The Menu

New Orleans, LA

Once again, it is book group eve, and I have not yet finished this month's book. It seems to be a pattern. Last month I finished The Secret History exactly one and a half hours before book group started.

This month the book is my pick, so it's kind of bad form not to finish reading. The problem is not that the book isn't interesting. M.F.K. Fisher's The Gastronomical Me fascinates. There is no plot. The book creates a loose chronology of the author's fond memories of food and life.

It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. - M.F.K. Fisher

Part of the reason I still haven't finished reading is that I was at the grocery store late tonight, making selections. At book group, food is probably more important than the month's reading selection. The book picker is also the food provider for the evening.

What to serve when the book is all about great meals and tastes?

I'm going with old favorites. Our appetizer will be guacamole (heavy on the lemon, garlic, and cayenne pepper) with tortilla chips. Next is spinach salad (live dangerously!) sprinkled with toasted almonds, blue cheese, strawberries, and a poppy seed dressing. It's not meant to be a green theme, but the entre will coincidently be green in color. Rotini pasta with fresh pesto Genovese, pine nuts, grated Parmesan, and grape tomatoes. Desert is sesame seed dumplings drizzled with honey. To drink, we'll have a selection of beverages, but the special offer will be mango-banana lassis.

I don't know how well all these tastes will go together. With a Mexican appetizer, American salad, Italian main course, Tibetan desert and Indian drink... it will be interesting. I will like it. I hope the combination agrees with everyone else's palates.