Drawn to Dangerous Lead Females

I have a friend who sends me an offbeat news item first thing every day; it's his way of saying good morning, I guess. They often revolve around chicken nuggets or illicit sex. I'll comment, or pass judgment and, depending on how juicy it is, we'll bat it back and forth a few times.

Here's part of today's exchange:

Him: "Headline: S.W.A.T. Team Requested for Violent Midgets. In fact, they were steroid-using bodybuilding midgets, headed by an apparently particularly dangerous lead female."

Me: Particularly dangerous lead females are scary.
Him: I am rather drawn to them.
Me: Lunch?
Him: The way it's going today, why not?

Okay, so it wasn't an engraved invitation, but I know him well enough to appreciate his implied sincerity. I gave him first choice of eats, but he deferred to me (and not because I'm a dangerous lead female, either). I picked The Empress because it had been too long since I'd enjoyed a meal there.

We did a somewhat late lunch, 1:30, and only had to share the restaurant with a couple of occupied tables. Since it was my friend's first time there, he was taking forever with the menu while my stomach growled audibly. Seems he'd overeaten this weekend and was trying to make a wise choice.

I finally forced his hand by ordering the arugula, garbanzo bean, Edam cheese, roasted chicken, sunflower seed salad with red wine vinaigrette. They were out of arugula and offered a mixed greens bed instead, which I happily agreed to. With no time left, my friend got the cold-smoked salmon and caper cream cheese on toasted focaccia. There, that was done.

I loved my salad with its variety of textures and tastes; between the chicken, cheese and beans, it was wonderfully filling, too. Feeling virtuous, he inhaled his salmon plate and turned to me. "So what are we having for dessert?"

I don't know about you, but when a menu touts award-winning chocolate pate, I'm inclined to give it a try. And I'd already had their chocolate soup. So when our server asked, we asked for the award winner.

I've had a lot of chocolate pates in my time, but this one was extraordinary. There was nothing especially different about the look or texture, but the spices sang. There was a heat on the tongue afterwards, but it was contained by something else (cinnamony or gingerbread-like maybe?). We gave up guessing and asked.

The secret ingredients were ginger and cayenne and they added another layer of flavor to what is typically an all-about chocolate pleasure. Both of us gave it our personal award to go with whatever other accolades it has rightfully earned.

Would the midgets and dangerous lead female have liked it? Hard to say. With the way it's going for them lately what with the S.W.A.T. team and all, chocolate is probably the least of their concerns. Not so mine.