Banana Bread

I love banana bread. I love it so much that I will try to make it again, only this time, I will understand that baking powder and baking soda are not the same thing, even though they look the same outside of their packages. Naked, you would not be able to tell the difference between the two, until you put them in your banana bread batter. Baking soda sits there under the heat and does nothing. It has no benefit to the bread and what comes out is a dense loaf. But oh! The batter was so promising, beautiful and glossy and so sweet.

The childishly cute, curly-haired supermarket attendant didn’t know the difference. Why didn’t he know? He spends all day shelving it, shouldn’t he know the difference between powder and soda?

Now my beloved first-try banana bread smells like heaven and tastes like gross. Yeah, it tastes like gross tastes. But the scent is heavenly. We should sling this thick mass against every wall in the house, tuck slimy chunks into every drawer and even toss a few of the flavourless sultanas into the laundry for added fragrance, because that’s all it’s good for.

When the boyfriend walks through the door, he will inhale deeply and experience the same giddy euphoria that children experience upon coming home from school to warm, freshly baked cookies. He will sigh in disappointment after following the scent to the kitchen where he’ll find my flat, raisin-studded loaf.

He’ll come into the bedroom after trying a piece and, forcing a smile, say, “Hey Baby.”

“It didn’t come out right,” I’ll whine and chuckle a bit for humour.

He’ll laugh at my banana brick and hold me saying, “At least the frosting’s good.”