SINFUL DESIRES
He’d arrived at his usual time and she’d given him the updated consommé, which was better than the previous version, the star anise fully in the background now exactly as she’d described, and he was still holding the cup when she said:
“What do you actually know about food?”
He looked up.
“Some,” he said.
“Some,” she said.
“I’ve eaten in a lot of places,” he said. “I write about what I eat.”
“That’s not knowing food,” she said. “That’s knowing how to describe food.”
“They’re related,” he said.
“Related isn’t the same,” she said.
He set down the cup.
“My mother cooked Filipino food,” he said. “Not restaurant Filipino food. House food, the kind that takes all day. I grew up in her kitchen.”