Buffet

Eastside Road, September 24, 2011—

QUITE AN UNUSUAL MEAL for us today: a buffet. We were aboard a cruise boat on San Francisco Bay, celebrating a friend's birthday with a champagne brunch. Coffee and Mimosas poured at our table, and down the center of the table, ready for perhaps two hundred guests — for there were many such parties aboard; ours was only for four of us — a long table covered with tortellini, green salad, quinoa salad, quiche, frittata, croissants and rolls, salmon, bacon, scrambled eggs, French toast, ham, bacon, sausages, potatoes, fruit compote, and probably much more that escaped my notice or escapes my memory.

And then the desserts: petits fours, chocolate truffles, lemon bars, tarts, brownies and blondies, cookies of various shapes and sizes, fruits… Were there cheeses? There must have been, somewhere.

One could have all one wanted. Truly the earth is abundant.