Soul Food

Michele Marr o7 "They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they are that starve with nothing." -- The Merchant of Venice 1.2.5-6, Nerissa to Portia f7 As you read this, I'll be chowing down at a family shindig on Fish River, a threadlike tributary off Weeks Bay in the Alabama delta. There's sure to be some barbecue and shrimp, maybe some oysters, soft shell crabs and catfish. There might could be some file gumbo, fried okra or green tomatoes.

June began with one great disappointment. My sister's 17-year-old daughter, my niece Kellen, graduated from Saline High School in Saline, Mich., on June 3, and I couldn't be there. Since her family relocated from Santa Cruz to this small, pastoral town not far for Ann Arbor, I don't get to see enough of Kellen, her 12-year-old brother Remy and their mom and dad. And a kid only graduates from high school once. This kid, who never really liked school, had worked hard anyway and was graduating with highest honors.

MICHÈLE MARR At any corner I turn in Huntington Beach, it seems like I spot a spa these days. There are spas and ever more spas to rejuvenate skin, nails, hands, feet, make-up and muscles. Each summer Chabad of West Orange County (www.chabadhb.com) takes the concept of the spa to another level when it hosts its one-day “Spa for the Soul.” On Aug. 17, 70 women showed up for the fifth annual event at the Sea Cliff Country Club, which allowed the group to bring in a kosher caterer.

Two surfer dudes, Matt Baumayr and Rich Howland, in love with Baja and its simple fresh street food, wanted to open a taco stand in Newport Beach and fortuitously partnered with chef Deborah Schneider, a James Beard Award nominee and cookbook author, and the result was SOL Cocina, which is a far cry from a taco stand, although they do serve dynamite Baja-style tacos. Taking over the space vacated by Mama Gina’s on East Coast Highway, they have transformed it into a contemporary Mexican eatery, more Mexico City than Baja Beach.

Advertisers can easily convince us that we need far more than we do. But I suspect we often don’t need their help; our avarice and imaginations delude us well enough. During Great Lent, when I took up the Food Stamp Challenge (see “An extra food challenge for Lent” March 5), I got to see the distance between what I need and what I think I need from a new perspective. One of the first things I learned was that I didn’t know the meaning of meal planning.