the beauty of fall

Its days like this that make fall my favorite season. It is so darn gorgeous here, even right now at 9:22 p.m. the beauty of the day is still hanging around coming through my open window and making me really happy.

The Hudson Valley is just a beautiful place, way to go CIA for picking such a great place to have a school. Kudos :)

Today we ate oysters for breakfast. I was really excited when my chef looked at me and said "These are from your neck of the woods," as he pointed to the Virginia oysters. The last time I ate them was Christmas with my mom and my uncle standing around the counter in my kitchen. We ate them in a similar fashion today, everyone lining the counter in the fish room, shucking and then slurping back raw oysters. It made me inexplicably happy and I had a goofy grin on my face that confused several people because we were eating raw shellfish and it wasn't even 7 a.m. I whispered to my friend that they tasted like Christmas. I love food.

We also ate Bay Scallops and Sea Scallops. I was excited for the Bay Scallop but anxious about the Sea Scallop because Sea Scallops have been consistently bad in my life, I've never had a good one. Bay Scallops on the other hand are sweet and tender, and so wonderfully delicious to me. Today's case was exactly the opposite. The Bay Scallops tasted soapy and dirty (which is from Sodium tri-polyphosphate, a common chemical used to bleach, preserve, and add water weight to scallops) while the Sea Scallops were sweet, tender, and amazingly meaty. Always give food a second (third, fourth, fifteenth...) chance because it deserves it.

I hope the weather is just as beautiful where you are as it is here.