You are so sweet. I had the pleasure of meeting you the other night at Parigi Dallas while you were dining with your friend and doing a review of the restaurant. How do you always stay so fresh, lovely, well mannered and sweet?
Dear Friend –
Try Aspartame.
Your question is almost as long as one of my columns and I don’t mind.
How do I stay so fresh? Well, beauty starts from the inside. The secret to my success? I cleanse. I drink fresh organic juices that I make right in my very own home with my Cuisinart Juicer. I used to use the Jack LaLanne Juicer and it kept breaking on me. I think he is dead now and I may be wrong on that and if I were to buy his juicer who would the money go to because if he is dead, he certainly can’t cash the check. You cant take it with you.
I was in a high school production of, You Can’t Take It With You, I played one the FBI agents that raids the house. My hair was larger than the house on-stage and the audience applauds wildly as I enter from the front door on stage right for our surprise visit. I am ordered into the basement to look for explosives and you would deduce that I would re-enter back up from that cellar. I didn’t. I ran right over to stage left, climbed a ladder and made my grand reentry from the staircase that came to center stage from the imaginary bedrooms upstairs. “Well, there was nothing in the basement,” I shrugged as the audience laughed. Renee Clark, the drama teacher at North Mesquite High School wasn’t amused even though I got special mention in the high school newspaper. I was placed on a ‘do not cast,’ list for upstaging. I was placed on another, ‘do not cast list,’ later in life for ‘anger management issues,’ when I took off my high heel shoe and threw it at an audience member who was opening candy and crinkling the wrapper during my big solo in a non-union production of South Pacific. It was then that I started juicing to remove any toxin from my body, to keep me fresh, and to prevent any further flying shoes.
The Cuisinart Juicer I bought at Crate and Barrel is easy to clean and a delight to use. I smile and sigh a bit daily as I push my cucumbers into that hole. If it wont fit, I do what I can to make it fit. I pull out a bit, take a deep breath and gently push back inside again. I use my fingers to try and pull the opening of the hole open more. I pull out again and I squeeze some fresh lemon as a lubricant onto the opening gape and gently push back in until my business is done and that cucumber is spent.
How do I stay so lovely? Well, it isn’t easy. “Pretty is as pretty does,” and I have said that before. While dining al fresco the other night at Parigi Dallas we sat outside on the patio next to J. Douglas Design Interiors. Parigi means “French,” in Italian and the menu reflects the best of Parisian, Italian and American cuisine. I adore dining continental as it makes me yearn for more. The early blooms of the Chestnut trees are releasing their fragrant and intoxicating sensory gifts to me that flourish with my special blend fragrance from Tom Ford. The lady walking down the street in her red micro mini skirt and spiked 5 inch heels stops and says, “Your hair is so lovely. Where did you get it done?”
“My up-do? I went to the William Carr salon next door to Parigi Dallas and my very dear friend Joshua Goodridge took care of me.”
The lady pulls her halter top up a bit and readjusts her navel jewelry, pops her gum as she swings her purse and wanders off. “hmmm…..never heard of it.” She went in the side entrance of the Melrose Hotel and I never saw her again.
I then told my dinner date, “That Joshua is quite a looker too.” It is a harmless remark and he didn’t get jealous at all. Thank god he didn’t, because a jealous dinner date will get up from the table and storm off and leave you with the tab. They may give you a free desert at Parigi Dallas, but they wont pick up the bill if you denigrate your date and he drives off.
Janice Provost is the proprietress and Parigi Dallas has been around for a long time. Her side kick Chad Houser is a hunk. I’d eat any large morsel he placed on the plate in front of me, including some cordon blue cooking learnt from the Les Dames D’Escoffier.
Being a well mannered lady schooled from the old south I quickly reached into my bag and applied another coating of Yves St. Laurent No 54 Rouge to my lips taking the white linen napkin provided by the restaurant and blotting before a gloss of my petaled lips with a clear coating from something by Estee Lauder. I don’t use Estee Lauder normally, but it is Beauty Event at Neiman Marcus and it came as my gift with any $150 purchase from the cosmetics department. It is never well mannered to blot with a paper cocktail napkin from the bar. That is why any fine dining establishment will always provide a white linen napkin for the use of blotting your lipstick. Parigi Dallas is a fine dining establishment. Tell them Tammy sent you.
Knowing that there is something for everyone at Parigi Dallas I decide to Enjoy. I start with a heart healthy acorn squash stuffed with quinoa, peas, carrots, spinach, and aspagio. My doctor has told me my cholesterol is high and not wanting to start any drug that may decrease my libido, I now eat in moderation with proper menu choices in mind.
The waiter makes a few recommendations and not wanting to sully his good name or character I chose for my main course pappardele with lobster, shrimp, crab and Sottocenere cheese.
The lovely dining room attendant Jose keeps my glass more than half full of fresh iced tea that I sweetened with 2 packets of “Sugar in the Raw.” I thanked him kindly with a peck on the cheek and a good old fashioned small slap on the rear. “Oh Miss Tammy you so lovely and sweet!” he replied.
Not wanting to be too ‘fresh’ in front of my dinner companion before desert, I then say to Jose in perfect Castilian Spanish, “Gracias José, aquí está mi tarjeta de visita. Ven a mi casa después del trabajo y te puedo mostrar cómo usar mi licuadora.”
Translated into English means, “Thank you Jose, here is my calling card. Come to my place after work and I can show you how to use my juicer.”
By visiting Parigi Dallas it is so easy to be sweet, lovely, well mannered and fresh.
Tammy –
Ask Tammy Manners is a daily column based in the Dallas area that offers advice in most areas of life and living.
