The Waldorf Diaries--The Food Hassle

One of the challenges of hotel living is the figuring where to eat. Not having a kitchen or means to refrigerate perishables makes eating out a necessity. Truth is that even when I did have a kitchen I didn’t use it very often and my refrigerator was usually a cold desert of nutrition containing a tub of yogurt and few pieces of fruit. French mustard, fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, curry paste, and three different types of hot sauces lined the shelving on the door. These condiments rattled their neglected glass jars and bottles when I opened the door in the morning to get the yogurt.

I can cook but when I’m single it’s not a priority in my life. Kitchens and dining areas are comfortable places for human interaction--places where two or more people can come together in the creation of a basic life necessity. Cooking solo starts feeling like a time consuming chore lacking the sense of intimacy and shared experience that comes with communal food preparation. Instead whenever I’ve lived alone I’ve tried to be surrounded with enough excellent restaurants so I can eat something different and delicious every night.

At the moment I’m fortunate to live in the same building as one of my favorite restaurants, Nuba. The dining room is a couple of seconds away and I don’t even have to go outside. I have a stool at the bar where I sit two or three nights a week with a book and eat my dinner. The other nights I have to travel to eat and sometimes this can be laborious. My industrial surroundings require me to leave my neighborhood to forage and I find myself indecisively roaming the city trying to figure out what exactly I want to eat and where to find it. Usually by the time I get around to starting my quest for food it’s fairly late and I’m very hungry so making any sort of rational decision becomes increasingly difficult. 

Sometimes I just give up and find myself at the deli counter of Whole Foods ordering various salad items in a haphazard fashion. This too often proves to be a disappointing dining experience and the sad part is by that point I don't really care.