Each of the elements of this simple meal is a part of the cuisine of Portugal or Galicia, with the possible exception of the sugar snap peas, although it’s unlikely they would be found there in the arrangements I made last night.

• one 13-ounce duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, the fatty side scored in tight cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast then sprinkled top and bottom with a mixture of sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and a little turbinado sugar (in our sugar bowl, infused over a very long time with a whole vanilla bean), left standing for about 45 minutes before it was pan-fried inside a small oval enameled cast iron pan over medium heat in a tiny bit of olive oil for a total of 8 or 9 minutes, turning once, the fatty side down first, draining the oil part of the way through [to be strained and used in cooking later, if desired], removed when medium rare (cut into 2 portions to check that the center is of the right doneness, which means no more than medium rare), left to sit for several minutes before finishing it with a drizzle of juice from an organic lemon from Whole Foods Market, chopped rosemary from Phillips Farm and a drizzle of olive oil
• ten small Ontario yellow ‘cherry’ tomatoes from Whole Foods Market, heated, the flame now turned off, inside the pan in which the duck had been fried, while being rolled with a wooden spoon, seasoned with salt and pepper, arranged on the plates sprinkled with chopped baby fennel from Lani’s Farm
• sugar snap peas from Lani’s Farm, parboiled for about a minute and a half, drained, rolled inside a heavy tin-lined copper pan with a little olive oil in which one small chopped green garlic head from Phillips Farm had been heated until fragrant, seasoned with Maldon sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, finished with chopped peppermint leaves from Lani’s Farm
• the wine was a California (Sonoma) white, Scott Peterson Rumpus Chaos California 2015, from Naked Wines
• the music was Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, René Jacobs conducting the Freiburger Barockorchester