Category: Memories
Protected: First Time Valentine
Ardour for Smores
There was a small little diner Dad always took me to, every single Saturday morning at 10am. The waitress, Betty, always had the same table reserved and my favorite childhood drink, a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows and extra cream, topped with a large amount of caramel, waiting for me. He always said it was our little secret, and our tradition. He still takes me there whenever I’m home. Even back in June, for the few weeks I spent at home he always brought me to that diner, and we both ordered the same breakfasts we’d ordered 12 years ago. I felt like a kid again. I felt like I was back home for good and that this was like any other day, that I wasn’t heading back down to Australia again in a few weeks, that I wasn’t parting from them with almost 10’000 miles in between. I’ve promised them that they can come visit and spend Christmas with me here in Sydney, and I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be the first time they’ll ever physically be in my apartment, and not looking at it through a computer screen. But before I stray too far, back to the cuisine. I ordered the same breakfast, pancakes drizzled in maple syrup with a little blotch of cream on the side. It sounds like the average diner breakfast, but it was the flavor that buzzed my taste buds awake with that extremely satisfying and delicious first chunk of batter that makes the dish my favorite breakfast of all time.
After that we’d aimlessly drive around town, stopping at a park if it was dry, the cinema if a good movie was in, sometimes we’d go home and take Shadow, our German Shepherd out for a walk. I think that’s where I found my love to just drive around with no destination. Then that Saturday, Dad would always take me back to that diner between 4 and 6. We always spent our Saturdays together, whilst Mom took Dylan and Spencer to soccer practice. I always believed they never knew, but it’s only when I got older I realized they’d known all along. I’d always get the kids chicken nugget meal, sausage meal or the vegetable soup. But it was never really the dinner that made me excited, it was the dessert that would follow. It was like breakfast, the same dessert I would have every time. Thinking back on it now, I bet they had my dessert already waiting for me, because Betty didn’t even have to ask what I wanted.
But Tuesday, Sharon and I, as we were walking home from school, passed by a restaurant we had never actually noticed before. So we decided to try it out. And at first I was funny with the menu, because I had been having my lunches and dinners at a small American restaurant a few blocks away from my apartment complex. I hadn’t fully tried the Australian cuisine, but the menu did seem fairly enticing. So I ordered a small, peppered Emu steak with a side portion of chips, and I know it sounds bad, but I’m not going to lie, it was pretty good.
But once again its the dessert menu that got me excited. There were many desserts I’d already tasted and tried, such as cheesecake, pavlova, fudge cake, but the one that appealed to me the most was the Australian strawberry, marshmallow and fudge smores. They were incredible, and enraptured me from the very first bite. When Dad gets here for Christmas I can’t wait to treat him to one of my new favorite desserts.
Following Law, Following Life 