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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 here in Paris have plummeted again and yesterday was painfully chilly. Early afternoon found James and SAHB, very cold and 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 of 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 beyond repair. In this state I beleive 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 which would result in the acquisition of said 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 James decided we were going to Le Petit Dakar.
I didn't like it because, I didn't. The room wasn't warm enough. I couldn't read the hand written menu on the chalkboard. There were only 4 choices for lunch. And so on. I didn't like it because my blood sugar levels were disastrously low and I was being a big nasty bitch.
James ordered for us and in no time the most perfect meal, the best meal I have ever eaten in all of France, 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.
Le Petit Dakar is a Senegalese restaurant in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris
Address: 6, rue Elzévir, 75003, Paris