Oven Roasted Chicken

            The night before Nyel went into the hospital for his knee replacement, my son Charlie called from Los Angeles to wish him well and to give me advice.  Mostly the latter.  His main message was, “Under no circumstances let Nyel eat the hospital food.  Cook gourmet meals for him at home and take them to him three times a day.  Or better yet, go to the best restaurant on the peninsula and have all of his meals catered and delivered directly to his hospital room.  Right!  Like either of those things was going to happen.
     Charlie was speaking from his own somewhat limited (thank goodness!) experience with hospital food which he contends seriously interferes with the recovery process.  He definitely had Nyel’s best interests at heart.  But he did not know, nor did we, about The Basement Bistro, Ocean Beach Hospital’s well-kept secret weapon in the fight toward total recovery of patients.
     I’ve not actually visited the Basement Bistro but I understand it has a café-like atmosphere – round tables, tablecloths, cheerful décor.  The menu offers a variety of delectable sounding items for breakfast, lunch and dinner and, when ordering from your room, twenty-minute bedside delivery is guaranteed.
     A few hours after his surgery, Nyel was ready to eat.  It was mid-afternoon and he’d had not a morsel since midnight.  He thought a turkey wrap sounded good.  I ordered one, too, (no extra charge for spouses.)  We chose our condiments and twenty minutes later our meal arrived on real plates – no plastic or paper.  A whole wheat tortilla enclosed turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo, and mustard.  It was delicious and we couldn’t have been more pleased.  I immediately called Charlie with a full report.
     Since then, Nyel has been working his way through the menu.  He has yet to be disappointed and has been especially pleased with his breakfasts of oatmeal and a fruit cup that includes chunks of various kinds of melons, grapes, blueberries and strawberries-that-actually-taste-like-strawberries. We’re thinking that once he is ready for an outing, we ought to have a lunch date down in the Basement Bistro.  It’s that good!!