Food for Thought

Just after we started dessert, it occurred to me that if I were a real blogger, I would have been taking pictures of the meal to post here. Dinner at Horizons in Philly isn’t quite like dinner anywhere else. Many of the patrons aren’t vegetarian, much less vegan, so the fact that this vegan restaurant is packed all the time is a testament to the quality and creativity of the menu. I love that there is no fake meat and no fake cheese – just really excellent, complex, lovely food. I always describe it as the best food I’ve ever had, vegan or otherwise, and tonight was no exception. It was well worth the nearly two hour drive each way on a dark and stormy night, which is high praise if you know how I get about driving in the rain in the dark. I have a mild astigmatism in one eye, and consequently the combination of lights and water make me lose depth perception and completely freak out. It is actually better if I am the one driving (as Scott can attest), because when I am in the passenger seat, it feels like being on a roller coaster, only without the tracks, and with strobe lights flashing in my face. And also, maybe I have control issues.

I have been thinking recently that it might be time for me to look into getting glasses, and this was confirmed as we drove into Philly and Erin could read a street sign before I could read it. She told me this outright -that if she can see better than anyone it’s a problem-  and as proof went on to describe how even with glasses, she can really only see if she tilts her head a certain way to look through one part of the lens. So, yes, it’s confirmed. Monday morning I’ll be making an appointment with an optometrist. I’ve been avoiding wearing the glasses I have for years, mostly because I didn’t want to get dependent on them, but lately it has been more that I don’t want to admit that any part of me is declining. Still, I have always found glasses wildly sexy, so I guess it’s not so bad. Of course, I have found them wildly sexy on men. Who aren’t me. I suppose I could find a man to wear them for me, but I don’t think glasses work that way.

Dinner was fabulous. After appetizers, Erin had the pacific rim grilled tofu, and I had the grilled seitan. We were having a nice chat about lots of things, among them Harry Potter (she has a Ravenclaws for Obama tshirt!), and I gave my little ardent missive in defense of J.K. Rowling’s ability as a storyteller, and the value of this outside the realm of literary fiction. I finished my dinner before Erin finished hers, and as I was waiting for her to finish, my mind started to wander, and I had the thought that hey, maybe, just maybe I could find a very subtle way to work a Harry Potter reference into my next tattoo. Then I told Erin about the dorkiest thing I have ever thought in my life and we had a nice laugh. Still… maybe Gryffndor colors? Although, I probably would have been a Ravenclaw. Yeah, no doubt about that.

Wait, where was I? Right. Dinner at Horizons, my favorite restaurant in the world. You know how sometimes women get all faux-orgasmic about chocolate, like every piece of chocolate is the most sensual experience ever? Well, I love chocolate tons, but tonight I had an autumn parfait -candied pears, cinnamon (soy) ice cream, figs, and some kind of spice cake- that was absolutely, positively, otherworldly. About halfway through, I realized that I was staring off into space and I hadn’t said anything in a long, long time. It took a moment to identify the exact sensation, but there it was: I felt stoned. Super stoned. That parfait could have been a great big purple bong (hellllooo google analytics) for the way I felt. In a way, it’s like cutting out the middleman – going right from zero to blissed out / turned on / munchies without the actual pot. Quite an accomplishment for a cute little dessert.

The drive back was even worse than the drive there, but I was still all stoned from the autumn parfait, so I didn’t really mind driving home at forty miles per hour in the rain.