When I am old and can no longer eat solid foods, I wish to be fed Italian fare through a feeding tube.
What is there not to like about tomato sauce and cheese?! Who in their right mind doesn't like Italian food??
Umm...er...my dear husband!
The combination of tomatoes and cheese causes his GI tract to riot. Tarun would rather go hungry than indulge in Italian unless he is feasting on the Amalfi Coast. Then the sun-kissed tomatoes, authentic olive oil and Mediterranean fish tickle his culinary nerves in the right ways.
Hauling him to Italy every time I want to eat pasta or pizza is a non-starter.
For this reason, for years - decades actually - we have opted for Chinese food when we eat out. It works for him, we like it, and it brings gastric peace.
When I started saying this thing about Italian via a food tube, I think it brought on guilt. Lately Tarun’s been entertaining Italian as an option when we eat out. We don't want to create trouble for him so we politely decline.
Last week, in an unprompted and proactive way, he picked out "Goat and Vine" in Temecula, a restaurant that specializes in pizza! I think the Bengali man in him was hoping pizza with goat would be on the specials menu. Josh and I hopped along with him, visions of Pizza Margherita floating before us.
Goat and Vine had traditional pizzas along with Thai and Mexican versions. Heavennnn!
Since I get to indulge in pizza so rarely, I stuck to my guns and ordered Margherita. Delisioso! A perfect marriage of crust, sauce, mozzarella, and basil. Josh ordered a sausage and crimini mushroom pizza and our dear loved one, who doesn't do pizza, picked the best one - a lime and steak pie with aioli, cilantro and avocado.
The good news is he loved his pizza and we loved it that he loved the experience. Maybe, just maybe, I won't have to wait until the food pipe to get the next dose of Italian.
In the meantime, we will do Chinese for the foreseeable future to reward Tarun for going out of his culinary comfort zone.
Grazie for guilt and compromise!
