Thinking about taste memories from the past, I realized that the foods
that made the greatest impression, in both the physical and emotional sense, on
my mind were sweets. I can picture and
almost even taste them. I have no
problem remembering the pleasure I had in consuming them, regardless of whether
I would eat them today. They even create a pleasant sensation merely thinking
of them.
As my mother is French and I grew up in the United States, I enjoyed
sweets from both sides of the Atlantic. At home, my breakfast was a petit
pain au chocolat – a small croissant with chocolate. I know that such a
breakfast would be considered highly unhealthily today but my mother
justifiably was more concerned that I ate something before school. By the way,
even in France, they don’t make them like they used to do, light and chocolaty
at the same time. For special occasions, we might get an éclair, once
again a light dough but with a wonderful chocolate cream, or a cannoli,
an Italian pastry roll with vanilla cream.
On winter days, we might get a cup of hot Dutch Droste chocolate, which,
in my mind, was in another league from any other hot chocolate. Later I
discovered kouabiedes, Greek cookies made with butter and sugar, and a crêpe au Grand Marnier, a simple crepe
with sugar, Grand Marnier and lemon, still one of favorites. During my time in
France, I learned to appreciate Italian gelato, relishing those small
but tasty cones with pistachio ice cream bought from the cart near the Hotel de
Ville in Paris. A real treat was a chocolate liegeoise from the
Drugstore on the Champs Elysée.
In Paris, I also discovered the joy of banane flambée, the Chinese flambeed dessert. I admittedly
was not a typical American kid.
So you don’t think I was a snob, I equally enjoyed American sweets. The pleasure of plowing through a box of Oreo or Chips Ahoy cookies with some milk is as basic as it gets. By the way, I always first opened the Oreo when I was a kid. For that matter, I would never refuse a jelly donut if was offered nor do I do today especially since Hanukah is about to arrive with all its sufganiot, the Israel version of that donut on condition that they are fresh or made by my wife. On special occasions, I would have a banana split, which consists of a banana split into two with ice cream, sauce and whipped cream on top, a root beer float, a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass of cold root beer, grantedly a strange but tasty combination that I think has disappeared, or a chocolate malt, which is like a chocolate shake with malt added to it, giving it a singular taste. Curiously enough, it is still sold at Dodger Stadium, which is appropriate since the whole park, food included, is a relic of the 1960’s. In summer camps, I actually liked the cinnamon toast and smores, camp-fire roasted marshmallows with chocolate on a graham cracker, as long as the marshmallows were only lightly roasted, not burnt. In college, due to the awful dorm food, I survived on special banana mocha milk shakes, which included, besides milk, chocolate and coffee ice cream (with pieces of coffee in it), chocolate syrup, a shot of expresso and a banana. Believe it or not, I still lost weight even with that caloric package.
I am no longer 20 years old nor even 30.
Yet, I still have a sweet tooth. Today,
my taste is more Middle Eastern. I relish a piece of baklava or ush
el bul bul (bird’s nest) as well as a crème brulée. I have not taken to local crembo, a
chocolate-covered crème puff sold in the winter “instead” of ice cream. In
practice, my standard dessert is a plain medjool date, moist and just sweet
enough to end a meal satisfactory. I do confess
to occasionally pigging out on many of those sweets from the past. All in all,
I am happy that I profited from my youthful metabolic balance as much as
possible and did not waste my youth, at least in that aspect. 