Tuesday, September 26, 2006

why does food taste better outdoors?

This is a perennial question, first asked by (I believe) Lucy in the Enid Blyton's XXX of Adventure series (Castle of Adventure, Island of Adventure, and so on), and more lately, by kitchenhand on his excellent blog, What I cooked last night. My answer is I don't know, but also, who cares, because it does, and we should just accept this and then go forth and eat as many meals out of doors as the weather will permit.
On my writing weekend, I ate most breakfasts and some lunches on the deck, and all snacks on the beach. Dinners were formally served in the dining room, but the appetizer course was eaten on the deck, with various forms of alcohol. As Virginia Woolf is my witness, it did taste better. See above, a 7-layer dip that was devoured not long after this picture was taken.
I took brownies (see here), and made a curried vegetable dish, for which there is neither picture nor recipe. It was the kind of dish which arises out of what vegetables are available and look good (onions, green and hot peppers, potatoes, corn, cherry tomatoes) and comes together with a pinch of this and a grating of that.
We were also well-supplied with chocolate, which as everyone knows is crucial to the writing process.

8 comments:

Liz said...

Food also tastes better when you're on the water. I don't know why.

My, you have some excellent taste in chocolate. :)

Gina Ventre said...

Good chocolate!

That 7-layer dip looks foodgasmic (I'm disappointed that I didn't think of that term before Rachael Ray started using it.)

Anonymous said...

Writing, the great outdoors, chocolate. What is it about those things that send a person into heaven? Here's to many al fresco meals before fall becomes winter.

holly_44109 said...

Our contractor's name is Artistic Renovation. So far we've been really happy with them!

Anonymous said...

Ah. Yes. Will write for chocolate. Have a fab weekend!

mary grimm said...

I'm revising my novel now and I'm afraid to try and figure out just how much chocolate I've been inhaling. Half a Lindt 70% and part of a Dagoba bar just today.

susan grimm said...

I believe that chocolate eaten during intense revision doesn't count for calories or caffeine.!!

Anonymous said...

Delicious.

Oddly enough, I didn't know the source of the question as originally asked, but perhaps it was in my mind subconsciously from childhood. You see, coincidentally, or ironically, the URL of my blog was actually inspired by one of Enid Blyton books!

I wrote about it in the following post:

http://verygoodcooking.blogspot.com/2004/06/hungry-for-reading.html