Sub Zero

Temperatures were far from sub-zero the day I strolled into this busy cafe for lunch. The unrelenting chatter of seemingly innumerable pairs of well dressed middle aged women, babbling, balding blokes and others, combined with the cacophonous clinking and chinking of glass and chinaware from the kitchen made for a sense of being in a modern version of a pre-Victorian House of Bedlam. I felt quite at home!
One orders at the counter then locates a table and chair – I was unfathomably lucky, considering the place was full of the aforementioned noise-makers, to find a cosy spot inside the floor to ceiling plate glass window on the northern perimeter.
As busy as they were the superhuman wait staff managed to supply me with the required food and drink inside 10 minutes, surely a feat of magnificence in any one’s view. I wanted the thick, creamy experience of a chai latte this day and it was just so. Warm but not hot, thick but not too much and in a cup that was able to be lifted to my lips without strained acts of digital gymnastics or the risk of dreaded cup cantileverage/slippage.
To complement the drink came a ‘flute’, playing a tune from within its toasted pale coat, of music composed with quiet, organic lavishness by the strikingly crisp & tasty bacon, the lush, moist tomato, the gently melted, warm cheese and the smattering of playful herbs. A plain and simple midday meal, admittedly, but a delicious one nonetheless.
Who was it who once said, “Hunger is the best sauce...” ?