One more thing

Tara just reminded me I left out the one of the good parts to that dinner...

When we were seated at Ribouldingue, a finely dressed older Frenchwoman occupied the table next to ours. She had just received her amuse bouche and bottle of white wine as we received our menus. As we were browsing the foreign words, using the culinary dictionary to actually understand what was on offer, she leaned over to Tara and, lifting her white wine from its tableside cooler, haltingly offered in English to give us a taste if we were interested. Either bewildered by the goings-on of the menu and the restaurant or uncertain of the commitment that would entail, both of us politely shook our heads and waved our hands to indicate we were alright.

After our appetizer plates were taken away, she leaned in again and asked, “are you for the first time in Paris?” From there, she no longer sat alone. Though her English was limited and our French was nonexistent, she told us about though she lives about 35 minutes north of Paris she likes to treat herself to a nice meal at a good restaurant at least once a month. Generally one of her friends from work joins her, but not that evening. She is 70, with two grown daughters – one of them, with her grandchild, live in San Diego. She showed me a picture of the granddaughter when Tara was in the bathroom.

She complimented me on my ordering – she seemed to approve of the brain and kidney – after all, she had the latter, though not as rare as I did. Our wine, she also approved of, though haltingly. “A white would have been better with the kidney, but that rose … it is ok with everything.” However, she gently chided Tara for her order. The cod seemed to upset her especially – she insisted that when going to a restaurant famous for the “insides” it is not appropriate to order the cod. And our desserts – Tara’s sorbet and my ice cream – these are things we could get anywhere.

Before settling her check, she asked the waitress for the menu and pointed out several items we must order when we return to the restaurant, her favorites from over her many visits.