ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604230159
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ben Beagle
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
I'd just as soon you didn't make a big deal out of it or tell anybody, but the May issue of Country Living has me a little worried.
I'm not the type who can't wait until Country Living comes in the mail, but I've seen enough to know that it has lots of pictures. These usually show overcrowded living rooms with so many pillows on the furniture you couldn't sit down, tables set for some pretty uppity eating and strategically located dogs staring into the camera.
I was looking at some of the pictures in the May issue - which has a French countryside theme - and I noticed that page 156 was turned down.
My heart sank into a cold abyss, as we sometimes said in Radford, when I saw that the page had a recipe for Soupe de Poisson - which I would put into italics if I knew how to do that on this computer.
This stuff has whole fish heads in it when it starts out. They're disposed of as the cooking goes on, but this was enough to strike terror in the heart of a man my age.
I've been able to avoid any kind of fish soup so far - being partial to vegetable soup with big chunks of beef and nice beads of grease floating around in it. There's something magical about the way a grease bead catches the light.
But the turned-down page suggests that one of these days I'm going to sit down to a Soupe de Poisson supper.
If I knew when this was going to happen, I'd have time to rehearse my reaction. A simple "Mon Dieu!" maybe and then fainting until the soup gets cold.
I could say I had an early lodge meeting and would catch a hotdog at the Stop In, although everybody knows I don't belong to a lodge.
It's hard to find out the chef's plans. You just can't say: "Ah, my little bon-bon, I am wondering when we can expect the Soupe de Poisson for supper, Eh, mon amie?"
That's the way to remind her of the recipe on page 156 and you'll get the fish-head soup faster than you expected.
For obvious reasons, you can't say: "Ah see wheah yew tunned down th' page fer thet Frenchy soup, wumman, an' Ah wont yew tuh know thet we ain't bringin' no fish heads intuh this heah house as long as Big Bennie is th' head of ut."
That's a sure way to get fish-head soup three nights a week from now on. And steamed broccoli for breakfast.
I'll get by. I'll reduce stress by thinking of a nicely browned shepherd's pie for supper.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB