I received a call a month or so from Hans, a retired professor who was interested in a guide trip. The first thing that he said was, “I don’t want a Subway sandwich for lunch”. A lot of our local guides get Subway sandwiches for their shore lunches. It is easy and they get a discount. I went on to explain to him that my usual shore lunch consisted of fresh whole wheat bread, deli ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and mayonnaise and that you made your own sandwich. I also take a variety of chips, Pepperidge Farm cookies, fresh fruit, soft drinks and water.
That was not quite what he was looking for. He regularly goes to Patagonia and other exotic locales and was more interested in a gourmet type lunch with a bottle or two of nice wine. I am not a teetotaler but I don’t want my clients to over drink because of liability issues. I figured a couple of glasses of wine with lunch would be okay. We talked at length about what kinds of food he might be interested in.
I discussed the lunch with several other guides and they said they would avoid it and if necessary they would not book the trip. I decided that I wanted to be the guide that furnished a higher level of service to my clients. In the past, I had furnished Kosher and diabetic meals when needed and it had all worked out just fine. We exchanged emails and several phone calls to determine which items to include and which wine to bring.
Luckily for me my wife, Lori, is a gourmet cook. She was kind enough to cook one of my favorite side dishes, French potato salad, from a recipe, in Julia Child’s masterpiece cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She spent a significant amount of time gathering all of the items he had requested, delivering it streamside and setting it all up on a picnic table in the shade at Rim Shoals. She went all out and brought a table cloth, some trout plates that she had picked up at a silent auction and some unbreakable wine glasses. She called me on my cell phone, when it was all ready.
We motored over to the ramp and were impressed with what we saw. For our appetizers, there were two cheeses (Brie and Monterey Jack), two types of crackers (Triscuits and Carr’s wheat crackers), salami wrapped around prosciutto, white seedless grapes and a nice Pinot Noire red wine. For lunch, there was the previously mentioned potato salad, fresh vegetables (cherry tomatoes, English cucumber, and hydroponic lettuce) and deviled eggs. There was fresh whole wheat bread; Boars Head roast beef, Imported Swiss cheese, three types of mustard and mayonnaise, for sandwiches, and a nice bottle, of merlot wine. Desert was yogurt, strawberries and fresh sliced apples.
Hans and his fishing buddy, Jim stopped and took photos of the spread, while I poured them a glass of wine. They sat and tried everything. They enjoyed the meal and it made their day something special. Fortunately there were leftovers. I am nibbling on some Brie and grapes as I write this. Life is good!
For me, it was a pleasant change of pace. It made me think about the next time Lori and I go fishing on our own. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, give it a try.
John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.
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