Last night I was watching an episode of “Julia and Jacques cooking at home” where the legendary twosome were demonstrating the proper way to make “Crêpes Suzette”.
It looked mouth watering and I was salivating like a basset begging for a hot dog.
But this dish (like many others alas) is now off-limits to me!
Sugar, Grand Marnier, Cognac… Those things that I took for granted in my youth are not allowed to touch my lips anymore.
Alas, alas, alas!
For the last thirty years I have been afflicted with Type 2 Diabetes and I have to follow a very strict diet to keep that condition from worsening.
Sugar, carbs, alcohol… Those devilish aphrodisiacs are now strictly verboten.
Like Tantalus, I am constantly exposed to tempting dishes, but not allowed to satisfy my cravings. Over my head hangs Damocles sword and if I overplay my hand it will some day come crashing down on little old me.
I check my blood glucose every day and my glucometer is quick to tell me if I have broken my sacred covenant with the medical establishment. If the readings are out of the recommended range, I feel remorseful about my careless behavior.
Like all addicts, I swear that I will forsake sugar and all its vicious cousins forever.
But I am only human, and once in a while I fall off the wagon and surrender to debauchery. I indulge in some deadly sins; I will drink booze and have a sugar fix under the table. I do it quickly so that those watching me won’t notice, but my glucometer (my medical ankle monitor) does.
In the morning it will accusingly produce damning figures, and demand that I change my evil ways. I promise, but the flesh is weak… especially when Satan (in the form of Jacques) baits me with such scrumptious dishes.
Damn you Jacques… I mean Satan.
Let me confess, and let me have the absolution. I won’t do it again (soon), I promise…
But it is extremely difficult for somebody who was born in the land of Escoffier to keep those promises. I will sin again I know, but you will have to forgive me because there is no greater sin than to abstain from foods that make the Gods themselves cry.
Alain