Never have enough cake

On Christmas Eve I was invited to make dumplings. I decided this was the perfect excuse to buy a cake from the Madeleine Bakery in Wu Dao Kou as I always looked at them longingly. I bought a 98 RMB chocolate cake. It turns out we made dumplings in the Forestry University cafeteria and an entire class was present. I believe I cut the cake into 18 pieces which got progressively smaller. Eventually my piece the last, was one, two bites tops.

Then on New Years I was invited to the Danish New Year’s party. I decided once again though I wasn’t asked to bring anything, it was good form to do so. So I once again wanted to buy a cake. This time I decided to get the next size up which is 120 RMB. I even went with Hyemi and she talked to the owner so as I could get the one that was the most chocolaty. The cake was again well received. It was designed to be cut into twelve pieces so that is what I did. I also made sure I got a decent size piece. In fact I don’t think I had a proper dinner that night so I was probably a little hungry. There were more than 12 people at the party.

Today (January 11th) I bought four pieces of chocolate cake on the way to guitar class. I bought the cake at the bakery on the way to my teacher’s shop. There are always 3-4 guys who work or just hang out at the shop so I thought I had enough, not really. They make a big lunch and everyone eats the same thing, in fact I think people from other shops come and eat at his shop because it is bigger and has a small kitchen. Today lunch was later than usual. One guy must have been tired of waiting as he immediately ate a piece of chocolate cake when I gave him the bag. He then went on to eat noodles and whatever else they had for lunch. I know I never got a piece of cake, so I don’t know how it was. It was pretty damn cheap though. There were some 5 RMB deserts, but a full size piece of a triple layer chocolate (or non-chocolate but who buys those) cake was only 6 RMB!

Anyway the moral of the story is I never have enough cake.

I swear I’m going to get Hyemi to help me custom order a huge chocolate cake next time. In Canada usually we have plenty of dessert. Sometimes you have multiple choices and people have been known to have seconds or possibly even thirds. There is even the option of having dessert for breakfast the next day on special occasions.

Since Damien complains about my choice of quotations, I wonder what he’ll make of this one: “Life is short, eat dessert first.“

Update: I ended up returning to China and writing even more about living and traveling in the Middle Kingdom. Still haven’t managed to become instafamous or even to get that better job career experts are always assuring me is right around the corner.

This entry was originaly posted on January 27th, 2006, it was last edited on May 21st, 2024 and is filed under: Rambles and tagged: Beijing, China, Wu Dao Kou.