Discipline meets Decadence

My final home in Vancouver was a little bachelor suite on West Broadway. It was most enjoyable arranging my personal items in meticulous order while filling my kitchen cupboards with the latest in modern cooking essentials. Once settled in, I leaned up against the counter and looked around at my sterile, orderly apartment.

In that moment I wished I’d spent less time cracking home runs and more time apprenticing under my parents in the kitchen. Here I was with sparkling new kitchenware and not a clue what to do with it all. For some reason, my blended smoothies and rice cake sandwiches didn’t satisfy my true craving, which was to have a kitchen pulsing with life. I realized that I needed someone in my life who could spill flavor throughout a kitchen.

This was the first day that I began to intend Blair into my life, an intention that would grow over the next few years until our serendipitous meeting.

A few months into our relationship, Blair accompanied me to Montreal. While I attended a yoga workshop, he explored the city. Most excited to share little Italy with me, we walked fifty blocks to take in the Italian shops and restaurants. After a delicious pasta dinner, we sauntered by a shop selling whale tails, a gargantuan pastry with custard in the middle. Without a moment’s hesitation, he bought one for each of us, and immediately began unwrapping his decadent treat.

I just stood there watching him in shock. How could someone indulge in a dessert of that magnitude with such abandon and joy? With icing sugar sprinkled over his chin, he looked up and motioned for me to join him in savoring our Italian baked treasures.

That moment showed me just how differently we’d been reared. I grew up on skim milk and organic veggies from the garden with a mother who swore by Prevention Magazine. Blair grew up in a European community whose members expressed their love for one another through food, food and more food. It was not uncommon for his mother to drive three hours to the other side of Cape Breton Island for lunch at her favorite restaurant. It was a perfect marriage: discipline and moderation meets decadence and pleasure.

As was divinely planned, Blair has given me the tremendous gift of a new appreciation for food. He also reminds me to be fully present to what it is I’m consuming. When he’s spent a lot of time preparing a special meal, which is usually daily, he’ll dish out his masterpiece and place it before me with great anticipation. Like a world-class sculptor removing the cover to expose his latest creation, Blair will sit down across from me with a contained smile on his face and wait for my response.

Without fail, his food brings tingles to every corner of my being, nourishing me with both nutrients and the flavor of his love. Through Blair’s passion for good food, I have regained my own love for food, and learned that there are some massive drawbacks to being so stringent with my diet. Having a whole new appreciation for the movie, Like Water for Chocolate, I have realized how much a person’s attitude influences the flavor of the food they are cooking, which determines the degree of enjoyment for those receiving the meal.
To close, I’ll share my favorite NFLD grace that I repeated often while healing my relationship with food:

Those who eat beer and franks with cheer and thanks
Will likely be healthier than those who eat sprouts and bread
With doubts and dread.

With love,

Jenny

Photo by KellyNeil.com, thank you for sharing your own passion for food through your photos.