I was three years old when I tried smoking for the first time. I can clearly remember that moment. We lived in the Far North, in a population centre, where one can get only by a helicopter to. Only buildings of a club and a radio station (that at the same time was an administration) were made of stone. There was a smoking place near the radio station. And I, having problems with moving in a fur coat, which weighed more than me, picked a dog-end and took a pull.
- 50 g scallop
- 20 g cucumber
- 20 g avocado
- 2 g truffle oil
- 5 g tobiko
- 10 g red caviar
- 3 g soy sauce
- 5 g frisee
- 3 g microgreen
- 20 g jelly
- 5 g saffron sauce
- 2 g balsamic
- 70 g olive oil
- 10 ml grape vinegar
- 20 g mustard
- Salt and pepper up to taste
- 100 ml stock
- 1 g agar-agar
- 35 g semi-sweet wine
- 1g saffron pollen
- 100 g 30% cream
- Salt and pepper up to taste
- Cold scallop julienne with avocado, red caviar and truffle oil is my signature dish with elements of molecular gastronomy.
- Cut cucumber and avocado in thin slices, season with classical vinaigrette sauce, lay out young frisee on top and pour jellied seafood stock.
- The ensemble is completed with scallop julienne (thin slices), seasoned with truffle oil, soy sauce and tobiko.
- Decorate the dish with microgreen, red caviar, saffron sauce and balsamic.
- Perfectly served with Talisker 10 Years Old.
- Jellied seafood stock – pour ingredients in a container and cool down.
- Saffron sauce – bring to boil and sauce-like consistency.
At that moment, I decided I would never smoke again. I couldn’t get rid of a bitter and poisonous cigarette taste for the next several days.
Then, when I was 12, my friends and me bought a pack of More. We hid in a kindergarten near my home and smoked cigarettes, but without inhaling. At those times, I already knew how to earn money: I sold ice cream in winter for three times as much as I bought it. I spent the money earned for cigarettes and Coca-Cola.
When my mother found out, she took a box of cigarettes, intended to be sold in Poland, from a case and gave it to me. And she never recalled that case. Today, I can say that was the wisest decision. By the way, there were no smokers in our family, except for my dad’s father.
A week after, I gave up smoking for the second time in my life and promised myself, I would never smoke again.
I broke my own promise, when I was in the last grade. That was the first time I took a real pull of a cigarette. For the next 6 years, I smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. I woke up and fell asleep with a cigarette. And I couldn’t imagine my life without smoking.
I gave up smoking in 2002. I just decided to test my will. It was June, I spent the whole day at home with an open Marlboro pack and a lighter. The first day was the hardest. That day I learnt how to light Zippo, while it was flying, with my tongue and by a finger snap. The next day, my yearning disappeared.
That was the third time I promised never to smoke again.
And it was New Year 2008 when I broke my promise again. I started smoking because I was angry with my wife. She’s a heavy smoker, and refused to give up. Actually, it only seemed to me that I started smoking because I was angry. And as one wise person said, one could give up smoking, only after dealing with the reason why one had started.
Previously, I used to enjoy smoking. And now it’s just my habit. The habit I’m frustrated and not pleased with.
I took three years for me to understand why I had started smoking. Three years with these sticks, that one can find in my pocket even now, when I’m righting this.
I haven’t read Alan Carr’s book, I’ve never used patches and taken any pills. I gave up smoking just because I knew what I was doing it for.
And this time I promise again I’ll never smoke.
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