Monday Bites - A Simple Something

I have been dreaming of this.

And so I made it today.

Do you also have a dish or a treat, from the past, from someone you can no longer visit, a restaurant that has changed hands, or chef, or menu - and you come to the realization that you may never taste that taste again?  Does it make you a little crazy?  A little sad?  Or maybe just a little determined?  (See also here.)

Some people patently do not like to cook.  Like Holly Golightly, they would rather keep their furs in the oven, and their jewels in the frig.  And run out to Mickey D's..............

But moi, emphatically NON!

Because when I've been dreaming, who else but me can I turn to, to make that taste again, and bring it back into my present life instead of it forever hovering, hauntingly in the distance beyond some olfactory and gastronomicly unattainable horizon?

THIS IS WHY I COOK.  Or well, in this case.......shop, squeeze, smell, assemble.  Instead of just reaching for the phone and ordering in!

This comes from a restaurant called Moustache in the West Village in NYC which has since expanded to include two other branches around town.   Link, here.

The flavors and the colors of this "dessert" make me hyper-ventilate with pleasure and surprise.  It might have the same effect on you.  It is really ONLY desirable to make this when you have this fruit available and they are at their peak of freshness.  It is obviously possible to make it with other fruit but with resultantly perhaps not quite the same punch of sunshine.  

For one person, in the following order (p.s. sorry, you know I don't measure, and multiply accordingly for company!) I suggest you assemble:

3 plus v. large tablespoons of thick, good quality, yogurt, either Greek or my old reliable, Trader Joe's French Village Cream Line yogurt, mixed gently to a creamy consistency

1/4 of one large bigger than your head red papaya in season (tender and whiffy but NOT squishy), cut into smallish bite sized cubes (or happy big chunks - please yourself!)

1/3 to 1/2 of a tender fragrant mango (not stringy!) also cut into smallish bite sized cubes (chunks ok too!)

a handful/sprinkling of lightly toasted but not dry ( and preferably not, or only slightly salted) pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped

a generous but not excessive drizzle of sparkling not-too-sweet honey

Treat yourself to a bowl of it!  Truly.  TRULY.  Something that a God would eat daily and probably have invented for himself.  If you get the proportions right, you will know it by the taste, and you too, will dream forever more.

Such a gorgeous Indian summer weekend we all had.  Was it good for you too?