sticky rice and sex shops

OK, that was a fun weekend. Rob took me away as part of my Christmas gift (score!). We left around noon on Saturday and drove into the big city, drank coffee and yakked all the way. The weather kind of sucked, but hey, we can have fun in a paper bag.

We found our hotel, checked in, and promptly checked out the bed. We had our customary roll around to mess up the sheets, but decided to keep our clothes on knowing full well we'd spend the rest of the day in bed if we got naked. Instead we ventured out into the wild windy city.

We strolled through shops and I didn't buy anything but the worst chocolate chip muffin I ever ate. How hard can it be to make a decent muffin? I swear it must have gone stale, then they decided to freeze it to make it last even longer. Bleccch. Two bites of torture and I tossed it.

Fast forward to dinnertime. We happened upon a little Thai restaurant on a side street near our hotel. Rob and I have had a couple great Thai meals, and a couple so-so ones. However, this one was, hands down, the best Thai meal I've had, for the best price. And the dessert changed my life.

So you might think, how excited can one get about a dessert? Have you ever had mango sticky rice? Mango is my all-time favorite fruit. (Someone once said that there is only one proper way to eat a mango: while standing in the ocean naked. This is so that when you bite into it, the juices run down your body in celebration of the sensuality of the fruit.) Naturally, I had to order this mango dessert.

They brought me a masterpiece on a gleaming square dish. Thin slices of juicy ripe mango were fanned across half the plate with a drizzle of mango puree over top. The other half of the plate was a perfectly formed mound of sticky white rice covered in a blanket of fragrant vanilla-coconut foam, topped with a tiny sprinkling of sesame seeds. I dug into the rice first and was pleasantly surprised by its warm chewiness. Imagine the feeling of sinking your teeth into the most tender gummi bear. Mmmmmm. The heat of the rice was a nice contrast with the coolness of the mango. Ooooooh. So very delicious, my mouth was in heaven.

This dessert had the perfect combination of flavors, textures and temperatures. It was so perfect that I can't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop talking about it all weekend until....

We hit the sex shops. This has become a bit of a ritual every time we visit the big, seedy city. Swear to God I have never seen so many sex toys in my life. And movies. And vinyl clothing. Some really silly stuff...purple double dildoes with bunny ears (for Easter?), remote control vibrators, oh my God, the list goes on...

?

We bought a movie and watched it when we got home. That was the first time we'd ever watched porn together. It was pretty hardcore and I missed that there was absolutely no kissing in it. In fact, it appeared that no one cared about anyone else in it. Kind of sad, really. Emotionless. It was sex, and only sex. Rob and I agreed that it would have been so much more erotic with some element of human connection.