Broccoli Soup

It’s almost lunch time for me with home-made broccoli soup and cheese sandwich grilled in cheap margarine. I, contrary to being a poor person in the 37% of employed New Yorkers who are having difficulty affording food (according to the Food Bank for New York City), never want for good eats. 2/3 of New York’s soup kitchens and food pantries saw an increase in the number of employed people accessing services, but I, unemployed because I’m retired, never have ‘needed’ to go hungry. Why? I eat home-made. I waste not, want not. Poor New York starves under liberal, politically-correct, outrageous and obscene regulations. How can anyone in good conscience throw away good food? As a consequence of the trans fats ban, perfectly good edible food cannot be received by soup kitchens or food banks in N.Y. Liberating perfectly good edible food from a neighbor’s neglected garden doesn’t bother me, so why should utilizing unwanted deli or restaurant food bother needy recipients? But it does bother politicians in New York. Fried chicken with trans fat is verboten on the menus of a Bowery Mission; it must be chucked.

Outrage and obscenity are not limited to New York. They are outsized in Washington. The recent state dinner took extravagance to new heights but I wonder where they waste went. Vegetarianism disguised as elitism was on the menu screened I’m sure of trans fats. But what about the waste of both food and wine? Who could consume more than what amounts to my soup and sandwich luncheon repast? Here goes the feast’s 4 courses and 4 wine selections!

1. What’s a potato and eggplant salad to me who loathes eggplant? What’s White House arugula to me other than a past emergency trip to indigestion? Vinaigrette with onion seed? I prefer olive oil and balsamic vinegar. On to the 4 courses of wine. One glass - not 4 - from a Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Grenache or Chardonnay whether from CA, OR, CA or Va would be sufficient to my reasonable thirst.
2. Lentil soup, red or green repulses me. I’ll just take cheese sprinkled on my broccoli soup.
3. Potato dumplings? My granny made great ones minus the anathema chutney, chickpeas, and okra; I did not grow up in the deep South. OR the alternative entre prawns, translated as shrimp appeals to me whether with a green or red curry additive. Forget the salsify, caramelizing belongs to onions. Smoked is out, collard greens out, basmati rice coconut aged or not, out. Give me jasmine rice any time.
4. Pumpkin tart should have been a piece of pie. Pear tatin ( I like pears) is a fancy tart.
Whipped cream - oh dear, contains saturated fat as well as the caramel sauce. Petit fours, coffee, cashew brittle ( why not peanut?), pecan pralines, passion fruit and vanilla glacee and chocolate-dipped fruit. Seems to me the only edible part of this 4 course menu is dessert but when - like me- you are not a dessert junkie, pickings are slim.

Summary, A dumpling, a few shrimp, whatever that pear thing is with whipped cream and I’d by choice be full. The first guest chef in White House history to cook during an unprecedented vegetarian State dinner obviously outdid himself with a lovely bow to Indian cuisine. And then there’s a bread course. Papandum, naan and raita included. Granny told me not to fill up on bread because it would ruin my appetite for the meal.