Bola’s Chocolate Vodka Cake, accessorized by Lisa.

The Cake That Travelled

I noticed something different about my birthday cake last week. No candles! At first, I thought Tom had failed to get a permit from the fire department for an indoor bonfire.

Then I saw that Lisa had cut a slice and put it on my plate with one, lone Covid candle. Ah, yes, pandemic precautions and I’m okay with that. My masked family sang a memorable and muffled version of Happy Birthday.

The cake was from Bola. Remember the Nigerian woman who made the boozy cakes? She moved earlier this year to Vermont, when her husband became President of Champlain College.

I thought I’d never again enjoy her Chocolate Vodka Cake, but one turned up at my birthday celebration. What a treat! More foods are traveling these days than people.

Pandemic Rule: First you lower your mask, then you blow, but only on your own slice of cake.

Comfort Food Goes on Tour

We may not be traveling, but prepared foods are touring the world. Once food deliveries were limited to fruits, hams, and sturdy non-perishables. But no more.

Was I ever surprised when Cyndy sent me a couple of muffuletta sandwiches from Central Grocery in NOLA. We had enjoyed them a few years ago while celebrating my birthday in N’Awlins.

My sandwiches were monitored along the way, showing they were made a 3 a.m. in NOLA and arrived at my door at 11 a.m., just in time for lunch. That’s impressive.

Thanks to Goldbelly (not to be confused with Yellowbelly in the Central West End), meals and gourmet items are being delivered posthaste from restaurant and food services far and wide.

The final slice of Central Groceries muffuletta sandwich.

Deliveries are possible from your favorite restaurants around the nation. Tom sent an old friend, living out west, several Imo pizzas, that were delivered lickity-split by Goldbelly. 

Paris Delivers, Too!

When I asked about the bread from Poilâne Bakery in Tom and Lisa’s kitchen, he said it was a gift from a friend. The bread had arrived from Paris the day before. Wow! Poilâne is arguable the best, bakery in Paris, so it’s good to know they can send fresh loaves of their legendary sourdough bread abroad.

I took home several slices, had one for breakfast and froze the rest. When I eat a slice with some good Irish butter, I pretend I’m in a Paris café rather than under Covid house arrest.

A loaf of tangy, crusty goodness. Poilâne has four locations in Paris and one in London.

During the pandemic, the food delivery business is going gangbusters here and abroad. Good, familiar food is always a comfort.

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