Land of Lime

Last saturday, I finally succumbed to the ultimate California attraction: the farmer’s market on Grand and Lake in Oakland. You know the deal. Support the local growers and buy the imperfectly formed, organic vegetables and fruits. Nice food and good music. What more could one ask for? According to reports, I didn’t even notice friends, as I soaked in the new experience and bought enormous quantities of vegetables, fruits and cheese.

I did make a new friend though: Chef Dennis Bell, who runs Shakespearean Sweets. His brochures as well as pastry stand are filled with sonnets from the old master himself! Pastries are named after Shakespearean plays. Needless to add, I didn’t expect to run into a Shakespearean chef in a farmer’s market. Let us sample Dennis’ wares.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING is wine poached pear with pastry cream, promogranate seed sauce set in a tuile cup on a bed of sweet shredded Greek pilo dough.

ROMEO & JULIET’S ADDICTION is a flourless chocolate cake with a minted strawberry sauce, tuile butterfly and dark chocolate cigarette.

TAMING OF THE SHREW, LITTLE EGYPT, OTHELLO & DESDEMONA’S PASSION are the other appealing options while THREE WITCHES is among coming attractions.

You buy a box of truffles or a dessert, Dennis will throw in a love sonnet quote from Shakespeare, which he guarantees will ‘impress the one you love’.

As I rode back home, charting a course avoiding the steepest of Oakland hills, here is what I wished: chef Dennis would assure us that his pastries would impress the ones we love.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the written word as much as anyone who has ever breathed. Still, on occasions I suspect I want to take refuge in chef Dennis, than in the master poet.

My favorite poet, W. B. Yeats, the hopeless romantic and ferocious humanist, would have approved my sentiments. Oakland sure is filled with cool poets, as I have noted in the past. Dennis too makes it a cool place to be.