Food Is An Important Part of a Balanced Diet

 -- Fran Liebowitz

Tell me what you eat, I'll tell you who you are. ~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

I wouldn't call myself a foodie.  I just love to eat.  I have a voracious appetite for both posh and unrefined food.  

For our honeymoon, Randy and I went to the French West Indies, to St. Maarten/St. Martin, known as the gourmet capital of the Carribean, and with good reason.   Our honeymoon was one gastronomical feast after another, with breaks to lay out on the beach of Anse Marcel.  I loved the onion tart, goat cheese salad, pate, and duck confit.  I wore a size 4 at my wedding and returned from the honeymoon a size 6.  I can't wait to go back there.

But happiness for me does not always come from dining in a fancy restaurant.  If I were on death row, my choice of a last meal would be fried chicken.  If the warden would deign to purchase it from Royal Farms, all the better.  Just give me a side of Mafran (the Filipino ketchup) with it and I would die with a happy tummy, never mind the circumstances of my passing.   

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. —-Virginia Woolf

Here is something I will never understand:  Women for whom a complete meal consists of a small salad with the dressing on the side.  That may sound sexist, but I have yet to meet a man who orders just a plate of lettuce.  There are few worse experiences than looking forward to eating out with a friend, anticipating and dreaming about the cuisine that will be transporting me to nirvana, finally seeing the day of our outing, getting to the restaurant, and having my companion order just a salad with the dressing on the side.  Once my lunch companion ordered a house salad with just a wedge of lemon on the side for dressing!  When this happens to me I view it as a mini-tragedy, because though I love to eat, I can't indulge in a full meal if the person sitting across the table from me will be nibbling on a carrot.  It makes me self-conscious and pressured to eat quickly, lest my friend end up watching me for an hour passionately devouring the full meal I have ordered.  When I eat with someone like this, my joy dissipates, and no matter how much I may enjoy my friend's company, I spend the whole time slightly distracted by thoughts of what I could have been eating. 

One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends. —Laurie Colwin

Subconsciously, I must screen potential friends for their style of consuming food.  I don't mean the ability to pack away as much food as possible -- I'm not advocating unhealthy gorging.  I'm talking about people who relish their food and savor each morsel without thinking exclusively about the calories.  My late friend Dian took real pleasure in a good meal.  One of my most enduring memories of her is of a meal we had with another friend in Cape May, New Jersey circa 1995.  I don't even remember the exact meal, but I know it involved several delicious courses and took us nearly three hours to complete.  We shared a bottle of red wine whose name has long escaped my memory, and talked and laughed throughout the meal.  If only all dinners could be like that one.   

There is no love sincerer than the love of food. ~George Bernard Shaw

Occasionally, when we can each take a break from our respective two kids as well as our jobs, my former roommate Brian and I get together for lunch or dinner.  One of the many things I love about Brian is that he loves the Cheesecake Factory as much as I do (I am not a food snob and I like some chain restaurants).  I can always count on sharing crab dip, potstickers, or southwestern eggrolls before our main course.  He is an appetizer aficionado, so I always let him pick.  Likewise, Christine and I share the same size appetite.  Free and unhibited would be good words to describe me when I eat with Christine.  Our regular spot is Banthai, where she orders Thai iced coffee and I order Thai iced tea, we each order soup, she gets Larb (minced chicken with lime juice and spices), I get ped pad kaprow (crispy duck with sweet and hot sauce, basil, and Chinese broccoli). Dessert is sweet rice with mango.  It should come as no surprise that my friendships with Brian and Christine have endured extreme highs and lows of life.  The power of  a bond formed over a tasty dish is not to be underestimated.

I have long believed that good food, good eating is all about risk. Whether we’re talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime ‘associates,’ food, for me, has always been an adventure. —–Anthony Bourdain

It's no surprise that I love food as I do.  I grew up in a family that loved food and was not afraid to try even the most exotic treats.  The only challenge I could ever hope to win on Survivor is the food challenge -- I am fearless when it comes to food, and I have a cast iron stomach.  We Villamars were born and raised that way.  I've eaten dinnuguan (involves pig's blood), goat, snails, squid, beetles, frogs legs, duck embryo, and tripe.  We are a tolerant people, the Villamars, but we have no patience for those who show weakness in the face of unfamiliar food.  The fastest and surest way to be accepted into the family was to feast heartily on the concoctions served at our table.  The boyfriends my sister and I brought home -- the smart ones, anyway -- picked up on that right away.  We immediately took pity on the ones who said they would just have some salad.