Hot dog

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, October 15, 2009—

BASEBALL CONTINUES APACE, this being golden October. Tonight we watched the Phillies beat the Dodgers (Yes!) with hot dogs in our laps, well, on a plate of course, and a napkin beneath. A Niman Schell hot dog, to be sure; they're about as good as they get within reach. Lindsey broiled them in the oven, and warmed the Downtown Bakery buns there too. On them, that good Maille moutarde de Dijon, and that perfectly acceptable Del Monte pickle relish. You see: we do eat manufactured foods from time to time.

Also on the bun, thin-sliced raw onion. For years I could not eat raw onion; invariably the attempt was accompanied by a sour stomach. The day after I retired from twenty years of journalism something led me to try raw onion once again, and I found the experience delightful. Raw onion is sweet, delicate, clearly nutritious, and utterly benign. It's work makes the stomach sour, work and stress. Though not the stress of baseball.

Nero d'Avola