Cancer log 107: After a…

Cancer log 107: After a hard day, you could do worse than to stop into Francesca's Fiore in Forest Park for their mussels appetizer. First, you explain to the server that as much as you normally like their spicy tomato sauce, you can't have spicy food right now, and could he ask the chef if he could do something else, something simple? And you feel like a very fussy sort of diner, the kind of diner you normally avoid being. But the server will immediately ask (with no sign of finding you annoying) if a garlic-white wine sauce would be all right, and you tell him it will be perfect. And then he asks if you'd like some bread, and even though your doctor said your glucose was a little high, so she'd like you to low-carb it for a bit (in a low-key kind of way), you decide that can start tomorrow. So he brings you the bread, and it is as good as you remember, warm and soft (yet toothsome) in the center, beautifully crusty on the edge, served with herbed olive oil and a big saucer heaped high with parmesan cheese. Frankly, the bread could be dinner all by itself. But then the mussels come, and they are good, and the sauce is delicious, and you eat them all and sop up some of the sauce with some more bread because you are not made of stone. And even though this is theoretically an appetizer, you are utterly sated and content.