At long last...

It's been ages since I've had a real update here, hasn't it? I humbly offer a rough draft of a poem, written tonight as I enjoyed a piece of pie.

----

Fork Country


My people don't hold much truck with spoons.

Spoons have their places, namely stirring coffee in the cup
assuming it's not consumed black.

This is fork country:
For all that the places are set with spoons,
They go back, unused, to the silverware drawer at the end of the meal.

Meat and potatoes and bread and butter
Grace the plates across the table.
Green beans or swiss chard, stewed in the second-largest kettle
Served in a separate dish, for those who like it that way.

A butter knife and three-tined fork are all you'll ever need.

Save your fork for later:
Dessert is mincemeat pie from this year's deer,
God be thanked.
Square pie: done in a baking pan with two-inch-high sides
Still boiling hot and smelling great clear out the dooryard.

There's no call for serrated knives in this house:
All straight-edged blades, pick your choice
Razor sharp in the knife block
Just come back from sharpening in Uncle Phil's basement shop.

Grampy and Grammy and Momma and I each eat a slice,
Served on the thin blade of the cutting knife,
Placed on saucers by Grammy's own two hands.
The crust is the best crust anyone could make,
The filling's pretty darn good, not bad at all, considering
the apples and oranges and raisins were all free.

Grampy eats his with his favorite paring knife
Blade worn to a crescent curving out the bone handle.
He cuts the crust into bites and forks them up.
Grammy pinches stray crumbs with her fingers,
sliding them onto her fork and into her mouth.
Momma eyes the dish-- she'd like a sliver or a whole piece more.
And I think about spoons. I don't need one, but I want one.

But this is fork country,
And I'd be a fool to ask.

----

I know, I know. It's still pretty rough and needs trimming. Nonetheless, I'm fairly pleased with it so far. (Yes, the pie I ate tonight was indeed my grandmother's mincemeat. ^_^ The crust was store-bought, but it still tastes pretty good.)

I've been watching old episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations lately, and it made me wonder: if he were to visit my state, what would we show him, as far as local cuisine goes? Frankly, I don't know of any restaurants that really cover the sort of food my family cooks and eats, and I consider us to be true locals. (I know, I'm being prejudiced about out-of-staters.) I mean, what does my state have? We have a lot of mediocre chain restaurants, a lot of fast food joints, and some half-assed attempts at "fine dining." There are lots of American Chinese restaurants (not to be confused with the Chinese food one would actually find in China.) Honestly? My two favorite restaurants are independently owned pancake houses.

Anyway, I must away!

~Later