Quite apart from just loving food and wanting more more more, I need to eat at very regular intervals. If I have screwed up my planning and am without food much past 2:00pm I turn into super angry hungry bitch. SAHB is not likely to communicate reasonably and cannot be reasoned with or cheered up. Nothing but food will banish her. (And you want her banished as quickly as possible. She's a real piece of work.)
Temperatures have plummeted and it was back to being ass freaking cold yesterday. Early afternoon found J and SAHB, very cold, very hungry, wandering around the Marais on a quest for Falafel.
I wanted to go to the famous falafel joint whose name escapes me now, but it was crazy busy and the wait for a table was 40 minutes. I rejected three different kosher delis on unknown grounds. I wrinkled my nose at the notion f going to a slightly less famous falafel joint. I rejected. And rejected. And rejected.
The hungrier I am, the less able I am to make a decision about where to eat. The discomfort and anxiety I feel when I am not fed (and blood sugar levels are dropping ever downward) makes me feel like everything has gone to shit and been ruined almost beyond repair, and that only the absolute perfect meal can pull the day out of the crapper. But the hungrier I get the less rational I get, and the less able to make solid choices that would result in the acquisition of the perfect meal. So I reject and reject and reject.
And eventually all authority to participate in decision making must be taken away from me. Decisions, right down to what I am going to eat, must be made for me by someone else.
(I generally carry food on my person so as to avoid this situation. It's no fun for anyone invloved.)
So J decided we were going to Le Petit Dakar.
I didn't like it because, I didn't. It wasn't warm enough. I couldn't read the menu written on the chalkboard. There were only 4 choices for lunch. And on and on. I didn't like it because my blood sugar levels were disastrously low and I was being a big nasty bitch.
J ordered for us and in no time the most perfect, best meal I have eaten in France, wonderful lunch was put in front of me.
It was exceptionally good. Gambas with a sort of sweet coconut curry sauce, and rice. Simple, but incredible.
SAHB was banished. And I want to go back at least once more before we leave Paris.
Posted by sasha at January 19, 2004 05:36 PMThis happens to both me and to Jeremy, although when we're in SAHB mode of course we deny it. If it happens to both of us at once, we usually break up for a few hours, until food is forced upon us.
I cannot tell you how many times we have said, "Oh, yeah, I don't really hate you" over dessert.
Posted by: Beth on January 21, 2004 02:11 AMi can soooo relate to this. I don't know how many miles i have walked through London NOT going into any restaurant because i just didn't like them, or what they offered or whatever, until finally being forced into one....maybe i was just overwhelmed by it all...no, i think i was just SAHB
Posted by: maike on January 21, 2004 02:35 PMI've embarrassed myself in SAHB mode more times than I care to count. I never learn.
Is the famous falafel place L'As du Falafel? If so, try to manage a meal there. I think we went at off times because it was busy but never insane. Anyway, maybe it was the wine, but I dream about that falafel sometimes.
Posted by: Arden on January 23, 2004 02:46 AMOh dear, do I hear you on the SAHB syndrom! My boyfriend, on the contrary, seems to be completely immune, which makes matters even worse, underlining my complete and childish lack of self-control in the face of basic low sugar levels, which makes me even grumpier (if at all possible)...
Posted by: clotilde on January 29, 2004 04:47 PMI had this ex-boyfriend who once told me I was the only girl he enjoyed taking out to dinner because I was the only one who would clean her plate, when I clearly remember wanting to rip his head off for being too slow in helping me make a decision on where to eat. Was that a compliment or was I just a SAHB?.... Wait. Don't bother. I think I know the answer.
Posted by: Elaine on February 5, 2004 12:58 AM