Dinner with the Monk...

Traveling from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport to New York, my wife and I had settled in for a long, comfortable trip.

At the airport we had seen a group of saffron robbed Buddhist monks wishing well to a companion, who was to make his way to New York as well. They stood out from the crowd because of their colorful costumes.

I looked to my left and saw the traveling monk seated on the aisle a few rows in front of me, giving me visual access to his activities.

At some point, a way into the flight, lunch was served. Today’s special, at least in the “cheap seats” was lasagna and salad with ranch dressing.

The monk received his, and looked somewhat perplexed. He looked around at others trying to make sense of the lunchtime activities. This clearly looked to me like a guy who was given something he had never seen before. This made me think that perhaps Italy was not his original home (yes, he was Asian) or that this lasagna was perhaps not closely related to real lasagna, which he may have been used to.

In any case, he did fine with the accompanying bread, and was working up to the main dish when he spied the ranch dressing! The Ah-Ha thing in his head must have popped! He had figured out what to do. He opened the dressing package by tearing off a corner and squeezed out the ranch dressing all over the lasagna! (This was done before I could stop him, as I was trying to extricate myself from a window seat to get to him).

He smiled, tasted it, found a new western taste, and enjoyed his meal!