Saturday is pretty much always Taste of Thyme day for us, but Sunday came and I kept thinking about the crepe place on Essex St. I think of crepe places as being in the same category as Indian restaurants: You see the new one open, it looks great, you've read a couple of good reviews and you promise yourself that you'll check it out "soon" only to have it close down due to slow business before you've had a chance to darken the doorstep.
I vowed this wasn't going to happen and I shook my husband awake, got the baby and all of her many acoutrements into the stroller and we headed out. 10 minutes walking later, we were standing in the Z Crepe cafe trying to figure out how to place an order with the lanky young man lurking behind the counter talking on his cell phone. I got Chris's order and mine all set and stepped up to the counter, guessing that this was the way to obtain one of the crepes advertised. Without warning, a European tourist couple swooped in from the other entrance that opened out into the Essex Place shopping mall and the kid on the cell phone was so flustered by their direct assault that he turned to them and began taking their order. Oh well. I didn't feel like bitching about it since we had the entire day ahead of us, but it was a hilarious exchange to watch for a variety of reasons. 1) The kid behind the counter managed to pour two cups of coffee without getting off of his cellphone, 2) The female tourist became very protective of her money and kept reminding the clerk that she had given him 4 dollars as if he was about to shortchange her and he became thoroughly confused and 3) They asked for the coffee to-go and the kid said they didn't have any cup covers so they ended up gingerly tiptoeing out onto the cobblestone street with coffee all over their toes. We placed an order and went to sit outside with the baby.
We both got the "Zen" crepe (cucumber, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil)and coffee. Chris had been cajoled into eating a crepe in Paris about 10 years ago on the street and he warned me to expect a greasy, egg-y morasse of doughy goo. So it was a nice surprise when what actually showed up was a chewy, thin and light pancake wrapped around a mass of gooey cheese, crunchy cucumber and fresh tomato chunks. I cleaned my plate and we staggered around downtown Salem with no particular plans until Chris decided that he wanted another cup of coffee. We ended up at Jaho's on Derby St. and I checked out their cappuchino macchiato gelato. Jaho's actually had enough space for us to bring the ginormous Graco stroller inside since the weather looked kind of dicey and Chloe had a great time entertaining the outside patrons through the window.
I felt like a boa constrictor after Thanksgiving for the rest of the day but it was worth it.
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