I Ate a Garnish

Okay.

I was confused.

I'd only had Creme Brulle one other time.

We were a group at a restaurant that was pretty wild in the first place. The Brazilian restaurant featured a salad bar and then a group of waiters coming by with unbelievable cuts of meats on big sticks.

We could eat as much as we wanted.

I felt like a dog who is left behind on vacation with the entire bag of food at his disposal.

"I might eat until I fall on the floor," I mentioned.

Yet I wasn't alone.

All six of us were eating like mad.

"Sort of feels like the Roman Empire days," I said.

"Restaurants like these are why the vomatoriums became popular," my brother-in-law Chuck said.

We laughed.

So, I was a bit discombobulated when the desserts were offered.

But I remembered that the Creme Brulle was good.

I ordered it.

It was served with what looked like a cinnamon candy stick on the top of the dessert.

I sniffed it.

Definitely cinnamon.

I bit it.

No one was watching me. They were all eating their own desserts.

The chewing of it was a little rough, but I actually bit it again.

Then I realized something:

I was actually chewing on what felt like wood.

Chuck saw what I was doing and the laugh he emitted made everyone look in my direction as I spit the wood into my napkin.

"I thought it was candy," I said.

When the waitress came around I asked her if that mistake had been made before.

"No," she said. "I've never seen anyone actually attempt to eat that particular garnish."

She wanted to laugh, but didn't.

Everyone else did.

We made the trip home. I could hardly move.

Due to work constraints Sam had been my date for the dinner, but he did exactly what Kathy might've done in the same situation:

He started to make phone calls...

...to tell everyone we know that I had attempted, after eating a whole lot of filet, to eat a piece of wood.

Damn!

It smelled good!