My wife holds a social movie night every so often, and part of the tradition involves making dinner. This responsibility passes around the group, though we’ve found it more enjoyable when guests surprise us with desserts.
One such guest had spent about 12 hours on a trial run making a four layer wedding cake, and she was eager to have us try it. As she brought in one layer, we determined we might need a little more to address the slightly larger crowd. So, she ran out to the car to get the rest.
During her exit, I thought it might be amusing if we all pretended it was a little off, and by the same flavor.
Someone called out, “Avocado?”
“Yes, run with it. When she returns, we’ll all independently taste it and go ‘I didn’t want to say anything, but does this taste funny to you?’ ‘Yeah. It taste like a hint of… I can’t quite placed it…’ ‘Avocado?’ ‘Hmm, yes, that’s it exactly. Avocado. Is this an Avocado cake?'”
At that point, others in the group would start concurring and vocalizing commentaries on the unique flavor.
The cake, of course, was perfectly fine. But when a room full of strangers mysteriously home in on the same awkward point simultaneously, or at least it appears that way, you’ve got to wonder who’s going to break the straight face first.
What really brings this point home is that the guest is actually a fantastic cook and everyone looks forward to when she brings her treats for the group. She’s got quite an underground reputation of baking the best sweets. So, to have something uniformly off by consensus, especially when she’s already tried it, is be high in the amusement scale. Given she also has a great sense of humor, it passed the Will-Walt-Receive-Bodily-Harm test.
Unfortunately, I happened to be upstairs addressing a client issue and missed the actual performance. Although this morning, I did get an instant message that said “Avocado! You don’t mess with someone who’s been up late cooking like that!”
Christy, my apologies. I promise not to do that to you again, well, at least until next week.