Dining is the Best Way to Learn More About People
How a Simple Meal Showed Me the Path to the Soul
Sometimes, days sprawl out before you like a blank canvas, tedious and boring. The past few days had been just that for me. This morning, in true Sagittarius fashion, I decided to shake things up with my spontaneity.
I had no clue where we were headed or whether there was a purpose to the journey, but I needed a break from the humdrum routine of hotel life.
The driver’s seat was occupied by someone I thought I knew. Someone whom my friend, in her moments of inspiration, always sings praises of.
As I hopped into the back seat, the unmistakable scent of D&G wafted towards me, a fitting precursor to the intriguing person I was about to discover. The journey would span three hours, each moment revealing another layer of her persona.
In retrospect, it was like boarding a roller coaster with a blindfold on — I had no idea of the twists and turns that awaited.
She was a whirlwind of wit and unabashed honesty, a gust of fresh air that threw caution to the wind. She didn’t just talk, she commandeered the conversation, steering it down unexpected alleys and over uncharted territory.
Her quick wit was disarming, and I found myself laughing, sometimes struggling to keep pace. When I didn’t understand a joke, I would simply smile and pretend to reminisce to the distant past, hiding the gears of my brain trying to process the information.
She was too fast I can’t keep up. And whenever I do, I feel that it’s an achievement! A validation that maybe I really am smart.
But it was over a serving of greasy Pochero that her character truly shone through. She spoke passionately about her preferences in honey, questioning the honey vendor, gently coercing her into submission. You wouldn’t want to go through a quizzing session with this woman. You will give up.
Imagine being asked if you’re the one who cooked the stew overnight. She would then proceed to ask you if you ever took a bite off the beef. If you say no, she will ask you why not. And if you’re smart enough to laugh it off, she’ll probably ask you why the bone marrow’s missing — her eyes suggesting you’re suspicious.
She’s too fast that the moment you start to realize you’re probably offended, she will close it off with the warmest of humor.
The shared act of dining somehow stripped away pretenses, allowing us to reveal ourselves in a way that no formal setting could.
She found humor in every mundane detail, and though I was somewhat overwhelmed, I couldn’t deny that her punchlines were so sharp, they had me clenching my bladder in a futile attempt to stifle my laughter… and urinary incontinence.
In the end, I realized that you never truly know a person until you break bread with them. For it is over meals that our guards drop and we allow ourselves to be seen — raw, real, and ravenous.
In these moments, the carefully maintained veneer fades, and what stands before us is the individual — bare, unfiltered, and hungry not just for the meal on the plate, but for the joy of shared experience, the nourishment of connectedness.
Sure, some people are uptight. In dinner dates, I’ve come to realize who the most authentic people are and who are just trying to impress.
I always ended up having relationships with people who are unapologetic about their hunger. It shows our most basic need and character as humans.
So yes, give me a meal with someone, and I’ll show you a portrait more precise and vibrant than any biographical sketch. A dining table, it turns out, is not just a place for sustenance, it’s a canvas where we paint our true selves in bold strokes, in the company of others, in the very act of living.
