You think of people who really like food as being at least a bit on the corpulent side, yet Sue was razor thin. She cared a lot about being fit, so she was going to make sure that she got a damn good deal for whatever caloric price she paid. It was Sue who introduced me to fine dining - I’d always gone for cheap, quick, food - but Sue had this little coupon book that let us get half off entrees at some of the better restaurants on the Peninsula. Changed my life…
She may also have been more enthusiastic about chocolate than I am, which is not a minor statement. I remember going out with her many times to a French restaurant in Palo Alto - I forget the name - just for their Pot de Creme. It was divine, and I remember her carefully scraping every morsel out of the little tub it came in, and smiling so very contentedly.
Straight up chocolate, the darker the better, was a particular favorite of hers. Bars of 70% chocolate were barely passable; milk chocolate was right out. If I went on a trip somewhere I’d be looking for some sort of exotic pure dark chocolate bar that I could bring back to her, and if she were over at our house, she’d want to taste whatever assortment of dark chocolates we had, looking for the darkest and the best.
Fundamentally though, Sue insisted that meals be balanced, by which she meant a proper mixture of carbs and fat and protein, or in the shorthand in which I often thought of it, There Must Be Enough Protein For Sue. She said the diet stabilized her mood, gave her energy, and generally made life worth living, and she was as insistent as she was about anything that whenever we went out to eat, we went somewhere where she could get some largish piece of meat.
Of course a carnivorous bent didn’t keep her from enjoying other (non chocolate) tastes. I remember her appetizers and desserts - Sue would often host dinner parties at her house, which usually started in the afternoon with us sitting and chatting around the big glass table outside as Adrian grilled something appropriately delicious. She’d bring out these simple but exquisite appetizers - caprese made from homegrown tomatoes, or my favorite, figs with gorgonzola that were a perfect mix of sweetness and creamy pungent cheese. Dessert was often berries with ice cream, another very simple and very effective mix. These foods in many ways remind me of Sue - not fussy or overly complicated, but with strong straight ahead flavors that just mixed so well.
Eggs. She thought eggs were disgusting.
I do not know why.
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