Type of Progym: Narrative
Watching Anthony Burdain eat an array of unique dishes in Egypt is certain to make anyone hungry and extremely jealous of him in the best way possible. I’m sure everyone right now would love to be in a foreign country having a delicious meal they wouldn’t get anywhere else. Seeing him have such an array of food had me reminiscing on all the delicious meals I’ve had during visits to other places. While I would give anything right now to have some cochinillo in Segovia or bratwurst in Berlin, my mind can’t stop thinking about the exquisite food I had at a random restaurant in DC. A couple of days before starting college, I met up with a friend who lives near DC before she left for college in New York. She found a Spanish tapas restaurant called Estadio, which neither of us had heard before but we decided to try out anyway. It was probably the best decision of our entire lives. We didn’t realize it was a tapas place, so we accidentally ordered one dish each. Not only did I make a fool of myself by trying to order a drink and then realizing I wasn’t of age (where I come from it is legal to drink if you’re over 18), she was extremely confused by our small order. I had the garlic shrimp and my friend had grilled calamari, which were both extremely delicious. While we were shocked to see such small plates come back, which we had already been warned about, we still enjoyed them more than anything. After finishing our seafood, both of us decided we wanted to try more things. Still not following the “rules” of a tapas restaurant, which is to order dishes for the table and share them, we both got the exact same thing: a classic Spanish bocadillo, which is just a sandwich with Serrano ham and Manchego cheese. Once again, even though it was a simple sandwich, it tasted like nothing we had ever had before. I’m a huge chocolate lover and dessert person, so I had my eye on the flourless chocolate cake served with caramel ice cream. I’m normally not a fan of caramel, but the way it paired with the chocolate-ness of the cake made it perfect. It was so good, both of us still constantly think about it. The cake had us wanting even more, so we ended up ordering another piece, which may seem extreme, but it was completely worth it. While we left completely full and with a “food baby”, we didn’t regret a thing. To this day, it is still one of my favorite meals I’ve had not only during my time in DC but in general. If I had pictures of what we had I’d include them, but we were too captivated by our meals to even think of photographing them. I may be overselling this place because I’m extremely hungry right now, but it was still an amazing meal we both still think of more than a year later.
One reply on “Good Food and Good Memories”
I think you did a really good job of providing the narrative progym, and I like your choice of title, as it is very Bourdain-esque. I think if there was something to work in it might be in connecting your narrative back to some greater idea, or how it was connected to travel. I think you did a good job of saying why you remember this event, but you could of perhaps gone further and said something about what greater meaning it had for you. Otherwise, your writing here is really descriptive and mouth-watering, which is great.