May I have the next plate please?

If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that we are big movie fans. Going to a movie once a week is our “date night”. Both of us spent time working in movie catering too, so we have seen the “smoke and mirrors” it takes to weave the magic on screen. There is nothing like suspending your reality for an evening, and transporting yourself to a different time, or place, or point of view. Books can do this wonderfully too, but that is a longer experience than one evening. We like to celebrate and remember all those evenings of the past year when the Oscars come around, as they will this Sunday. It’s not so much about the Hollywood red carpet – we enjoy our own festivities and have our own opinions of who should win. It’s really just another excuse for an evening of great food and drink with friends!

We sometimes go out for dinner before our weekly show – nothing fancy, but we have enjoyed Vietnamese food at various places downtown, wood-fired pizza at Bordello’s, great burgers most recently at Five Guys, and of course a bit of sushi now and again at Momo’s in Westbank. We tend to pick places close to the cinema, as that is our priority on those nights. On the weeks we don’t go out, we compensate for the extravagance (and the popcorn) by having a salad as a main course. Life is all about balance, after all.

On Oscar night, we tend to go all out. One year, we had friends over and even rolled out our own red carpet – 20 metres of red satin that we placed down the front steps and along the entrance. Everyone got “swag bags” with goodies, and we drank one of the Napa wines that sponsored the party Wolfgang Puck cooks for in Los Angeles. Martin cooked a chocolate sponge that had an Oscar figurine on top. Another year, we dressed up as our favourite characters from the movies (I always wanted to be a Bond girl!) The friends who hosted that year made a menu that played on the movies nominated for all the dishes we cooked.

This year will be a bit more intimate, as everyone is busy or on vacation this year. But we will have a bit of foie gras or shrimp, and a bit of bubbly or a nice wine from the cellar, and I will think of all the nights I got to whisk myself away with my guy to faraway places and times forgotten. This year I cried for horses in the war and a young boy who missed his Dad incredibly. I got another glimpse of Marilyn Monroe’s talent (and also that of Michelle Williams). I laughed at the dysfunctional family of George Clooney, and I cheered for Brad Pitt’s baseball team. I tapped my toes (quietly) with The Artist, and ducked and weaved when superheroes and pirates and musketeers were on screen. I was glad someone like Tom Hanks could ride a scooter and end up being cool (there’s hope for me). I learned more about the FBI through Mr. Hoover and the jolly old Brits (under Meryl’s thumb). For the sake of nostalgia, I must admit that one of my favourite memories was singing along with Kermit again, and although I am sure Billy Crystal will do fine, I wish he and Miss Piggy could have played host.

Here’s hoping if you don’t enjoy the show, you will get out to see a movie sometime soon. A big screen at home is fine, but there is nothing like sharing an experience with a crowd of strangers to make you feel very much a part of something bigger, but also all your own.

Kristin

Photo: Contributed

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.