The meetup that wasn't … and then was

Yesterday was the second Tuesday of the month, so should have been meetup night, but the general consensus after discussion on the BCNZ Yahoo group was that most people’s social calendars were already full, December being December, so we decided to postpone and have a brunch next Saturday instead.

But yesterday morning I sent a text to awhina to invite her to our Christmas gathering next week, and in passing mentioned the cancelled meetup. Very shortly afterwards, I got a reply saying “But I wanted to go out for dinner!” – as usual, she hadn’t been reading her emails, so had completely missed the entire Yahoo discussion, and had promised the kitten a meal out. Several messages back and forth later, we decided to meet for dinner anyway, at a mexican restaurant we hadn’t tried before, and a few more phone calls and emails added MrPloppy and lytteltonwitch to the plan, so our non-meetup night was suddenly looking pretty much like a meetup.

The new (for us, anyway – I think it’s been open for a year or two now) restaurant wasn’t too bad – the music was a bit loud (especially considering there were only a few tables occupied) and the food not quite spicey enough for my tastes (but then, I burnt out my chilli sensors years ago 🙂 ), but it was ok. Awhina (for a change) was impressed by the service, but I think that’s mainly because the waiting staff (of which we had several, all very attentive – I think they must have been expecting it to be busier than it was, because there seemed to be a lot of staff on for so very few customer) were very patient with the kitten’s fussiness about what she did and didn’t want on her meal.

What was most notable about the place, though, was that on the dessert menu it listed (along with the usual flan, icecream, or chocolate cake) a margarita cheesecake with chilli base, served with avocado icecream. Of course, I couldn’t let a gastronomic challenge like that pass me by, so I had to order it. It was… um… interesting. I’ve never had a margarita, so I don’t know if the cheesecake really tasted like one or not – to me it just tasted like ordinary lemon cheesecake with loads of grated citrus peel through it (which was unfortunate, because I don’t like peel all that much – a few pieces are ok, but too much makes me feel sick). You could kind of taste the chilli in the base, but not much – about as much as chilli-flavoured Tim Tams: enough that you know there’s another flavour in there, but not enough to really taste it properly. The icecream was what was really odd – it seemed to be just vanilla icecream with avocado mashed into it. So in one spoonful you’d taste vanilla, and in the next frozen avocado… which was… well… “interesting” is really the only word for it (the waitress asked how I’d liked it, and when I said “interesting” she commented that everyone had said that so far!)

I didn’t bring any books along (because not expecting a meetup I hadn’t organised any), but awhina brought one (that I’d already read), and lytteltonwitch had grabbed a couple off the book-swap shelf at her work. Neither of those appealed to me, so for once I actually went home from a meetup without having added to Mt TBR!

Currently reading: The Light of Other Days by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Currently listening to: Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel

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