True story.
New neighbors, having an open house. They were from one of the many drippy green planets where people eat all vegetables and no meat. I don't remember what they planned to do on Tatooine, but whatever it was, it didn't work out and they were gone in less than a year.
They greeted us at the door with "pea cake in the galley, help yourselves."
I was picturing something like carrot cake, but with peas.
So the Larses and I went into the galley to see, and our hosts were standing there, so we couldn't just wrinkle our noses and turn away.
It looked like, oh, imagine if you made some Gelleaux or aspic but mixed in a lot of flour. And it was the color of peas, of course. It sort of looked like condensed pea soup, except freakishly smooth, not lumpy with whole peas.
Beru remarked noncommittally, "it tastes just like you would expect."
Cliegg said it tasted like cold, condensed pea soup, except sweeter.
Owen said nothing. He was too busy stuffing his face.
Shmi didn't even try the cake, she hated vegetables, but she asked for the recipe anyway, because that was the kind of mother she was. Technically she was Owen's stepmother, but she was more of a mother to him than his original mother ever was.
I carefully sliced off a tiny piece. Like two cubic centimeters. I don't know if that's enough to be polite, but it was going to have to suffice.
Pea soup is my favorite soup, not that we eat a lot of soup around here, but if I'm going to have soup, it's going to be pea soup. Even meatless pea soup isn't too bad. I didn't expect that the pea cake would ruin my day.
I was wrong. And for many months afterwards, Shmi and Cliegg would make the face that I had made that night, and we would all laugh until we were purple.
That's what memories are made of. Pea cake, or something like it.
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4 comments:
Good times. Good times.
Pea soup, Shmi soup. I hate the stuff so you have my condolances.
After gazing at a few million shades of Tattooine brown every day the dull green of pea soup must come as a shock to your system.
Do remember, Bantha milk is blue. Or is that some other beverage?
There are several blue drinks, all of them tasty. None of them are particularly good for you.
Hmm... the dull green of pea soup... well, let me put it this way. If you expect something to taste bad and then it tastes bad, then you have to eat something that tastes bad, but no harm is done.
On the other hand, if you expect that something will taste good (or at least not very bad) and then it's horrifying, you make a face that will be recalled and mimicked with great mirth for years to come.
And then you throw up.
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