a wandering woman writes

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Coming Home


Yours truly in Antwerp. I'm the one behind the camera - and the De Koninck.

*****
My garden is dead.

Long live my garden.

Five days, and it looks like Joshua Tree out there. Except for the geraniums, which I've decided are either some strange genetically modified species developed in the Mojave, or visiting aliens disguised as geraniums.

OK, I brought my Belgian hostess a copy of Eduardo Mendoza's Sin Noticias de Gurb and now I'm seeing aliens everywhere. But I really do suspect my geraniums.

The best part of coming home to Spain after 5 days in Belgium:

The sun.

And hearing Spanish all around me. I never notice myself eavesdropping, but, man, it's annoying not to understand conversations (those that supposedly include me and those that do not.)

The worst part of coming home?

The sun.

My garden's dead, after all, and I can't find anywhere cool enough to store the chocolates a very generous Belgian chocolate-box salesman sent me home with. Another new friend-of-a Belgian-friend packed me up 15 different Belgian beers, since my list of the 8 I'd already test-driven struck him as insufficient. Apparently I have 400 and some-odd to go. I highly recommend Belgium, but make sure you hook up with the natives; in my experience they shower you with gifts.

*********
And my favorite ok-the-world-just-has-no-idea-who-we-are-although-I-am-the-first-to-admit-our-myriad-flaws American line of the weekend? During a pre-party cooking jam, my favorite part of any party:

Wow, you really know your way around a kitchen.

Especially for an American.

And the reply to my bewildered - For an American??

Well, since you all don't really cook.
You know, other than hamburgers.

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posted by Erin at 10:22 PM

2 Comments:

  • Lol. Americans don't cook? Why do they think that?

    Being from the South, I find that particularly offensive! Haha.

    I guess it is because there aren't any foods that are considered traditionally, culturally "American".

    Grits and fried chicken! Haven't they ever heard of it??? =)

    By Blogger melusina, at 5:15 PM  

  • Yeh. OK.
    But isn't cooking cooking even when the dish wasn't developed within a few miles of where you are cooking it?

    I really like the person who (very innocently) blurted it out, so I didn't have the heart to tell her (as I spent a day looking at what she's got stocked in her pantry) that I was raised by a woman who would rather die than feed me prepared food. Jarred pasta sauce. Or a canned vegetable.
    ----

    And chicken-fried steak, to add to your American food list. :-) Macaroni and cheese, do we get the credit for that one? Meatloaf maybe?

    By Blogger Erin, at 11:41 PM  

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