A Once-upon-a-time Food

Several favorite food memories stick out in my head. The proverbial "last meal" before heading off to college. The time I (foolishly) went hiking without a granola bar and practically fainted and a kindly hiker gave me food. Christmas breakfasts and how my mom would insist we clean up the kitchen before opening presents (I'm pretty sure she took a certain sadistic pleasure from that).

But the one I want to talk about involves a trip to southern California in the summer time. The circumstances have faded with time, but the most important facts remain: I was between 14 and 16. We were visiting family and I was grumpy. My parents were trying to show me places and experiences from their dating years. They were happy. We went on a nature walk of sorts into a desert-plant garden and my mom was doing her absolute best to make it interesting for me. But it was hot, prickly, and dull. Then we happened upon a little souvenir/food shack. My dad got an excited look in his eyes.
"Johanna! Have you ever had a date shake?"
"No." It sounded questionable. "What is it?"
"Oh! I haven't had a date shake since..." said my mom. So my dad went in and bought three tall sweating cups of a gritty, grey-brown substance.
It was literally fresh whizzed up dates with maybe a little milk and probably about the best thing I ever tasted including a white-chocolate mocha from Starbucks.

And the thing that I find so remarkable about this experience is that I've never had another date shake. It must be the real thing with fresh dates--any approximation would be almost sacriligious and I currently don't live where I can get sweet, fresh dates.

Maybe thats why traveling used to be such a big deal before we had airplanes. Transportation of foods, recipes, and ingredients tended to be limited to certain regions and so you could go to a new country and truly have a brand new experience with food. And once you went home, you would probably never have that experience again making it that much more precious.