Stopping to Savor // Spring Break Pt. I
"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." — Luciano Pavarotti
A week ago, I got back from my spring break. For two weeks, my dad and I explored Mexico from its capital southwards. It was a really delightful trip. As recompense for my failure to update my blog as I travelled, I've decided to document my adventures in a short series (there is too much to say for it to fit into a single post!). I will start by delving into our first two stops: Mexico City and Oaxaca.
On our first night in Mexico City, we attended a performance by the national symphony orchestra in Palacio Bellas Artes. I had never attended the symphony before. It did not disappoint.
Gorgeous arrangements by Debussy, Gershwin, and Tchaikovsky absolutely entranced me as we sat in the first row (yes, really), and had a perfect view of the cellphones hidden inconspicuously beneath the chairs of the strings section. Each piece of music served as a course in an elaborate, beautiful meal all perfectly combined to satisfy a room full of hungry patrons. And we left content.
The following day, Dad took us to one of the top twenty restaurants in the world for a late lunch. It's almost hard for me to describe the fine dining experience at Pujol.
The restaurant is decorated simply. The tables don't have linens. The menu is a single sheet of paper, wax sealed together.
We ordered from the tasting menu. If I had the time and talent to cook six separate courses for myself at every meal, I would do it. It really elevates the experience. So do ingredients with hard-to-pronounce names like "ayocote," "papadzul," and whatever the word for edible ash is. There's also something to love about eating from a plate decorated so that it looks like a modern art painting, and drinking water that has been poured from a wooden wine jug.
We sat in the restaurant for well over two hours. Somehow, though, the time was the least noticeable thing about the experience. I couldn't have answered how long we had been inside for. The exquisite meal invited such attention that other things kind of fell into the background. Savoring demanded attention more than time did.
The experience was similar in Oaxaca, a place that we visited because it has one of the best cuisines in all of Mexico.
There, we ate at an incredible restaurant, Casa Oaxaca. We tried a soup cooked in front of us with hot rocks, octopus with huitlacoche sauce, mousse encapsulated in a chocolate sphere, and other foods that are hard to keep track of. Then, we went to bed only to wake up for a cooking class experience. After roaming the market, we prepared tamales, soup, mole (no relation to the burrowing animal), and corn tortillas.
You might think that after days of eating ridiculously well, the food started to taste less interesting. But that isn't really true. Like the songs in the symphony, I learned to recognize the different elements of each dish, tasting for things that I have never paid much attention to. The dishes weren't less exciting because each was amazing. Somehow, all of these things managed to be amazing in their own way.
When I am eating a tortilla, I can tell pretty quickly if it is any good or not. I have eaten many, you see. When I eat multiple of the best tortillas I have ever had within a three day period, though, it becomes easier to recognize the pattern that underlies whatever makes a tortilla a really good tortilla.
Did I come home to be disappointed with eating the leftovers I froze before I departed? Maybe just a little. But I think that there is something to be said for savoring the most exquisite of life's moments, and very carefully, so as to better appreciate the potential for greatness in that which you savor. After this trip, I think I will be much better at identifying really excellent cooking.
And after a year of savoring some other of life's beautiful moments, I think I will be better at identifying what it means to be working on something really excellent, to be a part of something that prompts you to live better and more intentionally, to enjoy happiness and challenge simultaneously, and to know what richness is possible in a culture and in a place. I don't want to settle for less beautiful versions of life.
Wherever I am, I want to stop and devote my attention to savoring. I want my love for what is beautiful and good to prompt me to seek out such things in my life. And when I vacation through gorgeous countries, I want to savor every time-stopping moment.
Savoring during this spring break didn't stop in Oaxaca, but more on that later.
