Ladies who lunch

The ladies who lunch do their last farewell lunch together in style at the Gokart Gallery on Andrassy Ut. It's sentimental, but fitting as we are ushered to our table overlooked by the piano and framed canvases on the walls. An elegant lunch later, we can but only pander ourselves with a sampling of delicious pastries. Yet, another thing that I will miss... Hungarians do make the best pastries... notwithstanding the French or Viennese (the Swiss still have my vote on the bread, but that's just nostalgia talking). Much deliberation and consultation leads us to a tonka bean tart and a chocolate mousse pastry to be indulged in mutually. What arrives are two superb little creations, delicately pastry sized, light as air, dark as sin and as shuddering as an orgasm. Each bite drawn out to savour the experience to the fullest, all senses engaged as we diligently demolish the pastries between soft little moans. The tonka bean tart has a fragrance that is so familiar but eludes me just the same, like a teasing scent left behind by a lover. I have a lingering memory of the same scent in a Viennese concoction involving chocolate at a coffee house... . My Hungarian won't touch the berry topping the tart because it's hairy - luckily, I have no qualms about gnawing on things hairy, and it's the perfect counterpoint to the delicate flavour of the tart. We demand to know what a tonka bean is, and the maitre d' tries his best to explain that it's South American in origin, a cross between caffeine and chocolate. Clearly, our dubious glances affront his professional demeanour and he returns with a small plate of samples. They look like large sunflower seeds with a wrinkly skin, almond shaped and black. Snapping one open yields a lighter shade of mocha and that waft... of vanilla. Apparently, this innocuous little bean is used in making perfumes but it's greater claim to fame seems to be that it is banned by the erstwhile FDA as consumption in large doses destroys ones liver, and Americans are urged not to buy Vanilla extracts from Mexico as they have the rather rude habit of using tonka beans instead of vanilla to sell the same effect.

Tch tch. What could they have been thinking?! Death by chocolate?