Food is more than just sustenance for me - it is a passion. I spend time reading about the food industry, gardening, and cooking. I watch cooking shows and gardening shows. I garden and obviously I cook - alot. I read cookbooks like other people read novels. I love to grocery shop. I was recently telling a friend about my first trip to a Whole Foods Market. I was very animated in the telling. He laughed, saying I was one of the few people he knew who could get excited about a grocery store (of course he is a "foodie," himself so he totally understood). I usually plan tentative dinner menus for the week on Sunday, but often am thinking about alternatives while I am eating breakfast. My husband, on the other hand, is one of those people who thinks about what to make for dinner around five o'clock! He looks at me like
I am crazy if I try to discuss dinner plans with him at seven in the morning. It takes me weeks to plan a menu for a dinner party. Everything has to be taken into consideration - colors, textures, flavors, scents, seasons, atmosphere.
I can remember even as a teenager paying attention to these things: taking a walk on a sunny fall afternoon with an apple in hand - its' skin a dappled red and green, probably a Macintosh; the scent of drying grass in the air; enough of a chill to require a light jacket; the trees ablaze with russet reds, maroon, orange, and gold; the sunlight soft and filtered; that first bite of apple; the crunchy, crisp texture, the sweet-tart flavor, the juice running down my hand. Apples and autumnal walks are forever companions in my memory.
Food memories are created when we pay attention to involving all of our senses. I love to take out-of-town guests on a picnic to the Napa Valley wineries to do just that. There are many excellent restaurants in the Napa Valley, however, eating outside provides the opportunity to not just experience food, but the place, as well as the season. Besides visiting a few wineries, I like to stop at several different locations along the way to pick up food for our picnic. Sonoma is a favorite place to begin. There is the Sonoma Bakery for bread and pastries, then the Sonoma Cheese Factory for cheese. There is also a wonderful French bakery in Yountville which is directly on the way to St. Helena, our usual destination. We always visit the Sattatui Winery in St. Helena. The wine tasting is still free, plus they have a fantastic deli with oodles of different kinds of cheese along with other wonderful things to eat, including pates. The winery grounds are lush and lovely dotted with a generous supply of tables so visitors may enjoy their purchases on site, but my favorite spot to picnic is our last stop - the Napa Olive Oil Factory.
The Napa Olive Oil Factory is housed in a small white wooden building at the end of a dead end street. It resembles a garage from the outside, but inside it is what I imagine an old Italian grocery store might be like. You step across the threshold, inhale, and immediately are transported by the scent of cheese, dried mushrooms, and herbs. The lighting is a bit dim and the ceilings low, but the two small rooms are filled from top to bottom with all manner of good things to eat. Salami and other dry sausages hang in rows from the ceiling. Dried, earthy smelling mushrooms sit loose in a huge open barrel. The Olive Oil Factories' olives and herbs are all packaged in small clear plastic bags; their olive oil in simple glass quart size bottles or gallon jugs. An old open refrigerator case holds fresh sausages like soppresatta as well as fresh cheeses like mascarpone, ricotta, and little balls of mozzarella. We always buy some of the giant green olives (theirs of course), and sometimes the shriveled, salty, oil cured black olives; a small Italian dry salami, a bag of the best grated Parmesan cheese ever, and real Italian Fontina cheese. Wheels of Fontina are kept in a glass case with several other varieties of cheese. Chunks of cheese are hand-sliced as needed, wrapped in white butcher paper, and tied up with string. There is no fancy cash register. The owners simply total your purchase with a pencil on a piece of scrap paper, then pile everything into a paper bag or a cardboard box. Outside, next to the gravel parking lot, is a small picnic area with a half-dozen or so old wooden tables set up in a grove of olive trees.There are never any crowds to compete with here. We spread our well-used table cloth on one of the tables, open a bottle of wine, and share the repast we have picked up along the way. Cheese, salami, bread, wine and olives - a simple meal that tastes oh-so-rich when eaten out of doors. The sun is warm on our backs. The sound of bees can be heard. We can smell the scent of rosemary blooming close by and can imagine ourselves transported to some spot in the Mediterranean. If we are lucky, we will also have deliciously sweet, decadent French pastries to enjoy for dessert. Our guests always remember this experience.
You don't have to take a picnic to wine country to have an "eating experience," however. All that is necessary is to become fully aware while you are eating. Be mindful. Inhale the scent of each dish, inhale the scent of your surroundings. Pay attention to the color of the food, the colors around you; the composition the food creates on your plate; the texture as well as the flavor of the food. What is the mood or atmosphere of the place where you are eating? Is there music playing? What is the lighting like? Is it warm or cool? Being aware of all of these things helps us to more fully enjoy and appreciate the food we are eating. It helps to create "food memories."
I am a huge fan of picnics, however, and believe everyone should have at least one bonafide picnic basket, something that says "romance," or "adventure." It needs to have an identity that sets it apart from other baskets and containers. I have three. I keep one stocked with a table cloth, cutting board, bread knife, salt and pepper, paper plates and napkins, plastic flatware and cups, and a wine bottle opener. We can just grab a cooler andpick up and go should the mood strike. So, here's to creating food memories, be it picnics or a dinner on your own patio. Pay attention, be aware, and enjoy!
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