Today I had what I think of as "The Perfect Lunch." Not only is it tasty, but I think it appeals to me on an ancient, basic level. The meal is simply a leftover "oven-fried" chicken drumstick, cheddar cheese cut into small sticks, and an apple cut into slim wedges. Today I had a green apple, but any apple will do.
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I think part of the appeal is knowing that if I could slice through time, stopping at any random place, I would find someone, somewhere, eating a chicken leg, an apple and some cheese. If I close my eyes, I can see myself as an ancient shepherd on top of a bright green hill eating this very same meal while keeping a careful eye on my sheep. I can be a ten-year-old kitchen worker, slipping away from the manor house with my carefully pilfered items to enjoy a lovely picnic by a babbling brook. I might be a big sweaty, blacksmith taking a break from the fires to enjoy this lovely lunch someone had packed for me that morning.
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Remains of apples have been found in ancient Stone Age villages, cheese is guessed to be around 4,000 years old, and people have been cooking and eating birds for almost ever. The three make a great combination. So try this for lunch one day and let your imagination go wild.
12 comments:
What a lovely post... add some onion in there to that simple lunch and I'm all over it! :)
Jeanette,
Eeeeew! Raw onion? That made me think of my mother though. She would have said it would only be a perfect lunch with bread added. Eating cheese without bread or crackers is like some kind of food sin to her.
Three absolutely perfect foods, and really the perfect lunch. You're rightm people have been eating those foods for millennia. And you can't get much healthier foods than that either. I have a very weird habit. I cannot go to sleep at night without having my bedtime snack of a small wedge of really old, aged (white) cheddar cheese and some red seedless grapes. I go into withdrawal if I don't have them.
Josie,
Mmmmmm, grapes and cheese. We both love the ancient foods. But every day? I appreciate any food item more when I don't have it very often. I do have chicken almost every night for dinner but I change up the cuts, the seasonings/marinades and the cooking methods. Of course, now I want some grapes.
Great lunch! All three items are yummy by themselves and fabulous together, too....! YUM!
BTW: The person you refer to as my "mom" or Step-Mom, is neither. She just happened to be married to my father, and so all she ever was to me was my fathers last wife, now widow. She is only twelve years older than me, so....it was never a "step" anything, relationship. (lol)
Lady,
Oh. Okay, I get it. My step-mom was only 13 years older than me but we were very close. I imagine if my Dad had married for a third time, we would not have had a chance to ever know each other.
What a wonderful post and a great idea. Another way to have fun with food. I am going to try that next week.
Your imagery of the shepherd on the hillside with his simple lunch is virtually poetic. I liked it.
Ian
When I eat an apple, or some other fresh fruit, I feel like I'm eating life. It's a feeling I never felt when eating dead animals in years past.
All of a sudden I'm staring at the apple and nectarine on my desk in a whole new light..
Ian and LGS,
Thanks!
Dan
When I eat a dead animal I feel like a tiger.
Jazz,
But the necatarine is only about 400 years old. Well that IS pretty old.
Your imagination sure is wild! You crack me up!
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