Caesar Salad

It is close to lunch. We've wrapped up the general practitioner visit and picked up the prescription. While walking to the parking lot, "There is a new salad bar close to the city garden. Let's have lunch there."

Mom have been eating salads. And plain boiled eggs. Even some types of vegetable and protein are off her plate. There is a whole list, well, still invisible, but we've tried our best to take it into account every day. Her favorite is Caesar salad, because there are roasted chicken and creamy dressing. Very filling. She orders one. I order Vietnamese vegetable roll with --I forgot-- beef. Ah, mom can't try mine.

The atmosphere of the place is really nice and raw. People come to have lunch upstairs. We choose the seat next to the salad mixing station downstairs. Soft instrumental music accompanies the busy mumbling kitchen. Our salads come in no time. 

Her salad consisted of lettuce, carrot, crouton, some parmesan shreds, roasted chicken, and dressing on the side. Two slices of tomato garnish the look. Lettuces are great, they are not overly beautiful in appearance, just fresh lettuces for your salad. The salad bar stated to use the freshest lettuce from the closest farmer and not to mind some imperfections of the greens, which is nice. 

We start to work on it: taking out croutons because she shouldn't eat them, taking out parmesan because she doesn't like cheese. I take a slice of tomato for myself because she shouldn't eat them, leaving one untouched. Tomatoes give a good color balance to the salad, they might be an eye candy throughout her lunch.

Mom eats her salad well. I eat mine well too. We talk a bit about how come these vegetables and proteins cost so much. Besides the portion being so right to fill up, maybe people need assistance in knowing and preparing healthy food. We also talk about buying a shredder to make good cuts of carrots, just like what are inside my vegetable roll. I promise her to take rice paper on our next grocery shopping so that we can try making vegetable rolls.

I'm minding my meal, but minding what would be on her head right now too. It's not hard to eat veggies, but it's definitely hard to eat veggies because some bloodwork led you to eat those. Must be tiring to shake hands with "bad things" you need to deal with. You know what? I just want to stay here. I don't want you to fight alone like what you'd been saying. I might forever blame me for not being in your favor countlessly. But I can never be perfect. I know we want that perfect, right, but I'll lost if I pursue perfect too hard. I guess we all will be. And it is not always about how to deal with imperfections, but also how to deal with our way of dealing with imperfections. Because sometimes "I'll deal and make peace with it" is just a cover up for "Why do I have this fate? It sucks to have it, I hate that it happens to me" which might possibly wounds the heart inside our hearts, making an invisible breakage. I want us to go together in embracing this changing pages, because we'll find steps up midway.

And here we are, eating salads together after whatever amount of hospital visits. Eating vegetable rolls with beef in front of her feels kind of wrong, though she said countlessly not to mind so much about her requisites. 

Mom finally gives her remaining tomato slice to my plate.

It is indeed a filling lunch. And I hope I can explore more salad bars with mom.

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