Samedi en croute!

Good evening, what a night I have had! You wouldn't think it could be so much fun to stay inside an apartment during a whole Samedi soir - and yet, I feel so alive. A few days ago I was in a small restaurant drinking cafe after lunch. Everyone else had left but of course I was in no hurry. No office, no hurry. Bien. And so. After a while the chef comes into the restaurant area and we begin to chat - about apples, and shoes, and the seasons. It was such a beautiful, flowing conversation. And he was so handsome and dark, like a Greek athlete or something. Anyway, he asked why I had chosen the cassoulet and not the steak, when the steak was Argentinian steak and really the best boeuf in the world and I replied that really, steak was like trying to eat something that doesn't want to be eaten - you can't cut it with the knife, you can't chew it - and then you have to swallow it whole and have pains in the stomach because really you have ingested a tyre of cow meat in large pieces. He laughed at me. 'You are so wrong, mademoiselle.' he said. 'Let me cook you a steak sometime. It will be like eating melting velvet.' 'You think so?' I said. And subsequently, tonight, after he finished work, this delicious man came to my apartment with his own equipment and as we talked he began to prepare the most delicious production. And he was so passionate with his work. At one point we were so lost in each others company that he let the reduction burn and in a moment of rage he took the small pan and threw it through the window into the night! It really was thrilling. He apologised for his culinary error. But it was a perfect outcome. When we ate the steak unaccompanied but for the wine it was so good! And yes, like melting velvet. Oh what a wonderful man and a wonderful night. How lucky we are to have such encounters as this. Lzb