soopastryheart

When Boyfriend and I are traveling, I will center itineraries around the restaurants I want to try. Brunch is a near exclusive destination for quality time with girlfriends, as are happy hours. When I’m visiting my parents, I will be fed by my mother every two hours, no less, perhaps more. I get irritated when menus are far too extensive, because realistically, I want to try more things than my stomach will allow. Our social and intimate lives revolve around food, which is entirely the reason I could never diet (also, the total lack of self control), so I can’t imagine not being able to enjoy it as voraciously as I do now.

That’s why this article struck me as so heartbreaking. And hungry. Don’t take your stomach for granted.

It had been a long time since I had experienced such satisfying fullness. There was comfort and exuberance, a familiar feeling like a long embrace, a coming in from the cold — that I fear I will not know again. I know I will mourn my loss. Because for me, food — and eating it with abandon — is about shared experience. It’s about love and memory and the capacity to conquer even the worst hours with something warm and wonderful.

-excerpt from Anna Stoessinger’s 2011 article in the New York Times.