A tasting at the Silver Palate

The Silver Palate shop has closed for the evening, and Lukins has laid out a tasting for two people whose judgment she trusts. Laurie Colwin is a regular customer and a friend; M.F.K. Fisher is in New York for a few weeks and has agreed to come, mostly out of curiosity about the shop everyone is talking about.

There are brownies and a puttanesca, oysters because Fisher likes them, and a watercress soup that Colwin pronounces too thin. Fisher says almost nothing until the end and then says the thing that matters, which is that the food tastes like it was made by someone who enjoys eating. Lukins takes the compliment and the criticism exactly as intended.