At Eddie's request : Tall Glass of Milk − 2 May, 2008

At work they see me as somewhat of an expert on junk food. It is not junk to me or at all. I can talk about cookies, cakes, candy, chips and pot roast for very long minutes, a half hour...Like the rest of my family, food is mucho importanto and a life saver...a psyche saver also.

Which reminds me of a cake a friend's mother used to make. It was called the Mayonnaise cake. All chocolate inside and out. She called it the Mayonnaise cake because instead of adding oil and eggs, you added...mayonnaise. It was the most succulent dessert, rich, moist and full of sugar.

My mom was and still is a great cook. But she could never make chocolate desserts. She missed the cake I ordered for my birthday every time to the point she asked one of her friends to bake me a cake (it was dry and had the feeling of sandpaper, the taste of cardboard) or she bought them at the store (it was then oily and also tasted like cardboard).

My friend's mom was no culinary expert, she wasn't even a good mother (for reasons I won't explain here because it's not the purpose of this story). She was, however, the best damn chocolate cake baker I knew.

When she baked that cake, my friend would invite me and my sister over and we would sit around the table in religious silence, licking our spoons and our plates (if my mom knew this she would faint). And we would drink the most refreshing, the most rewarding glass of 3.25% milk. I would guzzle it down in one long drink, put the glass down hard on the table and sigh contentedly.

I haven't had such a most excellent cake in years and years. I don't drink milk that way either. Milk is now for coffee, cereal and some recipes, I rarely drink a tall glass of milk. My mom still can't bake a decent chocolate cake, my little sister now does the desserts at home. And I never dared bake a similar chocolate cake either. I should and with it I would drink a very rewarding, very cold, glass of milk.