May I shoot your plate

What I said to the French couple at the next table in the restaurant where Rick and I were eating was "Puis-je prendre une photo de votre assiette?"

Rick had gone to the men's room and I watched the elderly gentleman with the ready smile carefully scrape every bit of potato that he could from its skin and push the rejected skins to one side.

It was all I could do not reach over and ask if I could have the skin. It's my favorite part and the part that has the most vitamins

The skin from one whole baked potato has 

• 115 calories and 
• 27 grams of carbohydrates 
• 3 grams of protein each
• 5 grams of fiber
• a rich source of iron 
• Potassium
• Magnesium 

But I just love the taste of the skins. The healthy part is a bonus.

The elderly woman (she might have been my age) said without hesitation, "Bien sûre," or of course and so I did. 

I said I'd noticed that not many French ate the skins. She agreed. However, when he returned, Rick said that not many Americans did either. Having come from a skin-eating family, I didn't know that.

The couple left. 

I resisted leaning over to scoop the skins from their plate. Now that I'm home, I wish I had. Maybe I'll wander out to Elisabeth's and get a potato to bake...