Table for One

One of the hardest things during my travels, other than sleeping in dirty hostels with smelly backpackers, living out of a backpack with only 4 changes of clothing and adjusting to a new country, language and time zone every few days, was getting comfortable with walking into a restaurant and asking for a table for one...and not feeling embarrassed or lame about it. Eating alone at a restaurant, especially a nicer one, is a difficult feat for a city yuppie like me who is used to having company. (However, eating with a new friend (i.e. other travelers you have just met) is a difficult task as well...often as awkward as a first date with a total stranger - I generally preferred not to) Where are you supposed to look when you dine out alone? Down at your food the entire time? Across the table to the empty space in front of you? Around at the other diners? I often saw other solo diners reading while eating, which I often did as well, but I consider this kind of cheating. After many many dinners a une, I can now proudly say that I have no qualms about dining alone or asking for a table for one.

Most people when eating alone (whether out or at home), tend to eat something fast and simple, mostly to fill their stomachs. At home, it's often in front of the TV or computer. Dining out, it's often fast food. When left to my own devices, I have to admit, I often just eat a bowl of cereal or frozen dinner or a dinner made up of a handful of chips, a piece of fruit, a glass of milk and a couple pieces of kimchi, if I have any (kimchi turns any snack into a meal for me). But sometimes, like today, I'll see something at the grocery store that inspires me to fix myself a real dinner. I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home to pick up some milk, saw cartons of white kadota figs (which are mild and sweet with a green-tinged light purple skin and a beautiful fleshy pink inside) and immediately knew I had to have them. So dinner today was a plate of juicy organic figs cut into quarters topped with soft mounds of fresh ricotta cheese sprinkled with a tiny bit of sea salt and drizzled with honey. OMG it was so decadent, so Berkeley-yuppie (i.e. fresh, organic food obsessed), but oh so frikking good.