YOU GROW HUNGRIER

Dear Spike:

We took your grandparents out to eat at the Red Iguana, one of our favorite restaurants, on the west side of town this evening.
You flirted with the staff and stole the lime from my margarita and went gonzo all over your tres leches cake. The rest of us dined on lovely moles and battered, stuffed, pickled jalapeños, and amazing cochintias pibil, and spicy puntas de filete.

Sometimes food is just food. But once in a while it is an experience unto itself — a centerpiece for an entire evening of enchanted conversation.

I'm not smart about food. Not like our good friend Lesli, who writes about food like Shakespeare wrote about love. But I do know when I'm having an experience, as opposed to a simple meal. And when that occurs, I do my best to play proper homage.

There are a few places our family dines at which we can always count on an experience, and at which I imagine you'll be challenging your palate as you grow hungrier for food and for life. For Mexican, it's the Red Iguana. For Lebanese, it's Mazza. For Sudanese, alas, there is no standing restaurant in town, but there is a group of refuge women that often opens shop in a little stand at festivals and the farmer's market. For meatball sandwiches and Philly cheesesteaks, it's Moochie's. And for pizza, it's The Pie.

If there's a joy that stands above all others in the overly blessed country we live in, it just might be our access to the great foods of the world. And if there is one great national shame, it just might be the transaturated Trojan horse we've delivered to the world in the form of places like McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell.

As I've told you many times before, there is a time and a place for everything — even for fast food.

But when you have a choice, choose to treat food as more than a quick-fix for a rumbling belly. Choose the experience.

Choose to be enchanted.

Love,
dad

P.S. — Your mother tells me that, because your grandparents paid for our meal this evening, they took us out for dinner. But since I drove the car, I'm sticking to my story.