Oh my god . . .

Did I get your attention? I've been saying that to myself for the last hour - thanks to a fantastic meal I just finished. I was thinking about how many times I order a meal due to one ingredient. If I see capers or artichokes and the next words aren't kidney beans, liver or beets, I'll probably order it.

I have been disappointed once when I did this. I saw a wonderful pasta with artichoke hearts so of course ordered it. When it came, I couldn't find an artichoke heart anywhere. When I mentioned it to the wait person he nonchalantly said "we're out of artichokes". What???? They couldn't give me that bit of information a little sooner since it was one of the main parts of the description "pasta with artichoke hearts". I ate it (of course) but sighed in disappointment with every bite. I could hardly finish the plate.

The other thing I've noticed is that my last 2 great meals have either been in an airport or near an airport. I'm not sure if my taste buds are losing their taste or if the food in and around the airport has gotten better. It would probably be best if my taste buds were losing their ability to tell good food since I have to eat my own cooking.

But today, I stopped at a restaurant called Bertucci's across from the Providence airport because I was early for my flight. I often choose a restaurant based on how full the parking lot is (and I have been fooled by finding that the full parking lot belonged to all of the families and employees of the restaurant) but this time the restaurant was crowded. The menu was pages long and I finally found the lunch section. My eyes stopped on "Piccato with chicken, capers and lemon sauce over pasta" and immediately stopped reading. When my food came, cute little capers were sprinkled all over the chicken and spaghetti - I was in heaven. And I love the name capers - it makes me smile. Anyway, it didn't take me long to realize that it is almost impossible to eat capers and spaghetti on the same fork. Capers are about as big as 4 grains of pepper and just about always roll off a fork on the way to the mouth. It's not like you can "fork" a caper either. I did finally balance a few on my chicken and loved the salty taste. I'm not sure what a caper is - and I'm not sure I want to know, but I do love them. After "2 handing" my capers onto my fork and lowering my mouth to about 6 inches from the plate I managed to get quite a few of them into my oral cavity.

I began quietly (I hope) moaning as I finally finished most of my food. I'm sure it wasn't just the capers; in fact I think the real winner was the butter, but this meal had me saying "oh my god" over and over. As I got into the airport, I tried really hard not to moan out loud but sometimes it just slipped out. I noticed a couple looking back at me as I was licking my lips and moaning - semi-silently. I don't know what they were thinking but I hope it was better than the real reason for my pleasure.

Ahhh, love me some capers!!