FOOD FOR THOUGHT (#28B): Yesterday afternoon Cathy learned that an old friend from Washington state had died of cancer. Davey was one of four brothers that were good friends of Cathy and her ex-husband Tim. Cathy was teary eyed again and telling me stories of river views, sailing adventures, and wild caught salmon dinners, when the doorbell rang.
Cathy answered, it is always for her, and came back with the strawberry cheesecake below. A woman a few streets west and north of us makes pies on Fridays and her two sons sell them door to door. They don’t often get as far as us before they sell out. Cathy usually always buys whatever people are selling. Wednesday or Thursday mornings we get fresh mushrooms and tortillas from young women who take the bus in from the campo to sell door to door. Cathy always buys two packages, keeps one package of mushrooms, and gives the rest to our gardener Juan and our housekeeper Maria, who both come Thursday afternoons. Cathy also makes Juan and Maria lunch and sends them home with food. They are, of course part, of our family, but those are other stories.
When the sons selling pies make it as far as our house it’s a treat. As we sat down to a special dinner, I thought about how people bring food to someone in mourning. Cathy is a tremendous cook, but last night she didn’t need to make dinner and could rest. The Indian food Santos brought was excellent, and I have learned a thing or two about Indian/Nepali cuisine from Cathy and her parents (see #11). With Cathy’s mango chutney, the only thing missing were Pakoras from Nasim Insari’s old restaurant Shahana Taj. Shahana Taj was where we filmed the main segment of “Javier Estrada: Gypsy Guitar Master” (that is another story, but the documentary is available on my YouTube channel CAST Of CHARACTERS Live, unless I am permanently banned from YouTube for copyright violations, but that is also another story).
Our special dinner cheered Cathy up a bit! A quick story about the pie lady and her sons. Early one evening after we had already bought a cheesecake topped with peaches, the doorbell rang. It was one of the sons, and he told Cathy he had one plain cheesecake left and he wanted to sell it to her for half price so he could go home for dinner.
The next morning I took that cheesecake to our neighbors across the street and 4 houses north, Jaime and Norm. Jaime is a dancer who was opening a studio in San Miguel just before the pandemic hit. He always wears the best shoes! Norm is a retired businessman from the states. He agreed to be the President of the board of OjalaNiños (see #20) if Cathy would be the Secretary. Jaime had just pulled the car out of the garage and was heading towards me when I stopped him, “I was just bringing this to you guys. We bought two from the pie lady’s sons last night. This one is for you.”
Jaime looked at the cheesecake with wide eyes and a big smile, “Wow, I love cheesecake. That’s what I’ll have for lunch!” Thinking of Jaime’s big smile and the beautiful shoes he always wears, is making me smile. Well, it is 3:00 am, time to go back to bed on a still full stomach.
Note: Cathy always makes a big batch of Mango Chutney before mangos go out of season. It also had tomatoes, raisins,and red onions, and freezes well. She would be happy to share the recipe.