Chomp!

By Ron Aiken

 

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Cake? For lunch? Yazooo!

I will not, in this column, use the phrase “It was love at first bite.” Not gonna do it.

Because it was not “love at first bite,” to be technical about it. Maybe the sixth or seventh bite, but they haven’t come up with something catchy for that yet.

Still, with all the temptation to say “love at first bite” that’s floating around, all the pressure you’re putting on me to say “love at first bite” right now, just know that I’m not going to cave on this.

I will not say it was love at first bite.

The bite in question, which was NOT love at first bite, was at Nonnah’s on Gervais St. The occasion was of the ostensible variety – a business lunch to talk about doing a possible story on an event. Such lunches aren’t uncommon, but the offer of it certainly was.

Three days after we’d met, my future fiancée wrote me this message about the proposed get-together to talk about the project.

“Let’s meet for lunch one day next week and have coffee and a dessert as our meal. Decadent! Do you like Nonnah’s?”

Uhhhhh……wuuuuhhhh???? A lunch, A LA DECADANTE???? Hayo!!! Ehem, why yes, I’d like that.

And so we had that lunch, where certainly there was no love at first bite, I can assure you, because that’s just a ridiculous thing to say.

We shared a Monte Cristo sandwich that day before I trundled off to cover an NCAA Tournament baseball game and she to her job as then-Deputy Director of a state agency.

Thursday at lunch – firmly, fully and formally engaged in life and love – we re-created our first meeting with a decadent lunch at Nonnah’s.

 

Nonnah’s, in its new location at 923 Gervais Street across the street, basically, from where it used to be.

 

We started with an espresso for me and a mocha cappuccino for my sweetheart.

 

Don’t they look good?!

 

And my baby sipping hers…she refused to take a sip such that she got a dallop of whip cream on the tip of her nose, but no one’s perfect.

 

Lovely!

 

Then, with NO warning, they brought out these cute babies!

 

Look! They’re hearts!

 

Here’s the Monte Cristo sammich, with a sweet mustard sauce and an apple salad.

 

Mmmmm…..Monte Cristo! The taste of sweet, sweet revenge (I’m referencing the book now, not the sandwich per se. I loved that book in school LIKE EVERY BOY EVERYWHERE! I also love the sandwich LIKE EVERY BOY EVERYWHERE.

 

After that we moved on to the real course, dee-sert. I had the Strawberry Amaretto, which is a white cake soaked with amaretto flavoring and layered with strawberry cream, coated in chocolate ganache and topped with a white chocolate-dipped fresh strawberry.

Here it is!

Pretty dadgum sweet!

 

And Leesa had the Chocolate Temptation, which is a chocolate cake laced with Godiva liqueur, layered with vanilla cream finished with a chocolate granache.

Here’s this baby!

 

So rich, so sweet we had to take some home!

 

Some things in life you can’t re-create. I’ve heard love at first bite is one of those things, but what would I know about that? Clearly nothing, and if you say I do I’ll call you a liar. But some things in life you can re-create, like special memories just you and your loved one share, memories that will always define and entwine you in the wonderful joy you share.

And though my picture of him didn’t come out – he’s a fast mover, that one – our server, Tim Freeman, was a magnificent delight. Thank you!

Til next week!

 

 

 

 

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