A wish

Last evening, I ate some ice cream. Some Sheer Bliss coffee ice cream.

Some?

Who am I kidding? I should be honest. I ate half a tin of ice cream. What I need to do is take out a portion into a cup and put the tin away. Self control being scarce, perhaps I should lock it away in an old-fashioned refrigerator - the kind that can still be dug up in India.

Ideally, I would like is to eat as much of it whenever I like and then by magic the pounds will fly out and latch onto Leland's tall, lanky frame. He is so lucky - he can eat and drink to high heaven and still remain string bean thin. He would not make a good model for Weight Watchers....the ladies there would eat him up alive...out of sheer jealousy.

Absinth

"Close your eyes for a second present".

Eyes firmly shut I wondered what else would be given apart from the bar of Milka chocolate. Then I opened my eyes which widened in joyous surprise. I drew in a sharp breadth of air....a dream had just come true!

A bottle of Absinth.
....to hold.....to taste.

Reader, I kissed Leland....

... and then kissed the bottle many times. A cloak and dagger operation as Nathan wanted no part in it. I was so touched that Leland had brought it for me from Prague where it is available in abundance. I had asked Leland to have absinth for me but the instructions probably were too painful that he told me that it was useless asking him to write down as in a perfume, the top/middle and bottom notes. Why write at a bar?

I showed it to a connoiseur of the drink who saw that it was 70% alcohol and he warned me that it was very potent and that I should be careful in imbibing it neat and should dilute it.

Originally, I had thought of making special anise flavored hors d'oeuvres before opening the bottle with ceremony. However, the desire to have a taste overcome any such aspirations and I opened it. The aroma was that of a foul smelling cough medicine.

I poured a small amount in a shot glass. Raising my glass to the air, I said "cheers" to both Leland and Nathan before taking a first sip.

Drunk neat my mouth felt numb and my tongue puckered up with shock. I held on to the chair for strength. Forcing saliva to come back into my mouth, I then ran to a mirror to see if all seemed normal. Phew! I then diluted the remaining green liquid with some water and drank it slowly.

Did I get a buzz? A slight one which made me giggle excitedly - more so, because finally, a dream had come true....and also ate a lot of chocolate which seemed to go well with it.

Will I also end up talking to an empty baby carriage like a friend did? Maybe if I have two or three glasses in one sitting!

Carrera

My new favorite place in the city is a small tapas place. "Carrera". I am hooked.

My first visit stemmed from a jolly mistake - I thought the Bar Veloce right next door was the tapas place I was looking for! I had invited a friend and we each had a glass of rose and a three-tiered finger sandwich - just the mention of the word "finger sandwich" sends me into spasms of joy - I can eat several of these but we ate only one and then as she left first, discovered that Carrera was right next door.

We entered and polished off three dishes, dessert and sangria. Smitten - is the word.

Three days later, I took a friend who had come from abroad. Apart from the food, the best part was that Led Zeppelin was being played as we walked inside and that was prophetic to us enjoying the food all the more.

I was there this evening with a first-timer who enjoyed it and am going there tomorrow with another friend who has heard all about it....from me.

The food is yummy. Simply and tastefully plated.

So far I have tried:

tuna and salmon mousse encased in a pequillo pepper bathed in a smoky green olive oil - the orange and red colors glistening on the plate

sangria, infused with berries served with a plump strawberry skewered on top of the long, thin spoon

thick chunks of white tuna on a bamboo skewer with a piece of artichoke and a tiny hot green pepper at one end

warm sauteed slices of morcilla and chorizo - the morcilla tastes like an eathy salty mushroom

sliced baguette topped with a layer of thick creamy cheese, sliced salmon and a dollop of black caviar served on a plate drizzled with honey

plate of Spanish ham

My plan is to go once a week or more as the plates of food are inexpensive (the only expensive part is the sangria in my case - I don't bother with the sherries or the wine here) and go down the menu one by one and pick out my favorites and keep eating them.

What will I have tomorrow? A few of the above and one or two new ones.

An Incident....

Once upon a time an incident occurred at P_____ of a most unusual nature. Two well dressed Russian women came to have dinner. They ordered the finest of caviars, sent back a few saying that they weren't good enough and ordered more of the very expensive variety - Beluga. They drank Veuve Cliquot and then ate their entrees and ordered a dessert each.

When the waiter presented them with the bill - $1000 to be exact - they gave the waiter a business card with the name of a gentleman and told him that this man would pay the bill tomorrow. The waiter wrinkled his eyes puzzled at this turn of events and then became rather worried. He went with this strange story to the manager. It was then discovered that the two ladies had no cash or credit cards on them. The manager was having none of this and promptly called the police. The police arrived to handcuff the two ladies and tossed them in jail for the night. This morning, the manager went to lodge a report at the station.

We waited with bated breaths to find out the next installment...only to be told that our establishment was not the first one that the two ladies had hit on.

The next day we gathered around the table for our family meal. A basket of hot toast points was sitting there looking forlorn. I piped up to ask the sous-chef if there was any caviar lying about so that we could enjoy the two together.

He was not amused.

Momofuku

Can one make a mistake at Momofuku?

I did this weekend.

Having seen a party eating eating crawfish a few weeks ago made me think and speak about having it for sometime. I imagined it to be spicy, finger-licking good and looked forward to it. What a letdown! Spicy and aromatic it certainly looked, but eating it was so difficult, especially as no pliers were provided. I had to ask a total stranger next to me how to eat it and he gave me some instructions and then told me that he would only eat it at home as it was a messy affair. The meaty part was so miniscule that it seemed that the only thing to do was sop up the sauce and imagine one was eating a padded fleshy lobster!

Luckily the friend expensed the lunch so I didn't feel like it was a total waste of money.

The other dishes were delicious - the roasted asparagus on a bed of miso with a fried egg on top, the roasted rice cakes and the pork buns.