Perfect Pear Bistro – Tempe, Arizona
Growing up Catholic, I probably read more about the gods of Mount Olympus than the catechism which taught about the almighty God worshipped at St. Anthony’s in Peñasco. I didn’t hold the gods of Greek mythology in reverence. If anything, I wondered how they could be so peurile and petty. Though also splenetic and petulent, they were very interesting. Perhaps indicative of my future gastronomic interests, I was particularly curious about the foods that were so prominent in Greek mythology. Pears, for example, were sacred to two of the most powerful goddesses: Juno (queen of the gods and marriage) and Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty. Pears were also prominent in one of my very favorite books, The Odyssey. Growing up in agrarian Peñasco, we were surrounded by lush trees offering a bounty of cherries, chokecherries, apples, peaches, apricots and more. The only pear tree I can recall was in our grandfather Max’s front yard. While the pears were sweet and delicious, we seemed to prefer using them as projectiles to hurl at one another or at offending cows daring to trespass into our yard. Pears rated rather low in the pantheon of fruits…at least as an edible fruit. Perhaps…