"I was alone in a faraway city. I wanted a quiet restaurant with a big window, to watch people drifting along the streets in all their shiny happiness."
Thank you for this piece. We just returned from dinner at our local sushi place and, after reading your description, realized just how tasteless sushi has been for me in the many other sushi joints too. sigh It's hard getting good fish in the Great Basin.
One personal sidenote, the "grittiest kebob stall reminds me of one of my own most-memorable travel food experiences, a gritty kebob-stall that I stumbled into in a small corner in the Paris flea market (the semi-famed "Marché aux Puces" if I'm being pretentious about it, but my 17-yr old self was naive and unworldly at the time). I ended up revisiting it, and it was always good, but I think the real insight here is the one Damon makes, that what he in fact would want is not exactly to eat there again, but to be back where he was eating, before -- that's what isn't going to be recaptured.
Just like that sushi roll and the salmon, this little piece is perfect. A grace note. There is an alchemy that can occur between a writer and a reader and I believe the gold can only be created if the writer is open to giving us his heart, his mind, his soul. Damon is one such writer.
Thank you for this piece. We just returned from dinner at our local sushi place and, after reading your description, realized just how tasteless sushi has been for me in the many other sushi joints too. sigh It's hard getting good fish in the Great Basin.
thanks for reposting this. its a gem!
One personal sidenote, the "grittiest kebob stall reminds me of one of my own most-memorable travel food experiences, a gritty kebob-stall that I stumbled into in a small corner in the Paris flea market (the semi-famed "Marché aux Puces" if I'm being pretentious about it, but my 17-yr old self was naive and unworldly at the time). I ended up revisiting it, and it was always good, but I think the real insight here is the one Damon makes, that what he in fact would want is not exactly to eat there again, but to be back where he was eating, before -- that's what isn't going to be recaptured.
Just like that sushi roll and the salmon, this little piece is perfect. A grace note. There is an alchemy that can occur between a writer and a reader and I believe the gold can only be created if the writer is open to giving us his heart, his mind, his soul. Damon is one such writer.
So atmospheric....and tasty!
You got me with (among many other things), the "smear of wasabi." Glorious piece indeed!