival of Summer
It's the weekend and my spirits are lifting again. I have great plans for the day: Read some food stories, go shopping for food, read some recipes and cook. It all started perfectly too. I spent the morning studying the list of what's in season on the BBC website and reading a few food blogs (and making big plans again of revamping this blog). People have asked me if I don't get bored with doing nothing but work
, surf the net and worry about food, but so far my answer is a firm no. I would not mind not having to work, but under no circumstance would I be willing to live without the Internet or to never cook again. I am as sad as that. To me food is bliss.I'm sure you can imagine just how happy I was when I went to the market and not only was it not raining, there was a definite feeling of summer in the air. Bleak disillusionment had given way to cheerful expectations and rich abundance. Even though I arrived quite late, the stalls wer
e still laden with food and the aisles packed with people. There was music and laughter in the air and even I was nearly seduced to buy a snack. The colours, too, had changed. Where only two weeks before the predominant tones had been dark green, brown and grey, I now found tender pink asparagus, light green leaves, lush green herbs and plump fruit in any shade of yellow, red and orange you can imagine. Dennis Healey's stall smelled like Mediterranean garden on a mild summer evening and I felt like kid in a candy store. I just didn't know where to look first. In the end, I think I ended up buying 
one of each of the things on offer. Or that's at least what my bag and my wallet made me believe. But that did not stop me from buying up half the fish stall along with a dozen oysters and then moving on to the butcher's and Liston's and - believe it or not - Evergreen's greengrocer on Wexford street.I arrived back home two hours later with two big bags full of fresh food and a big grin on my face. What a day! I unpacked my loot like a big pile of Chrismas presents, grinning the whole time and still feeling like a kid in a candy store. Sad isn't it? But at least in being sad I was for once completely happy again.
Christine at 6:00 pm
