My sixth sense
According to Alexa and many others, there are five senses — seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. Some people say they have a “sixth sense.” They can tell when something is about to happen, they can sense changes in the atmospheric pressure — whatever it is, it is added to the list of senses.
Last week, when I was walking around Tenafly, I discovered what my sixth sense is.
I was minding my own business, using my sense of sight to look at the different stores (but not spending any money, because husband #1’s sixth sense is frugality…not that there is anything wrong with that). I hadn’t been to this area in a while, so actually there was a lot of window shopping to get done.
I was using my sense of hearing to eavesdrop on the conversations around me (nothing very interesting, except that George’s reflux is acting up again and they are at their wit’s end with the doctor not calling them back. And some woman with a lot of plastic surgery cannot find a pair of jeans to fit her chubby daughter…ahh, memories).
I was using my sense of touch to not touch any door handles just in case the flu bacteria was lurking on the surface. I had my gloves on, so if I needed to get into a store, I was protected. (And the Purell in my bag was a good standby, just in case there was skin-to-surface contact.)
I was using my sense of taste to think about what my feeble attempt at a healthy lunch of salmon and vegetables was going to taste like, as opposed to the mushroom and onion pizza that I would really like to be having for lunch.
And then there was my sense of smell. Something smelled really good. Like butter and sugar and chocolate and heaven. What is that smell? I was standing in front of a housewares store. Nothing smells in there. What could it be? And then, before I knew it, I was standing in front of a store called the Bread Boutique and Cafe. That is where the smell was coming from. It was then that I realized what my sixth sense is. I can sense highly fattening foods from wherever it is that I am standing. A foot away, a block a way, a mile a way — if there is something delicious and fattening, I am your woman.
That is my gift.
I looked in the window and saw that it was, indeed, kosher. (Thank goodness; otherwise, I would have had to have put my Groucho Marx disguise on before going in.) I had died and gone to bakery heaven. There were babkas with nutella and white chocolate in them. Nutella AND white chocolate! (Because just one of those two fillings isn’t delicious enough.) There were chocolate croissants that, literally, melted in my mouth. And carrot cake, meringues, fresh bread, cookies, donuts, bourekas — COME ON!!!
I asked who the owner was and out came a beautiful and skinny (of course) Israeli woman, who informed me that this little piece of deliciousness had been open for almost four months. Who knew? “We also have items that are cholov Yisrael. Do you know what that is?” Do I know what that is? I have one kid who wears only black and white and another who might never come home from Shaalavim in Israel. Of course I know what cholov Yisrael is! (I actually don’t really know, but I can only assume it is an extra special kosher thing…)
They have vegan items and gluten free items and salads to go. They have amazing smelling La Columbe coffee. (I don’t drink coffee, but it smelled incredible.) But let’s go back to those chocolate croissants. Turns out that Tali, the owner, honed her baking skills in school in Israel, and now she is sharing them with us. Well, with me, because I am thinking of those skinny chicks in Tenafly who only smell the baked goods, not actually eat them.
But who am I to judge? After all, my sixth sense enables me to buy mom jeans in Chicos, where I will always be a size 2….
Did I mention the chocolate croissants?
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck usually doesn’t discuss local businesses, but she is still recovering from the yumminess. Hope their hamantaschen will be better than mine!
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