8 Responses to “The Chowhound’s Perp Walk”

1. jadams Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 12:33 am

   John Thorne is an amazing food writer. He’s published a newsletter years ago and a couple of books(viking) back in the 80s. Last I heard he was living somewhere in Maine.

2. nother Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 1:34 am

   When I was in Brazil during Carnival in Bahia, I spent a couple of unforgettable days with a beautiful Brazilian woman who spoke broken English. She had dark black hair that followed her flowing – as she weaved me through the throng of happy people. We danced gloriously in the streets, ate and drank glutinously in the cafes, and kissed passionately, to an all-encompassing soundtrack of thundering drums.

   I remember floating next to her in that stillness of ocean water; the tiny waves ran right up to the urban sprawl of the city, like hands stretching out to invite the city’s dwellers to wade in and cool off, to slow down and cleanse in mother natures bath.

   It was around 9 am, or 7, or maybe 11, who knows, we had been reveling in the wonder and freedom of Carnival for many hours and she had brought me to this place to take a deep breath. Stripped to our underwear we floated in the warm water and stared at the turquoise sky above, and I tried to snap photographs with my mind.

   At some point I thanked her for taking me to places I had never been, literally and figuratively. I’ll always remember how she replied:

   “I know what is good.�

   I was stuck at both the simplicity of the statement and the conviction she said it with. I was struck also because she was right. Everything she had introduced me to was a “good� I had not know existed. In the spirit of Emerson, there was the circumference of good I had known previously and now there was a new circle drawn around that good of old.

   I relay this story because your guest Jim Leff and his insatiable quest for the good reminded me of the piercing words from this woman – words that rang so clear amidst the haze.

   Jeff tells us to slow down the compromises we make all day, he wants us to try that different muffin. He wants us to challenge what we think is good.

   I embarked on a perpetual search for the good since that morning in Bahia. My goal is to someday speak those words with the conviction of my Brazilian beauty – I know what is good!

3. peggysue Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 2:36 am

   Enjoyed this show and nother’s post above. To know what is good… What GOOD advice!

4. nother Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 9:51 am

   Thanks Peggysue, I always look forward to all your GOOD posts!

   I just want to say quickly, my Brazilian friend above comes off a little one dimensional in my post, but her beauty was more than skin deep. Even with are broken languages (in fact induced by the broken languages), we got strait to the point in those cafes about the big issues of life, like what it means to be happy.

   Here reasoned yet carefree outlook on life was part of what convinced me that she really did have a deep insight into what’s good.

5. Lisa Williams Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 11:56 am

   Are you really *not* going to tell us what mexican restaurant you went to? C’mon now, don’t be evil ;->

6. Brendan Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 1:38 pm

   Ole Mexican Grill. Inman Square in Cambridge.

7. Lisa Williams Says:
   March 31st, 2006 at 4:55 pm

   Right on! Thanks!

8. Lisa Williams Says:
   April 2nd, 2006 at 4:16 am

   BTW, Modern Pastry has an outpost in Medford Center; if you get off at the 16/60 exit off 93 it’s right past City Hall on the left.

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