Food that looks good on a plate – and the Japanese have made an art of this – enhances the eating experience for sure.
Food that is companionable in surprising ways adds its own element of dining pleasure.
F’r’instance: dinner this evening was a fillet of wild sockeye salmon, cooked quickly, skin side up in a bit of oil until nearly pink for the entire thickness, then turned, skin side down to crisp the skin, then lemon juice splashed into the pan and the pan left on the heat until the juice had condensed and sweetened in the juices of the fish. Fresh asparagus had been washed and shaken dry, broken into pieces, and rolled around in the fry pan while the oil was heating for the fish, then moved to the edges as the fish was cooked until the turning stage; the asparagus removed at this point to a plate. Corn on the cob was put into cold water in a saucepan, brought just to the boil, removed from the heat, covered and left for ten minutes, then added to the fish and asparagus on the plate on top of a thin slice of butter which had been lightly salted with French gray salt. Halfway through the meal is when the ‘marriage’ began to happen, when the corn-warmed butter drifted over to the gently-fish-nudged, fish-crisped asparagus, when the corn mingled with the lemon dressing, when the cornbread wafers on their separate plate acted as an impartial liaison on the tongue.