ON A HAPPIER NOTE

As Susie and I prepare for our four week trip to Paris, early in the new year, I have printed out a recipe for "joues de porc," which is to say pork cheeks.  This is my favorite dish at Le Petit Pontoise, a wonderful little restaurant three blocks from our apartment on rue Pontoise.    A while back, I asked my local Whole Foods butcher whether I could get pork cheeks and he looked at me as though I were mad, but in Paris, I shall have no difficulty at all.   If this works, it will make a nice addition to my small list of tested recipes, which at this point includes, among other things, five spices cuisses de canards, grilled quail, dorade royale [a lovely white fish], steamed endives [a Jacques Pepin recipe], and of course, boeuf bourguignon.  If the world insists on going to hell as I age, at least I can eat well.