If you look up “ecstasy” in the OED, the first definition is this: “The state of being ‘beside oneself’, thrown into a frenzy or a stupor, with anxiety, astonishment, fear, or passion.” When I read that definition, I think of Friday night’s first course: cave-aged gruyere, toasted baguette, caraway onions, beef jus, parsley salad. The cheese was warm and oozing; the bread both butter-soddened and crispy; the onions a silky, unctuous slide; the jus had the dark, deep flavor of a demi-glace; the parsley a sharp tang of green. Taken together inside my mouth made me move, just for a moment, outside my body—I suddenly saw myself sitting in the green chair at the table, the window behind me, the black shirt I was wearing, the fork still clenched in my hand.
