There were little signs and I should have twigged.
Today, I knew for certain, the love affair was over.
It was an ordinary day like any other (except I practically ran out of the house desperate to get lost in my ‘make-believe’ world for an hour or two). I arrived at my office, Café TH to do some writing and went to order my ‘usual’, avocado-smash on soy and quinoa toast but stopped short.
It had changed position on the menu board.
A troubling sign.
It’s a popular menu item and has survived many menu changes over the past year. The combination of avocado, fetta and sea salt in a bowl and a plate of toast ticks all the boxes for me. Every mouthful on toast, eye-rolling backwards bliss.
I looked closer.
Today my dish (yes, it’s mine!) states that it includes ‘za’atar’ and ‘snowpeas’. These additions have led to a price rise of three dollars. I’m intrigued. I google za’atar which sounds like a Middle Eastern spice and find that it is. I’m a little excited, a little worried (about the snow peas) and curious, so I order.
I sit down, open my laptop and pull up my manuscript but I can’t concentrate. I rely on the sameness of the menu to get me settled in and straight into my writing. This menu change is a huge distraction, and my eyes keep wandering from my laptop screen to the kitchen.
There’s a lot riding on me liking this new avocado smash. Once I find a café I like, I’m loyal. I’ve been writing at Café TH a long time. Atmosphere and menu have a huge impact on my creative productivity. I’m a grazer, so with food and drink at hand I can write and write and write.
My café of choice needs to know how to make a soy chai. It’s a pre-requisite. A good English Breakfast tea is easy but when I want something different… if the soy chai is undrinkable, the café is a weekend brunch visit at best.
My soy chai arrives, and I gulp it down with a beam. Perfect. No snow peas or new spices in that. Then the reimagined avocado-smash arrives and although I smile at the waiter my shoulders have slumped. It looks like creamed avocado with white dots on toast.
Gone is the small white bowl, brimming with deliciousness. Avocado is spread on the toast (this labour intensive exercise explains the price hike). The goat's cheese is bland. The new kid on the block, za’atar, is sprinkled in a line down the middle of the toast and half a dozen snow peas are arranged on top. The sea salt has all but disappeared.
My first mouthful is disappointment. If this was a MasterChef episode, I can hear the judges lamenting that the dish is trying for Middle Eastern but doesn’t get there. A sprinkling of spice is not enough. One of the judges has a snow pea between his fingers and is puzzling over why it is even on the plate?
I finish my soy chai to soothe my crying taste buds.
It’s over.