Friday November 25, 2022; 7:33 AM EST
- The contrasts in the common Thanksgiving dinner menu around here came to mind. Textures of meat, dressing, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, the crunch of cranberry sauce, for example. The blend of flavors of those, as well as a couple of contrasting slivers of pie on the plate at the end of the meal. I was thinking about back at Howard Johnson's when I was 19, leaning over the grill and the fryer for hours at a time, catching the aroma of beef on the griddle and fries in the hot oil, the same relentless aroma. When break time came, we were allowed a free choice of dinner up to a certain price. Sorry, no fried clams, no fried chicken. Most of what was allowed was cooked in the same overheated grease I'd been inhaling as a short order cook for the previous hours, and it was hard to want anything to do with that food at break time. But there was a reuben sandwich, which contrasted beautifully, which cut through and refreshed my sense of food during the short break. Or the open hot turkey sandwich with potatoes and gravy, too. Part of what makes a meal work, then, even in circumstances of stale air and drudgery, is a contrast that refreshes. It's a simple insight, one most people probably don't need to be told about, but it's come clear to me finally.#