“Rich and creamy New York-style cheesecake swirled with pureed fresh strawberries and a hint of lime juice, all nestled in a buttery graham crust”
beamed the lunch special menu. S was wowed. Well who wouldn’t be, look at the picture! She changed her order from bread and Earl Grey tea to just the dessert. The waitress gave an understanding nod, openly feeling sorry for S’ state, the lonely vegetarian with meager choices and magnanimously approved S’ desperate attempt to fill her grumbling stomach with something. The cake looked big and S considered that she might be overestimating her appetite. “Big deal! It’s a piece of cake , how filling can it be?” she thought, brushing such preposterous thoughts away. The waitress brought the cheesecake ceremoniously and with a wink and a patronizing pat, left it on the table and busied herself with the arduous task of filling the giant glasses with sparkling water and a slice of lemon. The ambrosial aroma of freshly pulverized luscious strawberries blending with the citric tanginess and the curdled creaminess of the cold cheese tingled S’ nostrils and her pleasantly awoken taste buds without fail began their task of salivating. She took in the deliciously beautiful pink, white and brown on the swanky porcelain plate for a minute. Choosing the spoon was a feat of unimaginable controversies. All the high-society spoons made her uncomfortable for they resembled normal spoons in their design and dimensions save one or two tweaks in the whole shape of the spoon; and it looked more like the spoons were mutilated in an uncanny manner rather than made chic to reflect the sophistication of the place. Sighing , she picked the one that seemed closest to the fork family and dug right in. In her first mouthful, she couldn’t help let out a low moan. It was THAT good. The strawberries were so fresh that it appeared like they were picked right then from the invisible fields behind the “Only Authorized Personnel” door and the corporate glass and plastics. The cheese was so creamy that she had to wonder what good deeds she had done over her different lifetimes and merits she had earned from the guy above that such a palatable pleasure was bestowed upon her. The cheese was so rich that she had to wonder what good deeds she had done over different lifetimes and merits she had earned from the guy above that such a palatable pleasure was bestowed upon her. The crust was light as air and the mocking hint of lemon danced lightly between spoonfuls. Her tongue had seen paradise. The cake actually slipped from her mouth to the foodpipe, it was that flawlessly smooth. For the next few minutes, nothing in the physical world was actually perceivable except the wonderous dessert. Then suddenly her taste buds grumbled. They were saturated with the sweetness, they complained. Come on, S pushed. But she knew she was wearing herself out, she was exhausted from the creaminess of the cheese. Every mouthful introduced a fresh blast of the thin crust and the rich creamy cheese that felt like a blow and knocked her out. She tried everything , drinking sips of ice cold water, making conversation with the people sitting around her, interspersed with a million tongue clicks to free it of the sultry sweetness and the heavy aftertaste. It was impossible. All right, she decided. It’s you against me. The cake smiled back peacefully. She took a deep breath in and downed 3 spoonfuls blindly. Then drank water at once. Whew! She opened her eyes to see that the cake was hardly half done. Oh no! Her colleagues had started their main course already, after soup and starters. And she was still stuck with this royal cake which she had received even before the others’ starters had arrived. It was then when her stomach grunted. “I’m full! Stop stuffing me”, it instructed. She knew she had to ,but she couldn’t stop. She had to finish what she had started. ” I cannot be defeated by a cake, and a cheesy one at it.” she declared. But she revamped her strategy and decided to tackle it one spoonful at a time, chanting ‘I can do this’ every time. The cake smiled back ruefully. After an hour, she looked proudly at the pink -white-brown crumbs sticking on the plate. And even though her motor skills were temporarily incapacitated and she couln’t move, she had finished the Colossal Strawberry Daiquiri Cheesecake for good. “Big deal! It’s a piece of cake , how filling can it be?” She shook her head and took out her red wallet.