The Pilgrim's Menu

[JabbaPapa]

My blog is very moribund, and I have no desire nor need to promote it.

If I post something once in any given year, it's a good year for it !!

But I have posted something that I like enough to want to share with fellow pilgrims :

The Pilgrim’s Menu

When I was a small child, once when a friend or colleague or relative of my father’s ate with us, cannot remember if it were at home or in a restaurant or in a pub, or on holiday, as we were …

jabbapapa.wordpress.com

Now, howsoever you may consider the blog, or myself, it is not a place for polemic, nor debate, nor the culture wars.

But mostly, please do not expect me to contribute into it at all. It is not monetized, and it never will be.

 

[Tassie Kaz]

With food, I eat my favourites last.
For life however, it's a risky strategy; we never know what's around the corner or how long we've got.

Sempre avanti

 

[simply B]

With food, I have found it best to eat "around the clock" of my plate showing no favoritism to either the portion nor, by derivation, the preparer of same.

With life in general...and over 50 years as an adult?

Easy! Do that thing in front of me that I will regret NOT doing as I gather my final breaths...

So far, so good.

B

 

[Tandem Graham]

Jabba, I very nearly ignored your thread because I have seen already too many discussions on whether to take the Menu del Dia or Menu del Peregrino (always the former where available!).

I'm glad I read your post!
I relate strongly to the choice between eating the best on the plate firstly or lastly. For me, the extension to choices in life more broadly follows the same rule: eat the best first if it may become less tasty or succulent by being left until last!

As I approach the end of my 6th decade, mercifully still healthy and reasonably fit, I am conscious that some parts of life's extensive menu (like the sizzling steak or ice cream sundae) won't keep well, so those which are most appealing I will consume while I am able. In particular, while heart and limbs are still capable and my home and caring responsibilities permit, I want to walk and cycle historic ways, encountering fellow pilgrims, caminantes and hosts.
There are other attractive options for my free time such as improving my chess or writing my memoirs which (like the Greek salad or Christmas cake), will keep for a while without spoiling!

While it is almost a truism that life itself is a pilgrimage journey, the metaphor of the meal definitely merits further exploration!

Bon appetit et bon chemin!

 

[VNwalking]

If we are lucky we stumble on the best thing life can offer, eventually. Hopefully we recognize it rather than walking by without stopping to let it in.

Lucky you, @JabbaPapa !
(Yeah. It's actually not luck... )

 

[David Tallan]

With food, I have found it best to eat "around the clock" of my plate showing no favoritism to either the portion nor, by derivation, the preparer of same.

With life in general...and over 50 years as an adult?

Easy! Do that thing in front of me that I will regret NOT doing as I gather my final breaths...

So far, so good.

B

I really like the "do the thing in front of you" approach. But I think it comes with a corollary. Arrange your life so that the things you want to accomplish end up in front of you.

 

[jsalt]

Hmm, best first, or best last?

It’s a bit like: is it “half full”, or “half empty”?

I tend to agree – it’s neither!

It’s both.

But you have to search for it, and recognize it when you have found it.

 

[JeffParks]

With food, I eat my favourites last.
For life however, it's a risky strategy; we never know what's around the corner or how long we've got.

View attachment 116017
Sempre avanti

Not Twain!

He never would be so banal...

 

[natefaith]

Great post @JabbaPapa.

Reminds me of something I learned a few years ago, to "sip" life and not "gulp" it down. I'm usually a Type A "gulper" of experiences and food and careen from one thing to another. But I learned to be more of an unhurried "sipper" and just enjoy even the small moments that come (hard for me). I'm an Enneagram Seven learning to slow waaayy down. Living in Spain helps of course. Nothing here moves quickly.

Specifically regarding food, I eat the cold thing first. Also in recent years, I learned that if I eat something hot, then something cold, I get instantly nauseous. So the cold needs to go in first, then the hot. Probably no metaphor for life in that system.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

With food, I eat my favourites last.

Maybe that is the reason that dessert is always served last in a meal.

 

[simply B]

I really like the "do the thing in front of you" approach. But I think it comes with a corollary. Arrange your life so that the things you want to accomplish end up in front of you.

Hmmmm... I take your point, and have respect for your thinking, but I either disagree or misunderstand your point.

Corollary: a proposition logically inferred from a proved concept... (Best definition that I can do from memory at the spur of the moment as I am cooking. I am open to correction. )

It is probably just me but I never had any idea what I was supposed to accomplish until it was just staring me in the face, snarling, with big fangs, and a spiked collar...and was also desperately in need of a bath. Had I told counselors of my distant past how my long-in-the-future resume'/curriculum vitae should read? Well, they would have needed therapy.

"Camino-ing" is a case in point.

There is no "reasonable/logical" way that I could have placed my first steps down that path in front of me. While I was well aware of it during my tenure as a history minor in college (aka "years when I still had hair"), it never, ever, occupied a place on my "to do" list.

Allow me to paraphrase Tolkien a wee bit... "Just because you are wandering, it would be a mistaken corollary to believe that you are lost."

B

 

[Tassie Kaz]

Maybe that is the reason that dessert is always served last in a meal.

Ahhh...delayed gratification!
I have to confess when eating out, I look at the dessert menu first...& decide my 'main' meal accordingly.

 

[VNwalking]

Allow me to paraphrase Tolkien a wee bit... "Just because you are wandering, it would be a mistaken corollary to believe that you are lost."

What is lost, anyway?
We have the hubris to think where we're going, and then think we're lost.

It might be the best thing that ever happened.
This is tangential to JP's original post, but right in the middle of it at the same time.
Who knows what we'll encounter along the way, and how it will change us? Our small selves probably wouldn't start if we knew. And it changes everything.

TS Eliot's closing of the Four Quartets describes it perfectly.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

 

[Former member 99290]

I confess that I am a little ‘lost’ in this thread - I don’t claim to understand all of the posts - but finding it interesting nonetheless

But I do agree that ‘Not all who wander are lost’ which is as well as I spend much of my time wandering, even in my own garden

 

[simply B]

What is lost, anyway?
We have the hubris to think where we're going, and then think we're lost.

It might be the best thing that ever happened.
This is tangential to JP's original post, but right in the middle of it at the same time.
Who knows what we'll encounter along the way, and how it will change us? Our small selves probably wouldn't start if we knew. And it changes everything.

TS Eliot's closing of the Four Quartets describes it perfectly.

We are of one mind on this... "failed" and "lost" are but by-ways in the process of exploration.

I have always been curious however about how he (Eliot) could quote Julian of Norwich without attribution.

"And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well"

B

 

[VNwalking]

I have always been curious however about how he (Eliot) could quote Julian of Norwich without attribution.

It's a widely known quote. So perhaps it can sit there in the same way as no-one needs to attribute "To be or not to be, that is the question." People know who wrote that.

"failed" and "lost" are but by-ways in the process of exploration.

And who knows in a given moment if something's a failure, or whether being 'lost' is a loss. The best day I've ever spent on any camino was one where I got 'lost' twice. Now I keep trying to get people to go that way because it was a stupendous walk. Had I not gotten lost I would have missed the best parts of the day. At the time I was too wiped out at the end of a long and foodless day to appreciate just how glorious it was. But in retrospect...

As @JabbaPapa said,

Didn’t know, but it was clearly among what’s best, in the extraordinary poetry of the moment

 

[mspath]

And who knows in a given moment if something's a failure, or whether being 'lost' is a loss. The best day I've ever spent on any camino was one where I got 'lost' twice. Now I keep trying to get people to go that way because it was a stupendous walk. Had I not gotten lost I would have missed the best parts of the day. At the time I was too wiped out at the end of a long and foodless day to appreciate just how glorious it was. But in retrospect...
....

VN,
Indeed. Retrospect is the key.

 

[JeffParks]

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.
Daniel Boone

 

[David Tallan]

Hmmmm... I take your point, and have respect for your thinking, but I either disagree or misunderstand your point.

Corollary: a proposition logically inferred from a proved concept... (Best definition that I can do from memory at the spur of the moment as I am cooking. I am open to correction. )

It is probably just me but I never had any idea what I was supposed to accomplish until it was just staring me in the face, snarling, with big fangs, and a spiked collar...and was also desperately in need of a bath. Had I told counselors of my distant past how my long-in-the-future resume'/curriculum vitae should read? Well, they would have needed therapy.

"Camino-ing" is a case in point.

There is no "reasonable/logical" way that I could have placed my first steps down that path in front of me. While I was well aware of it during my tenure as a history minor in college (aka "years when I still had hair"), it never, ever, occupied a place on my "to do" list.

Allow me to paraphrase Tolkien a wee bit... "Just because you are wandering, it would be a mistaken corollary to believe that you are lost."

B

I guess what I was thinking that I like "do the thing in front of you" because it seems to align with my philosophy of taking the path that the universe has prepared for you, of going with the flow of the universe. But I wanted to acknowledge as well that we are not just passive recipients of what the universe offers us. That what we do affects things. So that was why I tacked on "arrange your life so that the things you want to accomplish end up in front of you".

 

[Peregrina 2013]

Ahh! And that, my friend is less of a quandary when we feel our mortality and we acknowledge time is of essence!

 

[KCP]

Jabba, I very nearly ignored your thread because I have seen already too many discussions on whether to take the Menu del Dia or Menu del Peregrino (always the former where available!).

I'm glad I read your post!
I relate strongly to the choice between eating the best on the plate firstly or lastly. For me, the extension to choices in life more broadly follows the same rule: eat the best first if it may become less tasty or succulent by being left until last!

As I approach the end of my 6th decade, mercifully still healthy and reasonably fit, I am conscious that some parts of life's extensive menu (like the sizzling steak or ice cream sundae) won't keep well, so those which are most appealing I will consume while I am able. In particular, while heart and limbs are still capable and my home and caring responsibilities permit, I want to walk and cycle historic ways, encountering fellow pilgrims, caminantes and hosts.
There are other attractive options for my free time such as improving my chess or writing my memoirs which (like the Greek salad or Christmas cake), will keep for a while without spoiling!

While it is almost a truism that life itself is a pilgrimage journey, the metaphor of the meal definitely merits further exploration!

Bon appetit et bon chemin!

Sorry to be so practical; am (re)planning my first Camino am curious to know what menu del Dia is.

 

[RENSHAW]

@JabbaPapa
Firstly you have me very hungry , secondly I have never thought about swapping courses on a pilgrim's menu. I start in the beginning as listed and work to towards the end. I suppose I am a pasta or salad man , followed by a dish similar to what you displayed and then dessert. I will eat a mix of everything without discrimination and not leave the egg yolks until last. It may most literal but is my very simple interpretation.

 

[Tandem Graham]

Sorry to be so practical; am (re)planning my first Camino am curious to know what menu del Dia is.

Menu of the Day - or the set meal, often with a couple of choices for each course. It can be a bit more expensive than the Pilgrim's menu, but usually changes frequently according to what's fresh.

 

[KCP]

Menu of the Day - or the set meal, often with a couple of choices for each course. It can be a bit more expensive than the Pilgrim's menu, but usually changes frequently according to what's fresh.

Thank you. This is very good to know. Enjoying local cuisine is going to be a priority.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Firstly you have me very hungry , secondly I have never thought about swapping courses on a pilgrim's menu.

I learned too late last year that it's normal to pick and choose like that in Spain, and so was defeated temporarily by ill-adapted foods. On previous Caminos I had not such problems, but now I do.

BTW the meat in the image is roast mutton with mint sauce.

It was glorious !!

 

[ISABEL linares]

My blog is very moribund, and I have no desire nor need to promote it.

If I post something once in any given year, it's a good year for it !!

But I have posted something that I like enough to want to share with fellow pilgrims :

The Pilgrim’s Menu

When I was a small child, once when a friend or colleague or relative of my father’s ate with us, cannot remember if it were at home or in a restaurant or in a pub, or on holiday, as we were …

jabbapapa.wordpress.com

Now, howsoever you may consider the blog, or myself, it is not a place for polemic, nor debate, nor the culture wars.

But mostly, please do not expect me to contribute into it at all. It is not monetized, and it never will be.

Where did you get the nice menu in the photo the fry eggs are to die for.

 

[dbier]

Thank you so much for that reflection..
El Camino, la verdad, y la vida son mismos (not the correct translation, sorry).

And when eating mixed foods ( looking at you, ensaladas), I save most of the best for last. Weird, I guess...