Vodka and Mongolian Rocks

I slept in. I’m feeling a little lazy today. There is no great inspiration here, at my end, to provoke any deep thoughts or ideas for myself or for anybody else. I hope that today is just a silly day.

Speaking of silly, when my family and I were on vacation, trying to find a place to eat, we started laughing about restaurants which serve artistic, small morsels of food and how they describe those delicate bites. While I have a deep appreciation for great chefs and their creative endeavors, after hiking all day and burning up thousands of calories, that type of gourmet eatery was not the kind of restaurant that we were looking for, to serve us dinner. We were tired and starving and punchy, so we started laughing at the pretentious way those teeny nibbles are often described. We laughed at how restaurants often describe flavors of food.

“This exquisite lamb nibble is touched with just a hint of rosemary, a suggestion of coriander, an idea of cayenne, a whisper of brandy, a notion of saffron and an impression of tarragon.” Wow, they were able to do all of that in that microscopic kernel of meat topped with a sprig, a z-shaped sauce on the small plate, and an edible flower?!? Culinary chemistry at its best.

I guffawed out loud when my husband added, “Don’t forget that it has an aura of chervil.”

Would you like some vodka with your Mongolian rocks?

(Above picture taken from an article in The Village Voice entitled “Our 10 Most Pretentious Restaurants”)