somehow, my mother being in town led to me immersed elbow deep in hot, soapy water on a hot, soupy morning, handwashing three days worth of dishes retrieved from my cockroach den of a dishwasher, covered in bits of eviscerated cockroaches. thanks, mum!

let us think back to happier times — last monday, say — when we sat in the shady courtyard of la renaissance patisserie at the rocks, eating a brie baguette and drinking perrier with peach syrup. afterwards i bought a handful of macaron to go:

one each of chocolate, chocolate-passionfruit, jasmin, and two of rose because i knew i wouldn’t want to share.

they were all five plonked unceremoniously into a paper bag, and after a sweltering afternoon walk through the botanic gardens, they were not quite the fine, plump specimens they had been, sitting pretty in their plastic display cases back at the cafe. the fresh cream filling of the rose ones had surely come within millimetres of turning into butter.

but look! even with the beating they’d taken, they are still plump, their shells still crisp. the biscuits are moist and chewy on the inside, and the fillings generous. the rose macaron, despite losing half its height in transit, was delicate and wonderful — i always prefer a cream filling rather than a flavoured white chocolate ganache — and heady with perfume.

the chocolate one was impossibly rich and dark. the chocolate-passionfruit one was tangy and intensely fruity up front, before relaxing into a smooth and comforting milk chocolatey finish.

the jasmin one was… somewhat disappointing. it had a familiar clean and airy taste, but i imagine it could’ve had THIS MUCH more jasmin flavour. engh. three out of four ain’t bad.

in fact, they were great!

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we also battled the gale force coastal winds at sculpture by the sea.

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and — thursday afternoon, with the kid safely ensconced in playschool — we dallied with hot chillis at spice i am. moving between the brutal som tum — you can’t see the chillis in this green papaya salad, but they are there, oh yes, alongside crunchy dried prawns and many roasted peanuts, and green beans, cherry tomatoes and a wedge of raw cabbage (unwashed, my mother pointed out) — and the unrelenting kaeng som pla, a watery curry of fried river fish and watercress, it was like dousing our tongues in fire water. hot, sour, fire, water.

sweet respite came only from a tall glass of iced tea which tasted of candy.

you would not think it, but this particular meal from this particular restaurant, is perhaps the one that i pine for most often, in those long months between finding a suitable dining companion on a day that the kid is otherwise occupied. sigh.