Sunday March 21st, 2010

The exercise:

Your late evening prompt is: dining for two.

Mine:

One of the Christmas presents Kat and I received was a gift card to The Keg restaurant and tonight we finally got around to making use of it.

I got the Flat Iron Steak with Bacon Port Mushroom Sauce, done medium-rare, and it was absolutely delicious. Kat went for the Honey BBQ Chicken & Ribs and it was equally excellent. We both decided to have steamed asparagus in place of the baked potato and it was okay... but the steakhouse isn't exactly known for its veggies. But whatever, it kept the carb count low, which was all I wanted to do.

When the bill came the total was a bit under the amount on the gift card. Which was just about perfect but it didn't leave quite enough of a tip for the waitress.

So I dug out my wallet and found enough to make it right: two dollars.

That was one hell of a nice dinner for two bucks.

3 comments:

Greg said...

Ah, I went to the Keg a few times while I was in Moncton, and I found the food there to be pretty good. I think the three-mushroom one was probably my favourite. You're spot on about the vegetables, one occasion we were there we had a vegetarian with us (he confessed to having been brought up Jain, and didn't argue much when I told everyone that meant he'd had to eat stones and dirt and nothing else). The Keg struggled to find food for him, and I think he ended up with a plate of asparagus stems.

As always, I enjoy your little editorial pieces :)

Dining for two

Jocasta set the table,
One place at each end,
Separated by almost fifteen feet
Of polished rosewood.
She lit the candelabra in the centre,
Checked that the flowers were still fresh,
And took her seat and waited.
The servants brought her food,
Amuse-bouche, soup, then fish,
Roast pork with crackling
That splintered like bitter love in her mouth,
Crêpes en flambé and a chocolate mousse,
A little bowl of darkness
That echoed the darkness in her life.
And all the while she chattered on,
Talking to the man who'd not come home,
Voyaging and lost at sea for seven years,
Separated by a distance made symbolic by the table,
Though in the gloomy room she was able
To pretend that he was there and listening to her.

morganna said...

I wrote this before I read Greg's, but it seems to make an ironic counterpoint.

Flowers
On a table
For two -- white cloth, candles,
Roses. The scene is set, it's time.
The two enter a meal of soft glances,
Ending in a question and ring.
She says yes, crying for joy.
They smile at the
Flowers.

Marc said...

Greg - ha, yeah that is not the place for a vegetarian. They certainly know how to make tasty meat dishes though.

Ah, sweet melancholy. Those final two lines hit just the right note.

Morganna - the middle line and the final two lines are my favorite parts of that. Nice :)