Seize the Day
Nora
Ephron died this week at age seventy-one. For those
unfamiliar with her work, Ephron was an American writer, director, scenarist,
and comic essayist, best known for her work on the romantic comedies When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle and for her essay I Feel Bad About My Neck. What I most admired about Ephron was that she
could take serious subjects such as aging and dying and put a comical spin on
them. I also love the fact that in her
last book, I Remember Nothing, Paris
makes the top ten list of things she would most miss in life. One profound statement from Ephron concerned
having one’s last meal. True to form as
a food lover and humorist, she didn’t look at it in a depressing way, but as
having as much of food you love right now and not waiting till the end of life. As she put it in a 2010 interview with
Charlie Rose, "When you are actually going to have your last meal, you'll
either be too sick to have it or you aren't gonna know it's your last meal and
you could squander it on something like a tuna melt and that would be ironic.
So it's important ... I feel it's important to have that last meal today,
tomorrow, soon."
So in this
spirit of Carpe Diem, I thought I
would muse on food and drinks I intend to have more of while I can still enjoy them. Champagne immediately comes to mind! Not just any bubbly, either, mind you—the good
stuff. We have found that brut champagne is often so dry it evaporates
from the palate before you can really savor it.
My two favorite sparkling wines, it will surprise no one who knows me,
come from France. A long time preference
Perrier-Jouet has been in recent years supplanted by Moët & Chandon’s
delightful Nectar Impérial. This beautifully golden concoction has a
slight hint of apricots and honey. It would
be delicious served with a spicy Cajun shrimp, a nice crusted, grilled tuna steak, pan-fried scallops with a hint of lemon, or even
a crabmeat roll—a few of my preferred seafood dishes.
Being a
southern girl, I am a meat lover, specifically beef. Although it’s not something I’d have every
day because of health implications, as a pleasant final meal, a nice rib eye steak cooked over
charcoal would probably make the cut. Or
a lovely standing rib roast, I can’t quite decide between the two. Alongside either, I’d choose to have
garlic mashed potatoes, a spinach or Greek salad, and fresh, grilled
asparagus. Can’t forget the wine here
either: a Pinot Noir from Bourgogne preferably if price is of no concern,
but a good one from Oregon or California would do in a pinch.
Buttery, garlicky escargots would be a delight as well with a red Burgundy. Not to mention an array of French cheeses—above all a nice chèvre—with a fresh baguette.
Finally,
we come to dessert. The French win again
in this category. I’d have to choose among several possible recipes: a velvety chocolate pot de crème, a creamy crème brûlée, or if
cherries are in season, the simple, but appetizing Cherry Clafoutis. There’s another dessert toward the end of the
cookbook Jacques and Julia Cooking at
Home which is a flaky, free-form fruit galette which would also be a quite
tasty option. And if I’m so inclined, I
might top off the dessert course with a small glass of sweet, but not too syrupy
port. There you have it: a somewhat hastily drawn, but fairly accurate list of foods that I intend to continue to enjoy.
2 comments:
That is interesting... My last meal would have to be 15 courses! Shrimp, Crab, Salad (Greek of course), French baguette flown in from the finest French Boulangerie (2 loaves..) lamb, steak, french fries, and cheesecake topped with strawberries!
Good one, Lisa! I agree about the baguette(s) and lamb especially. It is hard to narrow the list down!
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