(Sam Sifton, NYTimes)
This photo is a "bowled out" vegan cinnamon bun - (the moistest, caramelly, nutty heart of this pastry has already been dissolved in my sweet tooth- craving purposely achieving this reconstituted dessert design) - to up it a notch exponentially over the left field, over the fence for the home run. In the crater is Golden Meadow vanilla ice cream (a Hawaiian institution creamery) and around is a lake of frothy espresso brewed in a French press using, again, island-grown beans. The result is a "bread soup" of the Dominique Ansel order, the famed pastry chef who rocked the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his invention of the cronut. My version is a cake within I can eat, too, rendered in the pudding it evolved by a permeation method called confectionary science, a buoyancy-and-displacement at once with milk and coffee, tasting of decadent honey and the butter apple of a tarte tatin. ("Neither science nor the arts can be complete without combining their separate strengths. Science needs the intuition and metaphorical power of the arts, and the arts need the fresh blood of science. E.O Wilson, Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge.) Tip: make sure you use a fresh-toasted cinnamon bun that its convection steam inside is scalding hot when you hollow it out before scooping the ice cream in in order to melt and infuse around the walls and lip rim of the bread and sink with the espresso in marriage. And spoon attack (don't wait)!
It's the long weekend and I have a couple more days of rest and to take things heart easy, and devoting time to read prodigious as I can given so much time on my hands for peace. Taking the Lfyt car service this morning to Whole Foods at 7am when it opened and I was practically alone at the store and shopping for a few groceries was so laid back having it to yourself was almost like a walk in the park, like Central Park, in the summer of my content. What I love about living in Maui now is just that thought— a small island but with so much space for beautiful natural conditions to inculcate... The microgreens seeds have sprung from their mulch bed, and with their inch or so growth are ready to be taken out from the dark storage room where they've been waiting in a light-deprived enclosure vital for germination. Now they're in my all-windows-no-curtains-day bright dinning room to photosynthesize their salad leaves stage ready to be picked give or take 7-to-10 days... The avocado trees on the island are in fruit again, Iao Valley oasis mountain abloom again of July flowers... True that I am alone here on Maui (my family and closest kin and childhood friends are on the mainland), but I am never lonely. Yes, I sorely miss them when the holidays come around when I can't make it back due to work obligations and/or money needed to be saved. But for now, I am a writer of sweet thoughts, and I am celebrating for all these words are worth reaching them.
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