Introducing Little Cricket

Little Cricket is my niece who lives in the San Francisco Bay area. She is a free-spirited journalist who also has the food obsession gene. She has offered to be a guest blogger contrasting the San Fran food scene with Indy. Recently, I asked Little Cricket to make sure to indulge in a local dessert on Valentine's Day since she is newly single, and write up her experience. Here is what she wrote....

"I popped in the office of my magazine editor and a San Francisco foodie. I asked for confectionery suggestions in the Financial District, the suit-and-tie part of the city where our office building looms. “Café Madeline.” Her confident dark eyes didn’t hesitate under a dramatic coal-black feathered-hat. With jotted directions I grabbed my bag and headed out for a lunch hour. At the small feminine boutique bakery on California and New Montgomery, I found my partner in a precisely symmetric heart-shaped chocolate cake with an unnaturally huge (GMO?) strawberry.  I  indulged myself and paid $3.00 for steamed milk over concentrated coffee, making an exception today buying a latte for the sake of palate balance. I decided to make a ritual of it and headed to a pier overlooking a sun-giddy bay. I walked past two lovers cuddled asleep by the water and found a long log with a spot free of bird droppings. The seagulls were friendly and I arranged my dessert, ignoring the plastic takeout ware. Finally. fork. and bite: Creamy cocoa pudding  frosting with a preview of moist inner-cake. The second bite—much more cake—quickly assimilated to the frosting’s silky feel as it melted on my tongue. “AUK AUK AUK!” cried the seagull, perched on the rail opposite the log. "Why don’t you share some of that?” it seemed to say.. I reached for the big strawberry perched proudly on the hardened swirl of waxy chocolate. Unnaturally large fruits seem to trade taste for size. This strawberry was no different. I ate the strawberry quickly so I could try a swig of latte. The steamed cream-thick coffee swirled with a balancing act of maple undertones and bitter beans—a hard complement to the soft dessert. Pretty decent lunch...Tick. Tick. My hour on the water was waning, my wage cage a-waiting".