Eating Out

I have my ideas about eating out. I want to go out to have food that I would not necessarily cook at home. We don’t eat out that often, so it has to count.

For breakfast, I like a good croissant. (I’ve read how to make croissants and it would take me most of the day to make one). Or good hollandaise sauce over something.

In other words, not just eggs, toast and bacon. I can make that at home in about 5 minutes for about $1.50 max.

I also don’t want a bowl of oatmeal for $10. I don’t care what kind of fruit you put on it, it’s still a bowl of oats.

For other meals, I like ethnic food or creative cooking. I like to order something for which I do not have all the ingredients in my cupboard. Something I would not dream up on my own or know how to make.

We try to find a restaurant that meets the criteria.

Settled in, we peruse the menu. Two glasses of house wine cost what we typically spend on a bottle from a local liquor store. But, we’re out.

Do we order hors d’oeuvres? Will they be tiny or will they be huge? I don’t want to be full before my main course even comes.

We order our dinner and split a starter. Sometimes the starters are more interesting than the main meal. We enjoy our wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Dinner comes. Just when we are poised to take a first bite, the waitperson reappears. “How is everything?”

I want to say, “I have no idea. I haven’t gotten my fork to my mouth yet.”

But I say, “Good, thank you.”

And we do enjoy our meals. I enjoy something different – that I have not cooked and we do not have to clean up from afterwards. We enjoy the new taste combination and the relaxed time together.

Maybe we should do this more often. Or maybe not.

Nepal Trip

A few years ago, I went to Nepal with a Nepali friend and two other Americans. It was very different from anything I had experienced. I tell people, “It was not a vacation, but it was quite a trip.”

We saw the incredible countryside and the beautiful women in their colorful saris. We tried out new foods and had our share of chai tea.

Because it was during a holy season, we also saw Hinduism in full force. We saw temples and holy men, festivals and sacrifices.

We were there to sightsee with our friend and visit some churches, even speaking at one. Going into church everyone took off their shoes. The women went to one side and sat on the floor. The men went to the other side. They produced chairs for us, the Americans who weren’t used to the floor.

At the first church there were refreshments after the service. They handed us an orange punch from a mix. The chai we’d been drinking in Nepal was made with boiling water. This was straight from the tap.

I looked at my Nepali friend. She said, “You could pray and then drink it.” “I have another idea,” I said. “We could pray and then not drink it.”

At the other church we were in a more rural area. The night before speaking, I felt horrible. I had a headache that was so bad it made me sick. My sister-in-law said I probably had a migraine. I do not get migraines. She gave me some pills and told me to sleep. I was supposed to speak the next afternoon.

Miraculously, I did feel better by the next afternoon. People who get bad migraines will know that I was fortunate. I hopped on the back of a scooter with a Nepali man whom I had never met. He deposited me in front of the church. I zoomed into the church and sat in a chair up front.

Then I looked down. Dang. I still had my shoes on. I was getting ready to stand in front of the whole church with my shoes on. Was this terribly rude? Was I going to offend them all?

There was a window behind us…

I got my friends to stretch and lean over so that I could slip off my shoes and drop them out the window. When it was my turn to talk, I was in the proper barefooted condition.

Nepal was incredible. We safely arrived home after many adventures.

Good thing we weren’t climbing Everest!