The perfect Valentine's Day dinner

My Italian hubby and myself (French Canadian) would be flown off to the Amalfi coast in Italy.. pick a little restaurant on the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean and Voila!

Although...Paris sounds great too... Amsterdam? Strasbourgh?.... Can you tell that I have a dream... Eat My Way Through Europe.... one day...

The picture simply says "hotlinking pictures is a sin". Hm.

Here you go, at least until Rod's chats with the blogger so adapted are published as Conversations with Zeigermann (don't Goethe there...):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94642887@N00/72917150/

Apparently, someone thinks it takes Brassai *boules* to run iconic snaps...

Somewhere in Japan. Not Tokyo; probably some small city in the Aomori Prefecture. The menu would *not* include whale, but what it would include I don't really know.

My husband spent several years there long before we met, and he's always wanted to show me around the area. I think food would be an afterthought; he'd definitely want to spend a few of our precious fairy-godmother provided moments in a music store, and there are some locales he's talked about or has pictures of that I'd like to see for myself, even though with the passage of time I'm sure some of them are rather different from what he remembers.

It may not be everyone's idea of romance, but I hate plane trips and we'll probably never be able to afford airfare and hotel accommodations to Japan anyway, so I wouldn't squander magic instantaneous transportation on anything else. Getting to take a first-hand glimpse at the source of some of his fondest memories would be romantic enough for me, even if we never got around to a proper romantic dinner at all.

Santiago de Compostela, Spain. With a room in the Parador Los Reyes Catolicos that looks out on the Plaza del Obradoiro and across at the cathedral. In the late afternoon, particularly after one of Galicia's frequent rains, when the granite cobblestones and the Churrigueresque facade of the cathedral glisten in the sunlight, there is no more stunning place in Christendom. I'm convinced that the Second Coming will take place there, and after the main event, everyone will fan out to the tavernas and tapas bars in the old city to drink vinho verde, eat succulent vieras and picorocos, some to smoke Cuban cigars in the twilight, listen and dance to Galician celtic bar bands, and end with an espresso and a slice of Torta de Santiago (essentially butter, ground almond flour, and an egg or so) and a walk home. For my wife and me, a return visit to the most romantic city we know would involve several of these things, under the towers of the Cathedral where all the statues smile.

Richard

LOL - very funny Scott! Took me a moment to get it as unlike you, I have a very pure, unsullied mind (some sarcasm intended) ... but don't anyone think I was being clever or punny re: the Strait of Juan de Fuca -- I really just love that part of the world.

ice cream on the Ile St. Louis

Ah, Berthillon! I tried Earl Grey tea flavored ice cream there some years back. Extraordinary stuff.

Canned mackerel from Family Dollar on whole wheat from the Sara Lee thrift store, sprinkled with hot sauce, paprika, and parsley from the former's two-for-$1 rack, and deli Muenster on whole wheat, dressed alike. A cup of Hills Bros coffee with store-brand nondairy creamer, alongside a glass of bubbly (Coke Zero), and another of Peach Apricot Naturally Flavored Sparkling Beverage. (Just) Dessert: a handful of Nordic Sweets Salty Licorice Fish. Seated Indian-fashion surfing the web with my constant companion, my beloved laptop PC, on my by-the-month motel bed in the Yooper Peninsula of Michigan, as thick wet snow falls outside to light winds at temps of 20 F., listening to The New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, and Tegan and Sara streaming on XM satellite radio's all-Canadian indie-pop channel 52 ("The Verge"), with The Beverly Hillbillies on TVLand on the TV in the background (avoiding always all non-local TV news like death).

My ideal Valentine's Day thus enacts itself as I type, in ways identical to its 364/5 calendrical siblings across what Joseph Wood Krutch called "The Twelve Seasons". Time for another cup of Hills Bros, and another of Coke Zero...I couldn't ask for more.

Mmm, canned mackerel, the poor man's sushi. I rather like it, though it's been awhile since I had to eat it.

I'm not so into fine restaurants, perhaps from lack of practice. There's a place called Wawona Point at the top of the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite. We hiked up there once, through the last snowfall of the year, just after they'd opened the park, and ate our sandwiches, sitting on the stone wall of the overlook and dangling our feet, accompanied by a large and scarily intelligent looking raven. I'd like to dine there on Valentine's Day! But I imagine the snow is rather deep. Barring that, maybe somewhere in Sleeping Bear, looking out over the blue blue water of the north end of Lake Michigan. That's probably covered with snow right now, too. If I could get there, I'd take some hot coffee and cold champagne, good whole grain bread and a little cheese and smoked fish, and whatever fruit is ripe and juicy--it's all out of season in February, so not very crunchy to have strawberries, but a transgression a day keeps boredom away.

What we actually had tonight was improvised. I had plans but then spent an hour on the phone with a friend who was having a little spiritual crisis. Odd as it may seem to some readers, people tend to call me at such times. Mr. Sig arrived home after two days away. Before that, he'd made some rather delicious baked beans with peppers in them, so I blenderized them with a can of tomato basil soup and garnished it with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of pico de gallo. It was pink and white, spicy but mellow. It was accompanied by what we call "toasty cheese," a staple food around here. Slice up cheese (manchego in this case), put it on bread (a dark rye) and put it under broiler till it's golden and crusty. (Deli Muenster is good too!)

For dessert we had ice cream with strawberries and chocolate syrup. Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Pear and Pecan is really good! I have declared that Valentine's Day lasts all weekend this year, so this is only the overture.

"Spicy but mellow" --> somehow that makes me think of you, Sig! Hope you and the Mr. had a wonderful day (and weekend).

It doesn't matter so much what we have for dinner. The romantic part is that only Mr. Pringle gets a fork.

Mrs. Pringle
(sigh)

Thanks, Jim! Same to you and yours!

I did think of a restaurant to which I'd like my beloved and me to be flown by angels, if possible. But I had to look up the spelling. It's Aux Dodus D'Audhuy, in Duravel, in southern France. It's sort of halfway between Saint-Martin-le-Redon and Puy L'Eveque, if you need directions. It's an old farmhouse that was being renovated by a couple from Paris, and turned into a restaurant. It was a mild summer night, and they'd set up a long table on the hilltop, in the garden, with the doors to the house wide open so you could look into the gorgeous tile and copper kitchen as they cooked. I was with a large group of assorted artists and friends, and we all sat around the table sipping delicious local wine as a gorgeous pink and lavender sunset flared and faded over the hills, and the stars began to come out. This area of France is famous for duck, foie gras, walnut groves, lavender, and fruits like pears and raspberries. So you can imagine any kind of combination of these things in culinary delights. Oh, and various terrines of fresh vegetables, and delicate salads of endive and other tasty greens. And delicious cheeses. It was a fairy-tale dinner. I'd go back there in a heatbeat!