does cream cheese taste like love?? or is it.....bacon?

I was out with my friend Pete yesterday and we had a very big lunch. Very big. Sure it was vegetarian...which in my mind is always synonymous with "nutritious" and "so low calorie you actually get thinner by eating it." However, I got the distinct feeling perhaps this wasn't so, when I had to unbutton my pants midway through my saag paneer. (forgive the spelling). "Saag" means spinach. I thought  "paneer" meant "eat it and you'll be strong and fit like Popeye" but we popped into  the adjoining grocery store afterward and I saw I was sadly mistaken.

I wasn't that sad though. Cuz I found Ghee! Which is Indian for "hey lazy why don't you clarify your own butter?" and I bought a big container of it, along with black and yellow mustard seeds and something else that I've already forgotten why I needed it so badly. But the thrill was in the hunt and I love ethnic grocery stores and this one had ingredients I'd never heard of, ever. What could be better?

Dessert, that's what. And so Pete led me down the garden path to a place that somehow combined the divine (donuts) with the sublime (Muffins). I couldn't wait.

Atwater Village, the Village Bakery. How you broke my heart.  Out of the donut muffins? or "duffins" as I'd secretly taken to calling them as I'd muse about them at night. I wisely decided, no dessert for me, but Pete ordered the individual sized pie.

Pie? Really? I'm a fan of pie, just not for dessert. Not fruit pie anyway. Fruit pie is breakfast. Cream Pie is for dessert.  Back when my nephew was around nine or ten, my mother tried to pawn pie off on him when he went for ice cream bar #3 of the day. 

My Mom:  "I have peach pie."
Kyle:          "I don't like peaches and I don't like pie."
My mom:  "Kyle, there's watermelon."
Kyle:          "Fruit is not a dessert."
Now I like peaches and I like pie. Usually not together. And definitely not for dessert. So when Pete got his pie, a blueberry/cranberry confection, I was unmoved. Even though it was baked into the shape of a heart. and covered with that thick grainy sugar that crunches when you bite into it.  But I'm only human so when Pete got up to get more coffee, I sneaked a bite. Of Manna. From Heaven. It was the best little pie ever. I asked the waitress if there was cream cheese hidden away in the crust. She went in back to inquire, then quickly returned to tell me "the secret ingredient in our crust....is love."
Huh. Where I'm sitting, love tastes a lot like cream cheese.

What does this have to do with Heyletssplitit? Well come on. It's about shopping. It's about sharing. It's about love. Even if it's love of cream chese, love is love.

And paneer? It's cheese.
www.thevillagebakeryandcafe.com
www.heyletssplitit.com