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Originally Posted by Koodari
Love Finnish berries
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Oh, I love homemade lingon sylt on pancakes.
(My mother is from Ostrobothnia.)
I'm not a big fan of sweet stuff, with the notable exception of chocolate, which I sometimes crave like a pregnant woman. However my girlfriend loves Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and the last time I was in Paris we found ourselves acting out one of those romantic vignettes for which the city is so famous. We were walking down the street when she fell under an irresistible urge to have some Häagen-Dazs, so we popped into a shop to get some. They only had a four-pack so we went with that. Back out to find somewhere to sit, and before long we were sitting on a nice bench in a leafy spot with a picturesque backdrop of French windows and wrought-iron balconies.
But just as we sat down, big fat raindrops started falling. My girlfriend's ice cream craving would not be so easily denied, so I pulled out a small umbrella and we sat there huddled on the bench in the rain, blissfully eating ice cream and peeking out at the passing world from beneath the umbrella. Presently we noticed a painter across the street, sheltered from the rain and stroking furiously at his easel. We didn't pay him much attention until we got ourselves outside the entire four-pack. By that point the rain was easing and my girlfriend suggested we walk across to the painter and see what he was doing. We staggered off the bench, crossed the narrow street, and had a look at an already beautiful, highly stylised, and almost complete watercolour... of us! There the couple sat under the trees and the umbrella, eating their ridiculous ice cream, at the bottom of the canvas but no less the focal point for that.
A wonderful little moment, and all the more so because of its perfect serendipity.
That very evening the painting was hanging in a nearby gallery.
So I guess Häagen-Dazs ice cream will always have a soft spot in my heart.
The four-pack, however, had multiple flavours, and I can't for the life of me remember what they were!