Island Living

I woke up craving a nice Italian meal. I had all these delicious ideas in my head, the centre piece of which would be homemade meat sauce. The idea simmered all day long in my head, by afternoon I could almost taste the feast that I was about to prepare. I headed to the store with a short list, it would be a quick trip, grabbing only what I needed, so I could get the sauce enough time to simmer slowly on the fire. Meat sauce needs to be cooked with love you see, and love requires time. Tonight I was going to declare my undying love to the Italian Cuisine. 

I had spotted the perfect bottle of wine a few days ago, I picked it up on my way to the store. I arrived there and much to my chagrin it seemed that the whole island decided to do their shopping at the same time. There aren’t many inhabitants on this rock, we’re probably outnumbered by Flamingo’s. But today for some reason, the supermarket was full, no carts, and no baskets. I should have known something was amiss, two ladies were fighting over what seemed to be the last yoghurt on the island. 

I made a straight-line to the pasta section, no whole wheat,” beggars can’t be choosers” I thought. I head back to the fresh produce section, my heart stops. No tomatoes, no onions, no garlic, NO GARLIC! My head is racing, how can I save my meal? Canned tomatoes, I think. I’d seen the corner store down the street with some onions, small, but they could do. Change of plans. Island living, what can you do? I reach the canned goods aisle. No canned tomatoes.”Lord, this is not happening!” The meat counter does not offer any consolation either. There is no ground meat. There is simply no meat. None. The bickering ladies come into focus, I finally hear one saying “That’s the last one, there is no more stock, the containers have not arrived”. It seems that the containers carrying supplies could not dock and unload the goods. Island life is romantic, but now this supply chain mishap had just ruined my dinner plans. Sure I could make some other sauce, but I had already bought the wine to go with the tomato sauce. I look in my basket, there’s a lonely bag of penne rigate. In my back pack I have a bottle of wine. I walk towards the pasta section and I am faced with a horrible sight. A wall. A wall of Ragu*! In all of its evil incarnations! The idea crosses my mind. No!I just can’t! I put back the pasta, get a baguette and walk out. Tonight I’m eating French!

*Ragu: (Psuedo-) Italian-American (pseudo) pasta sauce (contains more sugar than a bar of candy!!)

#islandlife #wantsomemeatsauce #baguettewascold