Food Flirting Fia
Whenever I go to a restaurant, I almost always wind up ordering some kind of salad because I’m a vegetarian and because I’m allergic to calories – they make my hips swell. But while I’m chomping my way through a virtuous bowl of low fat, low cholesterol and low in flavor salad leaves like a rabbit impersonator, my eyes drift to tables within my line of sight in an attempt to glean what other diners are eating. Once, I almost fell out of my chair while craning my neck after a plate of grilled prawns a waiter carried past me on a tray. I admit it; I have a problem. I can’t stop myself from salivating over other people’s food even though it has gotten me into trouble on more than one occasion…Some years ago, a friend and I were having dinner at a quaint Italian restaurant situated in a charmingly dilapidated courtyard. For once, I hadn’t ordered a salad because my friend had insisted that I should try some “real” food. But even in the presence of a heavenly cheesy pizza, my glance wandered to the couple at the table next to us. The woman had a plate of grilled fish in front of her, which only looked mildly interesting to me. The man, on the other hand, was tucking into a plate of ravioli. While I was busy trying to figure out if the ravioli was stuffed with lobster or ricotta cheese and spinach, my friend was making honest attempts at starting an intelligent conversation (he’s a highly intelligent man) but I wasn’t hearing a word he was saying. I was focused on the ravioli!Finally, my friend sighed and said, “We can order something else if you don’t like the pizza.” I told him the pizza was fine. I loved the pizza. And I kept eyeing the ravioli. “That woman is looking at you,” my friend whispered and discreetly indicated Ms. Grilled Fish. I made some noncommittal “hmm” sound because she wasn’t interesting to me. The ravioli was occupying every ounce of interest in my body. A few minutes later, I had to visit the ladies room – nature was calling. As I passed Ms. Grilled Fish on my way to the bathroom, I gave her a smile but she looked back at me with a stony face. I shrugged inwardly and thought to myself that perhaps the fish wasn’t agreeing with her. When I returned to the table, my friend announced, “I smoothed things over for you.”My eyebrows shot up in askance. “Smoothed things over?” “Yes.” My friend nodded and pointed at Ms. Grilled Fish for the second time that evening. “She told me to rein in my girlfriend or she would deal with you herself. So I explained to her that you don’t want her man, only his food.” Oops! Happy Sunday Everyone :) P.S. I've found that sunglasses are a good idea if you have wandering eyes like mine. And Johnny - You can take your "Serious Hat" off now. I know it must have been getting uncomfortable.
You don't have to leave your hat on!
