Today for lunch we had a roast chicken, cold green bean salad, and fresh, ripe, juicy tomatoes. They weren't home grown tomatoes here at the house in Maillane...but given to them by a friend who lives down the road. I'm talking huge-big-as-your-head tomatoes (okay...maybe head is exaggerating it a bit). Anywho, Didou sliced them up and put them in a large bowl which then served to catch the juice and all the delicious olive oil from the producer down the road she had slathered on.
The tomatoes were delicious...not as good as my Papaws...but pretty close. Only loved ones that know me and my mother best, and have shared a summer meal with us know that the absolute BEST part of eating a tomato is the juice that's left in the bowl after they're gone. We have literally fought over the tomato juice....especially if it's been a particularly juicy one. Just one slurp (you have to make the noise or else it doesn't count) and its gone but I can still taste it now!
After Padi, Didou and I had finished all the tomatoes it took all my strength not to pick up that bowl and take a slurp while no one was looking. I kept staring at the bowl and fidgeting in my chair wanting the juice. At the end of the meal, I saw Padi pour the juice down the drain and I almost cried. Seriously. It's that important. Maybe I bit my tongue this time but I can assure you next time around I WILL ask to slurp the tomato juice.
Without hesitation.
I am so going to miss your Parisian life, Maggie. Thanks for the past two years. Good luck to you.
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